Maintaining manufacturing growth

The most recent survey of UK manufacturers paints an increasingly rosy picture of order books and growth plans.

The EEF Business Trends Survey quizzed 322 companies about their output, exports orders and growth and recruitment plans.

There is a growing sense of optimism among manufacturers about rising output, with 22% reporting an increase in output over the last 3 months. The growing output is being fed by increasing orders, with 37% of respondents expecting to see a rise in orders over the next 3 months.

The growth in orders expected by manufacturers isn’t solely being fed by the UK either, with expectations for increased export business up by 33%.

While all this news is to be welcomed, there has to be a note of caution as to how manufacturers intend to meet increasing demand as well maintaining investment in their businesses.

The survey indicated that 34% of manufacturers plan to increase current investment levels. Whether this actually turns into real investment remains to be seen. All of which means current production and the hoped for increase in output is largely reliant on existing machinery.

This makes the planned maintenance and monitoring of machinery even more important to ensure there isn’t a break in the production process. Key to this are techniques such as predictive maintenance, for which the use of industrial accelerometers are often crucial. This enables manufacturers to detect issues with machinery before they occur and develop a maintenance plan that maintains output.

By failing to implement effective maintenance monitoring or regime, then manufacturers risk falling foul of the old adage, failing to plan is planning to fail.