In this week’s episode of The Manufacturer Podcast, we have an interview with Liz McArdle from WMG at Warwick University. She is overseeingthe leadership and management skills training element of the Supply Chain Transition Programme – a West Midlands Investment Zone initiative. Liz talks about how this is being delivered to SMEs in traditional manufacturing sectors, and expands on the importance of growing digital, sustainable, and change management skills within these companies. Some big news this week as far as we’re concerned - SmartManufacturing Week is coming to the United States. The inaugural event will be held in April 19–22, 2027 at Huntington Place in Detroit. Smart Factory Expo and Maintec will run as part of theevent, as well as the ‘Manufacturing Digitalization Summit,’ focused on the strategic adoption of digital technologies, and The Reliability Conference, which joined the Nineteen Group portfolio through the acquisition of Reliabilityweb. Within a 250-mile radius of Detroit, there are over 3.3million manufacturing jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, making it one of the largest industrial concentrations in the world. UK news includes Aurrigo International plc, and its largestvehicle manufacturing order in its history. The Coventry based company will manufacture an initial 25-strong fleet of autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) for a leading rapid transit system specialist. We look back on some of our coverage of International Women’s Day at the start of the week, as well as a story that Joe published on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the potential impact of that, and what businesses can do to mitigate the risks. Some more concerning UK news this week involves Nissan, and fears over the future of its site in Sunderland, if the UK is not included in the recently announced ‘Made in Europe’ plans. Under the EU plans, public subsidies to speed up thedevelopment of electric vehicles would only be available to EVs made in European plants. Mike Hawes, the chief executive of the SMMT expressed that the sector is “gravely concerned” by the news, and said that it “risks damaging a trading relationship worth almost £70bn annually.” ABB Robotics has announced it is integrating NVIDIA Omniverse libraries into ABB Robotics’ RobotStudio to help manufacturers deploy physical AI in real world robotics applications. News that will likely interest both our UK and North American audience. And on that front, James picks out his favourite NorthAmerican story this week - Carhartt has announced a $375k grant through its “For the Love of Labor” program tothe National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER), a nonprofit leader in skilled trades workforce development. Sam Cain gives us his thoughts on SME growth in this week’s ‘Shopfloor Whisper.’ Service providers should be targeting these companies if they’re interested in UK manufacturing, given that such a large percentage of the sector is made up of these companies – “You can’t just have the big boys.” Sam points out, that if you support them now, with growth, and with funding opportunities over the next few years, then you can be the vendor of choice when the time comes. And our ‘Made by a Moron’ comes from the Philippines thisweek. On a trip to the island of Boracay last weekend, James, his wife, and his six children were transported to the island on a catamaran. While trying to explain to his sea sick wife the vessel’s dual-hulled design makes it unsteady on rough seas, she lost patience, and declared the boat, “gawang tanga.”
