Determining new supplier partnerships

At the end of 2019, BCAS announced its partnership with Reshoring UK, a new platform designed to connect manufacturers and suppliers across the UK’s engineering market.

Developed through a collaboration between over 20 leading industrial engineering associations, the platform supplies businesses with a wealth of information that they can use to successfully determine a new supplier partnership.

Since then, the Society has been working closely with the other organisations involved to encourage engagement in the manufacturing supply chain and to recognise the strength, skills and innovation available.

The following information, provided by UK Reshoring, highlights the growing importance of the need to strengthen and simplify UK engineering supply chains, especially in the wake of the Coronavirus economic impact:

Everyone behind the Reshoring UK platform appreciates the complexities involved when transferring manufacturing from overseas. The website portal has been created to help re-establish the capability required to meet manufacturers demands and those businesses that have used it in this current crisis have realised just how much capability and competence is available within the UK.

We know it is a myth that the UK no longer manufactures anything, but it is often repeated and needs to be dispelled. In reality, prior to this pandemic we were the ninth largest manufacturing nation in the world contributing 10 per cent of the UK Gross Value Added (GVA). The sector plays a vital role as an employer, with a workforce of around 2.7 million, and an innovator accounting for 70 per cent of all business Research and Development (R&D) spend.

Paradigm shift

Even before the global threat from COVID-19 there was a paradigm shift from OEMs looking at the benefits of reshoring, as highlighted by the Lloyds Bank report ‘Business in Britain: Manufacturing’. A sponsor of the Reshoring UK facility, research from Lloyds Bank showed more than a third (37 per cent) of firms asked said they were planning to move manufacturing processes back to the UK that had previously been offshored to territories like Asia and eastern Europe.

The prime motive for this, cited by 71 per cent of those with these plans, was to improve quality – a telling endorsement of the high standards that British manufacturers and workers uphold, which also has extremely positive implications for UK supply chains.’

Baroness Burt of Solihull, Patron of Reshoring UK commented: “With so much value to be gained for both sides, large manufacturers only need to look more closely at what is already available to them in this country, in terms of  innovation, technology transfer across sectors, and quality. www.reshoring.uk  urges the manufacturing sector to seize this opportunity to increase its UK supply chain.”             

Vanda Jones, Executive Director for BCAS, concludes: “In a world of constantly changing legislation and standards, it pays to work with a supplier that can offer the right levels of support, backed by engineering and technical expertise. 

“As the only UK technical trade association open to manufacturers, distributors and end users of compressors, vacuum pumps, pneumatic tools and allied products, it is an approach we have always advocated - helping to connect our members with industry end-users to help specify, install, maintain and service their equipment.

“We are therefore delighted to continue partnering with Reshoring UK to help businesses source the right engineering expertise, that can help avoid downtime, save costs and maintain the highest safety standards.

“This facility will support the high value and technical requirements of such industries as aerospace, automotive, rail, marine, energy and medical from conceptual design to complete product delivery for companies searching for UK-based support for their businesses.”