Empower Your Business with Sales Process Automation in United Kingdom

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i don't think any the pandemic hasn't changed too much in in that respect uh i think automation we need automation just to become more efficient people are looking for uh improved efficiencies so whatever they're doing the big interest in automation is that people become more efficient in what they're doing enables them to reduce their costs it is very competitive out there you know it's a very cost conscious market that we have and we're we're aware of that we're seeing uh threats from uh cheap products from from china so there's things you've got to be aware of you've got to offer well quality of product i think is a is a given delivery service is important for us so that's what we we differentiate ourselves in the market being here but people want something at a reasonably priced so cost is a is a driving factor for a lot of people so automation enables you to improve your product efficiencies your throughputs and enables you then to reduce ultimately your your costs automation can be fantastically flexible it can be faster more reliable than a lot of manual labor but people bring decision making at a level that you really need to have thought of beforehand you need to have programmed in to automation and if you didn't program a particular decision-making idea into an automation process then it can't handle it when it meets it so people are able to deal with the the unexpected and there is always the unexpected in automation obviously everyone talks about the internet of things and industry four they're they're they're popular i think uh smc we've been at the the driving uh front of a lot of technology changes um with our wireless technology so we're enabling people to use a manifold you know and onto a robot onto a machine without the need to cable and to run piping at that what you're finding is that people want to know what's happening in their factories so i i likened it to a car that when you drive a car you've got all the instruments on there telling you what speed you're doing how much fuel you got left you know on the range in that and that's what people need or people that's what they want in their factories they want to know how their factory is performing so this is the technology with these uh with ios links and that so that the person in the factory that one controlling that can see how the how the factory is performing he want ultimate efficiency out of his machines and that detection then that monitoring will enable him to know when to service that machine you know so if you if you see that the machine efficiency is is reducing then there's time to step in and make some changes and that's i think an important factor and this is something that we offer products for the market that they can do that if we looked at the current situation obviously we're still in a pandemic and that has actually been a challenge for us we've experienced in the early days of the pandemic uh the the disruption with the supply chain predominantly that was affected by transportation so difficult transportation when the pandemic hit us initially we answered the government's call to support you know for industry to support the ventilator program but we were finding it difficult because obviously to try and get product transported across the globe was very very difficult for us so we've gone through this stage of the transportation disruption and now we're seeing a disruption in the material supply so there's component shortages now that that's been a challenge for us i hope the government realized the importance of uk manufacturing during the first stage of the the pandemic when they reached out to industry uh i was in touch with the cabinet with finding me because there were delays with the product and i'm thinking to them i actually said you you don't you you're not supporting the country because we're dependent on asia for for product so i think the government realization there is an opportunity we need to invest more in the uk i think this uh this super deduction this 25 tax rebate i think is something that will encourage i hope businesses to to invest in in the uk and i think the realization again i think cop 26 has raised the the importance of the um impact on the environment transporting product around the globe that we need to bring things more local and that's something we're looking to do in fact the corporation is aware of that is to to transfer production more production from japan overseas uh you know to get closer to the markets we're seeing increasing effort to decouple growth business growth from the resources used so whether those resources are time whether it's raw material that these things are limited and we're constantly being challenged by customers to get more from from less so these these are today's challenges the number one opportunity i think for manufacturing is the government's super deduction we've taken advantage of that this year investing in new machinery and that's have an advantage for us one it's enabling us to get new machines in more efficient which actually contributes towards our carbon offsetting strategy and i think encourages us to improve our production efficiencies as well so i think industries can look at that we're budgeting for next year to to put more machinery in to replace our machine so um i think automation is going to be the driver there's new technologies that are coming in to help factories to become more more efficient the marketplace is heating up what we are seeing is as the economy has recovered uh we're seeing a lot of poaching so we're seeing within the market they you know these agents now putting around and we've we've we're seeing some staff being head hunted to leave predominantly uh in in the outside south in internally that's not been an issue for us i think we're a good employee located in milton keynes uh it's low unemployment but we are good employers and will offer a good salary and attractive benefits so it's not been an issue internally but your question regarding recruitment we're looking at bringing in apprentices if you manage your succession planning correctly then you bring in and train people to your requirements again with a little bit quirky in some respects we we we've got a a way of doing things within smc and i like that culture so if you can bring young people into the organization and and nurture them then i think that's a better fit for for smc apprenticeships are the key yeah not just in the factory but also for we're doing business apprenticeships as well for people coming through to to develop them and they're not necessarily young people we've got mature people on apprenticeship skills also it's a fact that the robots and automation do replace people in businesses but you know our experience has been everywhere that happens it creates new employment opportunities for people because most businesses are actually looking to push the envelope all the time of what they're capable of doing this is where people step in and and businesses that are looking to take their their business forward is constantly looking at new new processes and people are always going to be involved in that i don't see full lights out in uk factories for a very very long time to come