Ahead of Subcon, the defining event in the manufacturing supply chain calendar, Subcon research reveals that the machinery sector has lots to look forward to.
A survey amongst more than 500 manufacturing and engineering decision makers has shown that, boosted by consistent export stability and growth, two thirds of businesses used subcontractors in the past year. Looking forward, 38% plan to increase work with subcontractors in the next 12 months.
This is great news for the manufacturing and engineering supply chain. Of those engineering and manufacturing businesses that do use subcontractors, just over half (53%) outsource up to 20% of their requirements and 30% expect to appoint new subcontractors in the next 12 months. Machinery firms make up a substantial part of this activity.
As a result, many machinery specialists at Subcon are investing heavily. Sterling Machining is continuing to prepare in its future with the purchase of a new Doosan Puma 2600LY with programmable steady-rest positioning and high pressure coolant. As part of a £300k investment plan, this new machine complements the other Doosan machine tools that Sterling has recently bought.
Elsewhere PRV Engineering in Pontypool South Wales has just completed another £1.5m investment. Following the award of a substantial, seven-year contract, PRV has invested in further extensions to its premises in Pontypool and the acquisition of two large format machining centres, one high speed machining centre for large aluminium plate and framework and one large heavy duty 5 face machining centre for steel components.
Other machinery and production engineering names present at Subcon include Plieno Fortas UAB, Anidas, IMSM, Tharsus Engineering, Tecan, Rencol Components Ltd, NOTE UK, O.L.D. Engineering, MSC Industrial Supply, PPSI Manufacturing, RUBIS PRECIS, Trust Precision, Turnell & Odell, Waveney Precision and Faro Technologies UK.
And it is not just on the exhibition floor that the machinery sector will make its presence felt. As part of the Advanced Manufacturing stream of the Subcon conference, Dr Lina Huertas, Head of Technology Strategy for Digital Manufacturing, manufacturing Technology Centre will deliver a keynote covering the insight needed to deliver the industrial strategy, fusing machinery and digitalisation. Dr Rab Scott of AMRC will showcase the factory of 2050 and Martyn Jenkins of the EEF will give a keynote covering the economic backdrop for UK manufacturing growth.
Subcon is set to take place 5-7 June 2018 at the NEC in Birmingham. For a full conference programme please see http://www.subconshow.co.uk/conference/2018-programme or go to http://www.subconshow.co.uk to register.
