UK engineering alliance announces supply chain initiative

Published: 01 May, 2015

The Engineering and Machinery Alliance (Eama) – the umbrella group for 13 UK trade associations including Gambica, the MTA, Bara, the BFPA, BCAS, the PPMA and Ukiva – has announced plans for an industrial strategy for the machinery and allied components (MAC) sector. Eama believes its initiative will increase the ability of MAC companies, particularly SMEs, to benefit from the wide variety of schemes available to help them compete.

The initiative is based on a pilot study that Eama commissioned from the University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) with help from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

“The pilot study has convinced us that there are significant opportunities to help our member firms to grow,” says Eama chairman, Martin Walder. “The ultimate aim is, of course, to raise UK supply chain performance. We aim to achieve this by accessing and developing schemes that increase individual company competitiveness and productivity in a programme that reflects the fact that many firms serve more than one supply chain. Accordingly, the wider the participation, the greater the benefit to UK plc.”

Eama is inviting associations and organisations representing companies operating in MAC supply chains to contact it to discuss its plans. Walder expects the move to implementation to happen “quite quickly” in sectors such as automation and motion control.

Eama’s member associations together represent 1,950 firms with a turnover of around £9bn, typically supplying “enabling technologies” to other sectors.