Helping Britain Stay Great

“We just can’t compete with China,” is the cry in the opening decade of the 21^st century. “It’s not fair.  Their labour rates are so low we have no chance,” British manufacturers complain.  “If we can’t beat them, we’ll have to join them.  We are moving production to Beijing,” are their words, broken only by the gentle flutter of more manufacturing industry P45s. “We have no choice.”

No choice!  There is always a choice.  The easy way out might appear to be to take advantage of the industry of our eastern friends, but is it the right one?  For many manufacturers, probably not.

The problems can be endless: fact finding missions, agency agreements, shipping delays, letters of credit, etc. But the biggest problem is often quality control.  Agreements can be made in advance but if things change mid-production, who can tell?  At best, if quality slips it can mean unhappy customers.  If parts are safety-critical the consequences can be immeasurably worse.

But what’s the alternative?   How can British manufacturers compete against the ever increasing march of eastern domination?  Many companies, determined to maintain quality and keep production under control, at home, are turning to automation.

There was a time when automation was a relatively rudimentary process handling jobs that were too boring, hazardous or just downright horrible for people to do.  But things have changed.  Today, we live in a robot driven, plc controlled, field-bus powered, vision qualified world in which machines can not only take the hard work out of many manufacturing process but put the quality back in.

People are still an important part of many semi-automated systems providing that all-important dose of common sense that even the most sophisticated machine cannot manage.  But machines today are faster, more accurate, more dextrous, more reliable and more consistent than any craftsman could ever be.  What’s more, they are designed and manufactured to tolerances that mean that they can work day and night, year after year, never taking a holiday or a tea break and making irrelevant any potential labour savings from across the water (or continent).

Add to this a spot of planning, a little careful design of the initial product to make it ‘automation friendly’, and you have an unstoppable combination designed for efficiency and manufactured right in the centre of the biggest consumer market on earth.

In recent years, Modular Automation from Birmingham has seen huge growth in the types of business that are turning to automation as a way of keeping production in Europe. New customers in medical device manufacture, pharmaceuticals and food manufacture have joined the traditional automation markets in seeing the benefits of letting machines provide the productivity, quality and efficiency that modern customers demand.

Is there really no choice but to send production abroad?  Modular Automation thinks there is.  Not only is it a choice that makes economic sense, it is also socially responsible for the good people of the UK and, by reducing the miles goods travel to market, is good for the environment too.

Modular Automation manufactures specialist automatic assembly systems for the high volume, high quality production of products as diverse as mobile phones, explosive detonators for mining, plastic flowers, lorry axles, hospital curtains, medical inhalers and car sun roofs.  If you think that automation can’t help your company  level the playing field between east and west – think again.

All business enquiries to:
Mark Hendry
Modular Automation International Ltd.
Talbot Way
Small heath Business Park
Birmingham B10 0HJ

Tel:  0121 766 7979 Fax:  0121 766 6385

Email:  Hendry@modular.co.uk
Web:   www.modular.co.uk

Photo caption:  Automation helps British manufacturers compete

High resolution images are available from enquiries@thewordsworkshop.co.uk