The East Midlands Growth Hubs, led by Lincolnshire County Council, have successfully bid to secure £3m to support East Midlands manufacturing sector businesses over the next two and a half years.
The Government is extending the Made Smarter Programme to the East Midlands following a proposition from Lincolnshire County Council and the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership.
The investment is estimated to generate £80m in additional productivity, based on data from other Made Smarter Adoption Programmes.
Cllr Colin Davie, executive councillor for economy at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “This funding supports small and medium sized manufacturing firms to boost their productivity by implementing digital technology and improving leadership and management skills.
“It has already been running in the North East, West Midlands, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, with impressive results.
“I’m proud that we’ve led the East Midlands bid from Lincolnshire and that our manufacturing businesses will benefit from increased productivity and a higher skilled workforce as a result.”
The funding aims to provide advice to over 400 small and medium sized businesses, undertake 133 business assessments, provide intensive support to 70 businesses and boost the leadership and management skills of 36 senior manufacturing leaders.
The programme helps businesses implement more automation and take advantage of new technologies such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, creating more high skilled jobs in the process.
Darren Joint, chair of the Greater Lincolnshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s Manufacturing Board and MD of Viking Signs, said: “Our board had three priorities this year: to develop the GLEAM network, to work with the further education sector to increase employer engagement, and to land a Made Smarter programme for Lincolnshire.
“I’m delighted that we have been successful with our Made Smarter proposals, not only for Lincolnshire but for the East Midlands.
“My business Viking Signs has benefited tremendously from digital adoption, and this programme will give manufacturing businesses in Lincolnshire the chance to embrace digital transformation and increase productivity by as much as 25% while boosting employee skill levels and increasing the number of highly skilled, well paid jobs.
“The programme will be launched imminently and I encourage businesses to get involved.”
The East Midlands exports £16.6bn, 6% of all UK manufacturing exports, and accounts for nearly 9% of the UKs total manufacturing GVA making it an important contributor the UKs overall manufacturing sector performance.
