Step forward the UK’s next generation of engineers, urges Siemens 09 March 2012

Industry needs more and better engineers and engineering managers in industry – and that, in turn, necessitates a significant cultural shift in the UK.

So said Brian Holliday, divisional director at Siemens Industrial Automation and Drives, speaking at the Automated Britain conference, organised by GAMBICA and Intellect – the trade associations for the control, automation and laboratory technology industries, and the general technology sector respectively.

"Ahead of the September 2011 Word Skills event, Siemens ran a survey and found that only one in 10 thought of engineering as important, while four in 10 thought it was dirty and smelly. So we need to change the perception at a very early age," explained Holliday.

Siemens is helping to drive change by encouraging young people into engineering through the University Technical College scheme, specifically support the Walsall UTC in the Black Country for 14—19 year olds.

"They will learn about everything from PLCs to CAD engineering. And they'll learn about the value of process improvement and the classic CI methodologies, such as lean," said Holliday.

"However, one of the other key challenges in engineering is that engineers in the UK don't have enough of a voice, when it comes to making capex decisions.

He cites, for example, transformational automation projects on factories and plants – and the comparison with Germany, in terms of engineering input, is stark.

"Also, whereas 20 years ago, automation systems were all about the latest hardware, today it's all about software: digital product design and digital factory design," continued Holliday.

His conclusion: while government attitude to spending and supporting another renaissance of manufacturing in the UK – through assistance with everything from apprenticeships and UTCs, to showpiece events and exhibitions and even the new MAS (Manufacturing Advisory Service) – is good, a quick fix is not obvious.

Improvement is a mid- to long-term game requiring industry, government and society to pull together to affect the much vaunted rebalancing of the economy this country needs. And while there are substantial pockets of manufacturing excellence in the UK – look no further than Rolls-Royce, which partners heavily with Siemens on automation systems – for manufacturing plc, this is a difficult one.

Brian Tinham

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