EAMA holds industrial digitalisation reception at the House of Commons

21 June, 2018

Disruption is happening

Dr Juergen Maier commented that disruption of a digital kind is definitely happening within manufacturing. “Hopefully you are feeling that disruption, because the worst possible scenario is that you’re not feeling it,” he said. “Not feeling it means you are being disrupted somewhere but it hasn't hit you yet. In other words, some people are doing things to you – they might be applying data analytics, additive manufacturing, robotics or electronic control or whatever to your products or services and are in a position to do things better than you.” He added that this is why it is so important to keep pace with the fourth industrial revolution; to invest in R&R, to create home-grown IP and to be competitive globally.

Robert Jenrick said this is a great time to be in business because the rules of the game are being turned upside down. “Those are the moments of greatest opportunity, but there are also very significant challenges and if British businesses fail to get this right – if they fail to be creators and adopters of new technologies – then we will be outpaced by our competitors and we will see British jobs lost. So, the Government is focused 100% on how we can ensure that as the pace of technological change increases…the Government supports you to create the conditions you as an industry need to succeed.”

EAMA comprises a grouping of 13 like-minded trade associations: Agricultural Engineers Association; British Automation & Robot Association; British Compressed Air Society; British Fluid Power Association; British Plastics Federation; British Turned Parts Manufacturers Association; GAMBICA; Gauge and Toolmakers Association; Manufacturing Technologies Association; Printing Industry Confederation; Processing & Packaging Machinery Association; Solids Handling & Processing Association; and UK Industrial Vision Association.