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Britain’s manufacturers see the adoption of an industrial strategy as a key to driving investment, enhancing productivity, and addressing future skill needs, according to the Make UK and PwC UK Executive Survey 2025.
This prominent annual report captures insights from over 150 senior executives, highlighting their perspectives on the opportunities, risks, and challenges facing their businesses in the coming year, alongside an analysis of the UK and global economic outlook.
Make UK’s report reveals that two-thirds (68%) of manufacturers plan to tackle rising costs by boosting productivity and 29% say they will look to technology, cloud and AI to succeed in 2025.
Our CEO and Co-Founder Chris Iveson shares his thoughts following Make UK publishing its Executive Survey 2025.
Chris Iveson, CEO at FourJaw Manufacturing Analytics, comments: “2025 is a new year, but manufacturers face the same challenges and opportunities as the last: rising costs, higher taxes, sustainability and shareholder demands for better returns. Despite the scale of these threats, it is within most manufacturers’ control to respond in a way that improves their profitability in 2025.”
The UK has a productivity problem because, on the whole, we’ve been slower than other major industrial economies to invest in technologies that drive productivity. But change is happening, and technology offers a fast, efficient, and accessible route to restoring parity and profitability. Those who don’t invest will be left behind.
Aerospace manufacturer, AVPE Systems, part of the Broadway Group, implemented machine monitoring technology in 2024, it has achieved a 30% increase in production uptime using the technology to optimise production processes.
Given the shortage of access to talent and skills in our industry, there can be no surprise that manufacturers are four times more likely to invest in technology than additional headcounts to improve performance. Make UK’s report is a wake-up call to manufacturers that haven’t explored the opportunities here.
“Productivity is priority number one for manufacturers. Making more without paying for more people or production machinery is the quickest and most effective way to restore margins, and we consistently see manufacturers achieve productivity gains of 10% to 20% and boost output capacity by up to 30% through more efficient use of their existing assets. The starting point is to understand what is happening on the shop floor and address the everyday delays and bottlenecks that afflict production lines.”
“The ‘wholesale transformation’ Make UK’s report calls is being achieved incrementally. Cloud is becoming the dominant form of manufacturing computing as more legacy systems reach the end of life, making it easier for manufacturers to deploy proven technologies such as data analytics and AI at scale and achieve rapid ROI without capital expenditure.
One of the most striking aspects of Make UK’s report is the focus on energy efficiency. The high price of energy means that any measure that reduces consumption delivers significant returns straight to the bottom line, and simple steps such as knowing exactly how much energy each machine is consuming and when to allow manufacturers to save thousands of pounds through better planning or simply isolating them when not in use.
Read the complete report at Make UK.
