The managing director of Siemens Digital Industries has said the next Prime Minister must be reminded of the importance of modern British manufacturing – or ‘Industry 4.0’.
Brian Holliday is MD of Siemens Digital Industries, which is the UK business dedicated to advanced manufacturing, automation, robotics, IoT, cybersecurity, Industry 4.0 and digitalisation.
He said the time has arrived to send a message.
“We’re gearing up to send a little bit of a message to our politicians and stakeholders, at a time of political disruption to say, ‘please maintain our focus on industrial strategy, and recognise that post-Brexit, the economy and manufacturing is a way to better design and make things we want to trade and to create regional jobs’,” he said.
The comments were made to BusinessCloud ahead of the company’s conference, ‘Transforming Industry Together’, in Liverpool on June 11th.
“It’s so important that manufacturing gets to play a role in politics. We think that should be a message for the next Prime Minister; not just to talk to businesses, but to think about a highly productive and highly export-oriented sector looks to create jobs if it’s to create a future in a shared dialogue with the government,” he said.
“There’s a danger that we might not come up with the right answer, so we think that needs saying now.”
During the conference, which featured talks from leading tech companies in the Industry 4.0 space including Ocado Engineering, Unilever and Amazon, Holliday said there was a unique opportunity for the British brands to collaborate.
“In industry it’s been my experience that companies – unless they compete head on – are typically much happier to share,” he said.
“Technology doesn’t have borders. Supply chains are complex, they’re distributed and they’re international and connecting them has been notoriously difficult in the past.
“Companies coming together to understand the benefits of technology has always proved useful.”