Manufacturing in the UK is responsible for over £135bn of output, provides 2.5m jobs over some 140,000 businesses.  The importance to our economy sometimes feels unfairly diminished and sidelined but at 9% of our GDP, it’s clear that it’s critical to our prosperity.  Like every part of the UK economy, there are headwinds against growth and operational challenges to overcome:

• Shortage of labour, with increasing pay pressure for those employed already.
• Buildings and infrastructure often aged and landlocked, restricting space for expansion.
• High utility costs, especially energy.
• Gloomy economic outlook, reducing available capital for investment in upgrades and maintenance.
• Urgent pressure to “de-carbonise” production processes and reduce environmental impact at all levels.

These challenges can result in unplanned outages and reduced output – the vacancy rate in manufacturing during 2022 was nearly 4%, costing nearly £20m in daily lost output.  We’re a manufacturer too – we experience these challenges every day, so we speak your language.  If we consider automating, then some of the effects of these challenges can be softened or maybe even eliminated.

Our portfolio of products and solutions can help automate your processes – in-place if necessary.  Our range of compact platform AMRs can often handle a standard UK pallet in a space well under 2 metres – almost the size of the load itself. The tow-tractor lines are at home within a manufacturing plant, handling the kitting and line-side delivery processes with ease – often enabling the reduction or complete removal of forks-based handling everywhere outside of the warehouse.