Manufacturing: Factories’ drive for flexibility brings firms back to the floor

Rod Newing 

Financial Times

13 November 2012

PA’s Tim Lawrence, a manufacturing expert, is quoted in the Financial Times Business of Consulting special report. The article looks at how manufacturing has become a hotspot for consultancies as improving business conditions raise confidence in the sector, encouraging companies to bring in external advisers to help them stay competitive.

In the article, Tim points out that companies are turning to consultancies to help manage uncertainty in tough times. Areas such as nearshoring, flexible manufacturing, digitalisation, personalisation and 3D printing are driving some companies to consider radical new ways of manufacturing.

Tim comments that “manufacturing reinvention” is leading to increasing interest in consultancy to support new technologies, new processes and new IT, that might mark the emergence of a manufacturing revolution.

Tim continues: “Manufacturing consultancy may be the fastest area for growth, but it is starting from a low base. However, there are signs that manufacturing is starting to become ‘sexy’ again.”

You can read the article in full here.