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The UK’s manufacturing scene has developed significantly in recent years. New working practices, often brought in by overseas owners, have done much to improve productivity and quality.

Yet some sections of industry still seem in need of a leg-up. In an article elsewhere on this website Peter Barnes of the GTMA issues a rallying cry to toolmakers across the country to be more proactive when pitching for contracts and to be more hands-on in the early stages of a project.

While he is obviously wishing to raise the profile of his organisation and the forums it has developed, Barnes is making a serious point. Everyone is operating in one of the toughest markets seen for generations, but the current climate merely reinforces the need for companies to be better prepared when it comes to finding, securing and developing new business.

Manufacturing has been traditionally viewed by the media as a bit slow to react, clunky, plodding along, turning out unidentifiable objects that when combined eventually go to make up something we all recognise. Like a car or a piece of office equipment.

Perception isn’t everything, of course, but I think Peter Barnes is right when he implies that many manufacturers need to show more confidence about what they can offer when turning concepts into reality.

And if the GTMA’s forums or other such talking shops can encourage more across the sector to get on the front foot then it can only be a good thing.

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The government says it is keen to push engineering and manufacturing as part of the UK’s economic recovery, so toolmakers need to step up and prove the worth of these sectors, says Peter Barnes, a director at the GTMA 18 January 2012

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