Automotive manufacturing includes manufacture of bodies
(coachwork) for motor vehicles as well as engines, components and
accessories for motor vehicles. It also includes the manufacture of
trailers and semi-trailers.
Future
Key growth markets include: engine and powertrain; hybrid,
electric and alternatively fuelled vehicles; advanced software,
sensors, electronics and telematics; advanced structures and
materials; design and manufacturing processes.
The increasing sophistication of vehicle technology and the
pressure on suppliers to take more responsibility for research and
development means that innovative production technology and control
techniques are becoming increasingly important as a source of
competitive advantage.
Automotive employers experience skills gaps among operators,
crafts persons and technicians and these occupations have the most
significant impact on their business. Employers with technical
engineering skills gaps identify the most important gaps to be for
CNC machine operations, assembly line/production robotics and
CAD.
Leading first tier Vehicle Manufacturers ( VMs) and Original
Equipment Manufacturers ( OEM’s) are reducing the proportion of
operators because of changes in technology and working practices
and this will be repeated throughout the supply chain. This will be
compounded by the move towards high performance and lean working.
There will be an increasing focus on high value activities in the
UK automotive industry and consequently a lower requirement for low
skilled people.
A major effort to upgrade team leaders and craftspersons to
technician capability and to assess the impact of making this
adjustment needs to occur to assess progresses in the next decade.
Upskilling team leaders lies at the heart of making product market
strategies based on genuine lean operation, advanced supply chain
management and faster NPPDI a competitive success.
Key facts:
- Six global groups account for over 80% of world car
production.
- Five groups dominate the world market for trucks and
buses.
- Large multinational firms dominate the components sector.
- The global market for automotive products in 2002 was worth
$620bn and UK automotive exports accounted for around 5% of
this.
- The majority of automotive employers are small, with 82% of all
sites in the UK employing fewer than 50 people. Only 6% of total UK
automotive sites employ 200 people or more.
- The UK is unique in the European automotive industry in that
the majority of the workforce is in the automotive supply chain
rather than the vehicle manufacturing sector.
- The UK has a number of other global strengths including a
motorsport cluster, an automotive design engineering sector, a 30%
share of European internal combustion engine production and a No. 2
world ranking for premium car production.
- The automotive manufacturing sector accounts for over half the
Transport Equipment Sector with the aerospace industry representing
the majority of the remainder.