Advanced technology could give the UK’s manufacturing sector a £455bn boost over the next decade and help create thousands of jobs if the country successfully carves out a post-Brexit future.
According to a report, chaired by Juergen Maier, the head of Siemens UK, robotics, 3D printing and AI could help bolster a fourth industrial revolution in Britain if the country were more ambitious in its approach to these technologies.
The ‘Made Smarter’ report, brought together executives from companies such as IBM, Rolls Royce and GKN, alongside individuals from small businesses and academics from Cambridge and Newcastle universities.
The report proposes:
- Upskill a million industrial workers to enable digital technologies to be successfully exploited
- Create a much more visible and effective digital ecosystem to accelerate the innovation and diffusion of Industrial Digital Technologies (IDTs)
- Inspire the UK’s next industrial revolution with stronger leadership and branding of the country’s ambition to be a global pioneer in IDTs
Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Maier said: “On the one hand it is going to create productivity and more exports and through that we can create more jobs but at the same time robotics and artificial intelligence will displace some jobs.
“The best thing we can do is to make ourselves ready for it in a very proactive way and that means training our people… we need to up skill one million existing workers in the industrial and manufacturing sector… so they can transition from tasks that might be displaced to, for example, managing or programming robots.”
The report, which calls for a commission to help firms adapt to evolving technologies, is expected to help inform the government’s industrial strategy plans.