Horrors of their first budget.

[vetran]

Automation increases productivity, before Brexit had a detrimental impact on the UK car industry we had less people working in the car industry than at anytime but we were producing more cars then ever

What do you define as assembly… modern production lines cross country borders – place around the corner from me makes lorry spark plugs, they go off to Germany to be heat treated, then back to the UK and then get shipped to truck engine makers. Post Brexit they were going to bring heat treatment to the UK but not sure whether they ever did

which car was it that where they only fitted the car seat in the uk and they could slap a "made in Britain" flag on it?

I think it was Volvo.

[vetran]

Here you go

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._manufacturers

https://www.backupworks.com/manufacture-hdd-in-usa.aspx

Assembly is joining of complete components without machining. So if you put spark plugs in an engine that is assembly IMHO.

[dsc]

That has been a redundant view since the Luddites, automation increases wealth and has done for the last 300 years, it creates and/or allows new jobs. We were told in the 70's to prepare for loads of leisure time when we became adults as Computers would be doing all the work .

The Railways really piss me me off because they are ripe for more automation, instead of guards in the back cab watching porn (yes I've seen them).

Sure but doesn't happen without training, if you sack some low level ops and replace the systems with some high level stuff, the low level ops won't necessarily know how to work them (even with training). It can definitely create jobs, but it also kills jobs.

[dsc]

until of course it falls because they killed the goldengoose

What goldengoose?

[Gibbon]

Here you go

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._manufacturers

https://www.backupworks.com/manufacture-hdd-in-usa.aspx

Assembly is joining of complete components without machining. So if you put spark plugs in an engine that is assembly IMHO.

Plenty of companies are competing by better automation

HPC Services | British Manufacturing | CNC Turning Specialists

Evolve

[Gibbon]

Sure but doesn't happen without training, if you sack some low level ops and replace the systems with some high level stuff, the low level ops won't necessarily know how to work them (even with training). It can definitely create jobs, but it also kills jobs.

Absolutely, the challenge is to evolve. Take a lot of the mining towns, one of which I was brought up in; both my grandfathers were pit deputies and they were adamant that their children were not going down the pit. Also what amazes me is both my grandfathers moved into the coal fields for work from else where, but so many in those places still expect the work to come to them?

People also forgot how violent and tribal those places were, with all the expectant sexism and racism. In the town I grew up in every Xmas, bank holiday was like watching the warriors or wanderers with all the pit village boys descending for a fight.

[dsc]

Plenty of companies are competing by better automation

HPC Services | British Manufacturing | CNC Turning Specialists

Evolve

For mass (or partially mass) production, CNC is a must, so there's no denying there you need to upgrade / automate etc. Small runs of parts are not so great for CNC, as there's a fairly big cost upfront to make tooling / fixtures / write code, so the overall cost is high in that case, but whenever you get quotes for parts, compare price per part for a run of say 10 parts vs 1000 parts and you'll see why CNC makes sense. So to compete with...well anyone really, at least in the machining industry, you have to have CNCs, but the issue is hourly rates in the UK, hence places like Poland / Romania / Czechia etc. often beat quotes from the UK (and they often offer really good knowledge base / skills as well).

[DoctorStrangelove]

Absolutely, the challenge is to evolve. Take a lot of the mining towns, one of which I was brought up in; both my grandfathers were pit deputies and they were adamant that their children were not going down the pit. Also what amazes me is both my grandfathers moved into the coal fields for work from else where, but so many in those places still expect the work to come to them?

People also forgot how violent and tribal those places were, with all the expectant sexism and racism. In the town I grew up in every Xmas, bank holiday was like watching the warriors or wanderers with all the pit village boys descending for a fight.

Yet there are posters on the Welsh Coal Mines site I lurk on who seem to miss working down holes in the ground.

I find it beyond my comprehension but there you go.

Discovered the other day that a distant relative died in Ferndale colliery by falling out of the cage at the grand old age of 17 ("in his 18th year"). It would appear that he was a Darwin Award winner, poor sod.

[vetran]

What goldengoose?

Businesses & employees that pay tax in the UK.

[vetran]

For mass (or partially mass) production, CNC is a must, so there's no denying there you need to upgrade / automate etc. Small runs of parts are not so great for CNC, as there's a fairly big cost upfront to make tooling / fixtures / write code, so the overall cost is high in that case, but whenever you get quotes for parts, compare price per part for a run of say 10 parts vs 1000 parts and you'll see why CNC makes sense. So to compete with...well anyone really, at least in the machining industry, you have to have CNCs, but the issue is hourly rates in the UK, hence places like Poland / Romania / Czechia etc. often beat quotes from the UK (and they often offer really good knowledge base / skills as well).

Mass production i.e. 10s of thousands to millions of products you need moulds or custom machines.

CNC is great for custom jobs there is plenty of work going on creating custom cutting boards, mugs on mass produced products bought from China.

In the UK my ex employer still assembles custom jobs from sub assemblies and decals, they just do it in a centralised assembly shop. Customers can still order a short run of customised units. But normally if they want 50,000 units they have to wait until the custom units are shipped from Africa. A hybrid fulfillment solution may also work.