Automation Nation or Country in Stagnation?

Neil Evans, Managing Director at VEKA plc – a leading supplier of PVCu window and door systems, employing over 450 people in Burnley, Lancashire.

The UK manufacturing sector fell out of the top 10 global manufacturing nations last year and has remained 12th through mid-2025, down from 8th in 2023, according to Make UK. To regain a top-10 spot, the body says we need to first grow the sector from 10% to 15% of GDP. That’s a big ask without bold action.

At the same time, the UK is also one of the least automated advanced economies in the world. The International Federation of Robotics ranks the UK at 24th globally in robot density, with just 111 units per 10,000 employees. Germany, by comparison, deploys more than 370. South Korea and Singapore have raced even further ahead. This discrepancy shows the need for greater automation to remain competitive in an increasingly automated global market.

The Government’s ‘Modern Industrial Strategy’ – which is central to Labour’s number one mission of growth – is ambitious. It promises £4.3 billion in funding for advanced manufacturing, alongside a broader £86 billion R&D commitment. The vision is that by 2035, the UK will double annual business investment in the sector from £21 billion to £39 billion, becoming the best place in the world to start, grow and invest in manufacturing.

But while talks of AI, digital twins and industrial robotics dominate Westminster, those running factory floors across the UK are asking more basic questions. Who will help me de-risk automation? Who will support me through process redesign? And who will fix my system if it breaks?

The reality on the UK’s factory floors

Let’s not pretend automation is easy. Much of what’s available today is technically feasible but practically unproven in the specific contexts that matter to businesses like ours at VEKA. Off-the-shelf automation doesn’t really exist yet. Most automation systems require bespoke design, iteration and integration. And bespoke often translates into expensive, unsupported and hard to scale.

It’s not that we don’t want to automate and take on the future with both hands. It’s that, right now, we aren’t going to throw ourselves into a high-risk system with no obvious ROI and no one to call when it breaks. It’s one thing to simulate a production loop on paper. It’s quite another to bolt it into a 50-year-old building and expect it to work.

There’s also the opportunity for change. If we automated what we do now, all we’d be doing is making the wrong things more efficient. For automation to truly succeed, we need to focus on process redesign and rebuilding workflows from the ground up.

Are people not needed?

There’s also a perception that increased automation equals redundancy. But that’s a narrow view. In my opinion, the best automation transformation will reallocate human effort to more rewarding, higher-value roles. For example, automating the movement of goods across a site not only boosts efficiency but also improves health and safety and allows skilled staff to focus on more technical work.

But change like this takes trust, open and honest communication and retraining. Especially when 25% of your operations workforce is under 30, and many of them don’t see manufacturing as a long-term career. Retention is tough. And if your experienced team walks out before younger employees are fully trained, the skills gap only widens.

Are we moving too slowly?

The Manufacturing Technology Centre estimates that if the UK matched the automation levels of top-performing countries, productivity could rise by more than 22%. For a country struggling to surpass 2% annual GDP growth, that’s a game-changing uplift. Yet our risk appetite hasn’t kept pace.

As a country we like to say we’re fast followers. But truthfully? We’re slow followers. And our risk aversion is causing the gap to widen.

Government support must go beyond white papers to truly address the blockers to automation and de-risk roll-out. Centres of excellence like the AMRC and MTC offer part of the answer, but too many manufacturers still operate in silos, unaware of what’s available or unsure how to engage. Manufacturers need hands-on, practical support, such as guidance on process redesign, funding, and access to training programs that ensure people, not just machines, are at the heart of the transformation.

If the UK is to reassert itself as a global manufacturing power, we need to see real-world support that brings strategy to the shop floor, funding tied to process redesign and automation that enables people, not replaces them. 

www.veka.com

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