Led by M2R Chairman, Dr Clive Hickman, the Commission gathered evidence from a series of roundtables, surveys and contributions from some 200 participants from industry, academia and government.
Discussions centred around predominant issues impacting Midlands’ manufacturing; skills, productivity, supply chains, leadership, innovation and finance, and critically, what the region’s identity and reputation should be.
This work culminated in a detailed report, Manufacturing Confidence, which shares the findings of those discussions, supported by a series of independently authored chapters focusing on key themes.
The result is a series of practical recommendations, outlined in the report, which seek to create a resilient and sustainable manufacturing base in the region.
Sponsors
Manufacturing Technology Centre
Lloyds Banking Group
Andy Street – West Midlands Combined Authority
Warwick Manufacturing Group
Subject chapters & authors
Productivity
Dr A. Palmer
Adapting to Change
Professor Iain Gray
Research and Development
Dick Elsy CBE
Emerging Technologies
Dr Peter Kinnell
Digital Manufacturing
Dr Hamid Mughal OBE - Director of Manufacturing, Rolls-Royce
Skills
Dame Judith Hackitt & Joe Greenwell OBE
Support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Professor David Greenwood
Supply Chain
Charlotte Horobin - Region Director – Midlands & East, Make UK
Finance
With thanks to Dave Atkinson and Lloyds Bank for their support in facilitating sessions with SMEs and professionals from across the sector, whose feedback has informed this chapter.
"We need more people with the right skills, and those skills are not the same as the skills of the past or, those skills need to be applied to delivering different solutions. That is why tackling the skills gap – both of the overall shortage of people who want to work in manufacturing and of people with the right skills in the right place, has to be at the heart of any Midlands’ manufacturing strategy."
Joe Greenwell
Former Chairman of Jaguar Land Rover
