UK manufacturing is ranked 17^th. PP wants to change the trend that has seen the UK’s manufacturing competitiveness slide down the Deloitte’s Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index. Ranked in 17^th position – below the likes of China and USA, but also below India, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, Poland and the Czech Republic, the UK is expected to fall even further down the table to 20^th position before 2015.

Deloitte’s report identifies that access to talented workers capable of supporting innovation is the key factor driving global competitiveness at manufacturing companies – well ahead of “classic” factors typically associated with competitive manufacturing, such as labour, materials, and energy. The UK Commission for Employment and Skills, established by the government, paints an equally dismal picture. Its report Ambition 2020 says that 10 million people need to improve their skills if the UK is to achieve its ambition of being in the top eight countries in the world for skills, jobs and productivity by 2020, but predicts that we are likely to achieve just half that number. It currently ranks the UK at 16^th worldwide. It’s a wakeup call for UK manufacturing.

David Fox, chairman of PP has accused fellow industrialists of inertia and complacency as UK manufacturing continues its slide down the league of international skills. He believes competitiveness is being damaged because companies are failing to invest in building fundamental workshop skills. Unless you take the time to invest and train your workforce and help them achieve the first-rate technical skills required, you will never have anything better than a second-rate business.

In 2000 PP set up its own in-house training school and every member of the workforce now spends an average of 200 hours per year on training and improvement projects. Unlike most generic training, these projects are based on real issues that affect the company’s bottom line. Having its own in-house training school has helped PP sustain the focus on training – this in itself has helped create and fuel a positive change culture; allowing it to support innovation not only within its own factory walls, but that of its customers. This has led to its booming success despite the recession. Since 2008, PP has doubled its turnover and in 2010 was exporting 20 percent of its output to Germany, one of the most quality conscious markets in the world.

If business leaders want stop the decline of the UK manufacturing nation and are to hit the target of being in the top eight countries in the world for skills, jobs and productivity by 2020, then a little bit of what PP has been doing over the past 10 years may be the missing ingredient that is required to start that shift.