Now into its fifth successful year, the National Manufacturing Debate hosted by Cranfield University brought together manufacturing professionals from a range of sectors to discuss and debate current challenges in the industry. The Centre exhibited at the event, designed to encourage networking and collaboration across the sector to enable continued and long-term growth.
On 20 May, delegates were able to take part in tours and demonstrations of Cranfield’s impressive facilities and current research, which included a tour of the Centre’s facilities within the Precision Engineering Institute.
On 21 May, a range of presentations from keynote speakers were presented, chaired by Lord Alec Broers FREng. The afternoon session commenced with a question and answer session with the Rt Hon David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science, followed by the Debate chaired by Jane Gray, Editor of The Manufacturer.
Questions from the audience were put to a panel of experts looking to answer the following questions:
- Where does UK manufacturing productivity rank against international competitors?
- How can UK manufacturing productivity be improved?
