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Instead, 2020 has brought even greater levels of instability, with the Covid-19 pandemic forcing us to change the way we live and work, and causing huge ramifications across all industries, including manufacturing.
Our annual survey of engineers in the manufacturing industry presents a similar picture to last year, however. We polled 174 engineers from across the UK, working in everything from automotive to energy.
Change is accelerating
There’s a sense that the coronavirus pandemic may cause transitions that were already happening to be accelerated, but the fundamental rules of business still apply just as they did last year. Respondents continue to rate responsiveness and employee skill as the most important factors in business success. Surprisingly, geographical location is still ranked as being as important as it was last year, despite the increase in remote working in many fields.
There is a recognition of the growing financial pressure some companies are under, with price overtaking speed and efficiency as the biggest obstacle to gaining new business. There were also some signs that the nature of manufacturing is changing, or is about to change.
Jury still out on 5G
We asked respondents to choose the five words they most associated with manufacturing – ‘robots and automated processes’ and ‘designing’ both shot up the list compared to last year. Similarly, three quarters (74.8 per cent) said they expected automation in their business to increase moderately or more over the next five years, up from 62.5 per cent in 2019.
Despite the digital transformation going on in offices (and living rooms) across the country, there wasn’t much change among manufacturing engineers. They were fairly open to the other big event of 2020 – the rollout of 5G. Some were excited about the possibilities, but many said the connectivity technology would be of limited use. “If 5G helps capture the data, then significant,” wrote one respondent. “If the coverage is patchy and communication and security protocols are not standard, it will be useless.” In a time of continued uncertainty, it’s up to manufacturers to seize the initiative.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.