The new manufacturing: AMRC on the BBC

04 April 2014

The University of Sheffield AMRC's work to support British manufacturing has been showcased on BBC Radio 4.

The New Manufacturing launched a new season of the popular In Business series, one of the most downloaded programmes from BBC Radio. Business correspondent Peter Day examined the resurgence of UK manufacturing after decades of intense pressure, and investigated what it takes to survive and prosper in an intensely globalising world.

The programme began with AMRC commercial director Adrian Allen describing the economic changes of the past 30 years.

"The concept that people have of manufacturing and engineering is a legacy one. It's biased from the bad old days," Allen said. "One of the things we're trying to get out is what modern manufacturing is."

During his visit to the AMRC in March, Day also interviewed senior staff at partner companies from along the supply chain, including Siemens, Technicut and AMRC spin-out AML.

The programme also looked at the AMRC's work to develop the next generation of engineering talent, interviewing Alison Bettac, head of the AMRC Training Centre, and apprentices Mark Innes and Bethany Cousins.

"Twenty years ago, the factories I saw in the heartland of British manufacturing were often dingy, nursing traditional machinery, doing traditional jobs," Day concluded. "That's changed, and it needs to go on changing if British manufacturing is to continue to survive and prosper in the face of global competition more intense than anything that industrialists have seen the past 200 years."