Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Regional Meeting at MIT

Today I wrote a lenghty response to a discussion I'd had my eye on in the UK Design Council forum on LinkedIn. After it received a like today I thought I would share...

"We want the words 'Made in Britain,' 'Created in Britain,' Designed in Britain,' 'Invented in Britain' to drive our nation forward. A Britain carried aloft by the march of the makers."

George Osborne promotes design in the budget. Do you believe him?

I am interested in the manufacturing debate and today attended the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Regional Meeting at MIT. I see the situation in the US as fairly analogous with the UK, and one of the points president Susan Hockfield always makes it that today the general opinion is that nothing is made in the US anymore. However manufacturing still contributes around 12% of their GDP. In fact they are still the world leader in manufacturing however the general consensus would disagree.

So, the need to raise public awareness and maintain pride in national manufacturing is important, otherwise we risk resigning to the fact that more and more is moving oversees. However, the "Made in Britain" tag seems to me to largely play into the fact that everything you pick up says "Made in China" on it.

from an article...

To someone shopping for toys, shoes, or sporting equipment, it can often seem that way. But that’s because Chinese factories tend to specialize in low-tech, labor-intensive goods — items that typically don’t require the more advanced and sophisticated manufacturing capabilities of modern American plants.

A vast amount of “stuff’’ is still made in the USA, albeit not the inexpensive consumer goods that fill the shelves in Target or Walgreens. American factories make fighter jets and air conditioners, automobiles and pharmaceuticals, industrial lathes and semiconductors. Not the sort of things on your weekly shopping list? Maybe not. But that doesn’t change economic reality. They may have “clos[ed] down the textile mill across the railroad tracks.’’ But America’s manufacturing glory is far from a thing of the past.

(http://articles.boston.com/2011-02-06/bostonglobe/29344173_1_manufacturing-output-black-dress-decline/2)

So, fully acknowledging I have not read the length of this discussion. I guess my comment reinforces Bruce's earlier statement.

I question the emphasis on consumer products. I feel the "march of the makers" should be at a business-to-business level as the previous example of Scottish textile mills, and companies like Teknek "world leader in contact cleaning equipment" support. As an engineer, I think of Rolls Royce, (voted number 1 UK superbrand in 2011) a leader in engines, but is there value in a "Made in Britain" stamp if it's it going in an airplane made from parts from all over the world.

n the US the emphasis is certainly on advanced manufacturing processes first, and this allows them to make advanced products such as semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, but to also make everyday products more competitively. (For example, Obama recently visited Alcoa in Iowa who, through process innovation, are making rolled aluminium competitively for significant export). This example was the kind of thing people in the Technology break out session were excited about today.