A leading tech聽businessman and thought leader has welcomed the Government鈥檚 investment into digital manufacturing – but sounded a word of warning.
Vikas Shah, CEO of Manchester-based textile firm Swiscot Group, is also an investor and academic and will speak at 老九品茶Cloud’s ‘Tech in manufacturing’ breakfast event in March.
He reacted to Prime Minister Theresa May鈥檚 announcement this week of how 拢556 million would be invested into the North鈥檚 industrial future, which includes the building of an International Advanced Manufacturing Park in Sunderland.
鈥淎ny investment for the North is greatly welcomed, but the most important thing is to see how that funding is distributed, and how easily 鈥� or not 鈥� businesses are able to access it,鈥� Shah told 老九品茶Cloud. 鈥淭he sector has an historic lack of support and investment.
鈥淚t also has a severe image problem, which poses a challenge when attempting to get the best people to enter the industry.
鈥淧eople simply don鈥檛 often see it as a sexy sector for the country, when in fact it is.鈥�
The Swiscot Group is a manufacturer, importer and distributor of textiles alongside trading commodities and has built up international suppliers and clients.
Shah continued: 鈥淢anufacturing in the UK has been under severe pressure over the past decade with the pressures of international competition, a lack of the right support for manufacturing sectors, and also massive consolidation and price sensitivity at the client end in most markets.
鈥淭echnology is absolutely critical to the success of manufacturing聽 through the ability to work with ever more global and technology driven supply chains, but also in terms of innovating at the product end.鈥�
He said the March 7th event in Manchester is 鈥渁 chance to have an exciting debate on manufacturing with a group of industry leaders鈥�.
Tom Dawes, group CEO of Valuechain, is another of the speakers at the free-to-attend event.
He said of the Government鈥檚 investment announcement: 鈥淭he industrial digitisation strategy is an exciting proposition that will integrate the UK鈥檚 traditional high value manufacturing sectors with digital technology entrepreneurs and leading academics.
鈥淗owever, if we are to capitalise on this opportunity, we must establish cross-sector collaborative ecosystems 鈥� and this will require a paradigm shift for traditional high value manufacturing businesses.鈥�