Name: Good or Bad? The Current State of Manufacturing Supply Chains
Uploaded: 2025-12-04T14:05:38.000Z
Duration: 14 min 58 s
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We have experienced various challenges, a number of global events which have had a real impact that was painful for, I'd say for all manufacturing that has had a major problem with supply chain.

The state of global supply has caused concern among many businesses in the last few years.

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Manufacturers have had to battle against a wave of seemingly never ending turmoil.

Over the last year and a half or so, UK companies right across industry have opened up and shared their challenges with us.

You couldn't really make up the amount of crises we've had over the last few years in terms of COVID in terms of the pandemic, in terms of the gas and energy price hikes, CO2 shortages, lorry driver issues that we had for several months as well.

The automotive industry is great at sourcing parts from weird and wonderful places all over the world in a just in time way and that has really shown up to be really difficult.

Through Covid we have experienced various challenges.

We try and manufacture as much as we can in house, but there's certain things we can't do.

We can't do castings, for example, which we need to buy in.

We've had problems with that, with deliveries from.

I think some of those got caught up in the Suez Canal shenanigans which obviously causes a major problem.

I think we've suffered the same as everybody else.

It's not so much on our day to day business but on building new equipment and building plants like we have here.

You know, the shortage of chips and components, feed it into things like PLC systems and those type of things, put a significant delay on the project.

We'd actually be probably six, seven months ahead of where we are today.

So yeah, we have suffered, but not in our day to day business, more in the project work.

There's also been a number of global events which have had a real impact on organisations.

Ability to sort of collaborate with other partners and find new ways of making sure they can mitigate any risk against those events that have taken place.

And that's been really key actually in trying to help make sure the supply chain can still function.

So that's been the real challenge I think most organisations have had to deal with.

I think what it proved to us is we were very robust as a business because we got through all of those very well.

The energy price hike situation and the conflict in Ukraine and the factors there, that was painful for, I'd say for all manufacturing, especially energy intensive manufacturers.

We saw our energy bills go up by five times the amount at the time and we had to swallow and absorb those costs.

But there are some more fortunate manufacturers out there that have remained largely unaffected by these issues and have maintained solid supply.

We've massively benefited from other people's supply chain issues.

Our business has boomed since the beginning of COVID and up till now, our whole business is built upon assemble to order and we have significant levels of inventory because everything we do is about providing internal and external customer service.

And you can hold parts in inventory and have large amounts of them and have a lot less expenditure than if you hold assemblies in inventory.

The number of permutations of assemblies that we could do.

There's not enough money in the world for us to hold half a dozen of each of them in inventory.

But we can hold parts in inventory and we can assemble to order a massive amount of stuff for the same amount of investment in inventory.

So we've got large amounts of inventory by design.

So we not really had any significant supply chain issues.

We were impacted by the driver crisis issue post Covid.

The inflationary prices that we were seeing from our suppliers because of other global issues were something that we were able to take action, mitigate against.

Our supply chain is built around about 90% of UK suppliers, so that's either UK manufacturers or distributors.

So we haven't really seen a significant impact on these.

The risk is mainly being managed by our distributors for us.

So, yeah, we've been able to maintain supply quite well.

Companies adapt and problems are mitigated.

Businesses from different sectors are collaborating to find solutions and we're seeing smarter, more efficient and sustainable material usage.

I think for every area of where we are importing products, we're looking to see if there's an alternative supply.

So we've got some fantastic work we've done for some of our automotive colleagues and we've learned from their capabilities and the rates that they make their supercars can be quite comparative with some of the rates that we see in aerospace.

So we've done some fantastic work in bringing that all together under a program called Ascend, with the help of the ATI and the Aerospace Technology Institute helped us fund that and bring that collaborative work.

And we've all done that under this one roof here in the gtc.

I think the only way that we've been able to cope is with the experience of the people.

Because we've been operating, as we said, for 31 years now.

We've had ups and downs, we've had supply issues, we've had banking crisis, we've had all sorts of different things.

And I think that experience over that length of time enables you to be prepared, plan better and really find ways to get yourself out of jail.

Because there are times when you just think, oh, my goodness, where we're going to get this part from.

So having good contact base, the ability to find.

Find things where other people might not have those connections.

And that comes down to experience and being, and being working with a supply base.

The industry's had a challenging time around, particularly around titanium and the materials.

Yeah, so we've been looking at the way we can deposit titanium in a different way.

So rather than machining from billet, we're looking at what we call laser wire deposition, which has really reduced the, the requirement from a material billet size significantly.

So we can get a lot more throughput with a lot less material and also a lot less waste.

I think the importance for glass manufacturers in particular now is really focusing on sustainability, decarbonising their product.

So it's infinitely recyclable, it's inert as a material, it doesn't leach chemicals into your food and drink.

It can go around the supply chain again and again.

So it's really important that last aspect of sustainability is addressed and removed for the future.

But as is so often the case, finding skilled people is a challenge.

And as supply chain management becomes increasingly complex, are digitally integrated, the need for digital skills becomes crucial.

Companies like GKN and the major OEMs, tier 1s, we always find a way to get people into our industry.

You know, it's a very attractive industry to work in.

I think the concern really is with the supply chain and SME community in general, and

But I think think about the future and the skills we need in the future, particularly around sustainability and digital.

We do not have a pipeline that's clear and obvious.

Across our sector and the wider manufacturing sector, there's quite a big market for people wanting data skills, which means there's quite a bidding in trying to get the person that you want, because you don't even have to live near to where you're working anymore.

So you're trying to compete with people who maybe get the London type of salary versus someone who lives in South Wales, where I'm based.

And you're trying to find someone who has the appropriate level of skills to be able to deal with the potential for a change in the technologies and the way that you need to use data going forward.

So you're looking for someone who can help be ready for your future, rather than just someone who can deal with what the challenges are today.

And that means you're trying to find someone who is quite specific and someone who also can work with the business and help them to understand how the data can help them and have that conversation.

So it's quite a niche area to try and recruit into today.

if you look at what we need in the future, in the not too distant future, particularly with the challenges, the opportunities we have really around the platforms, advanced AI mobility, hydrogen propulsed aircraft, or hydrogen and electric hybrid propulsed aircraft and the next generation single aisle, and

the need to make the UK more productive, we need a lot more people with digital skills, hydrogen cryogenic skills at various proficiency levels.

And that is coming our way very, very quickly.

So that's where the challenges lie in the future for sure.

I'd say we're in a really unique period in time in that all these digital and emerging trends, data analytics, new fuels for furnaces, are all happening at the same time.

So actually there's not a person who can just come in and operate a hydrogen furnace because no one knows how to do it, for example.

So I think one of the keys for us is how do we bring in a next generation of talent who have got interest in those particular areas.

We run a really successful program called Ignite that's bringing in new apprentices and graduates and work placements in the key development areas that we're interested in pursuing and have good relationship with colleges and universities as well.

So I think we need to keep pushing in those areas, keep isolating the gaps that we see.

There's going to be a need for the future, sustainable fuels just being one of them.

There's many more intelligent transport network distributions and all those kind of areas for the future and keep pushing for those younger generations and experienced generations in terms of retraining.

We haven't kept it these days within soft drink manufacturing.

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Good or Bad? The Current State of Manufacturing Supply Chains

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