Whilst the proposed closure of Ford in Bridgend may make some believe that manufacturing is continuing its long decline, the truth is that the sector has actually enjoyed a renaissance that few would have envisaged during the last recession.

It currently accounts for 11 per cent of UK Gross Value Added (GVA) and directly employs over 2.6 million people. Many of the jobs are highly skilled and the sector is responsible for 70 per cent of all business R&D and 44 per cent of total UK exports.

Over the period 2009-2017, it has grown faster (37 per cent) than the UK economy as a whole (30 per cent) and accounts for 11.9 per cent of all economic growth since the recession as compared to 0.1 per cent for sectors such as financial and insurance activities.

In Wales, the impact is even more pronounced with manufacturing posting a growth of 52 per cent since 2009 as compared to 30 per cent for the overall Welsh economy.

More relevantly, it is responsible for a quarter of all Welsh economic growth between 2009 and 2017 and its share of the economy has grown from 14.8 per cent to 17.3 per cent over this period with North East Wales being one of the main growth regions in the UK over this period.

Of course, it is easy some to blame Brexit for the recent closures across the manufacturing industry in the UK but there are other more long term challenges which, as the recent “2019 Annual Manufacturing Report” pointed out, have little to do with our impending departure from the European Union.

These include the impact of technology on the manufacturing sector with UK manufacturers indicating they needed to adopt digital technologies to transform their operations and enable them to operate in a more effective and efficient way, thus increasing profitability and growth. And there are significant challenges in actually adopting these technologies within the business with half of all manufacturers either unsure on actual implementation or having no plans at all for adoption in the future.

The main reason for this is an inability to understand the practical applications which these technologies offer to the businesses. This suggests that there is an educational role required either by Government or trade bodies to ensure that all manufacturing firms fully appreciate the difference that digitisation can make to their operations.

Perhaps most importantly, there is the issue of skills within manufacturing firms with much written about the danger of automation and how robots will be stealing jobs from human workers in the future.

Fortunately, that does not seem to be an issue for many of the firms in this study. Whilst most manufacturers agree that there may be a few jobs lost, this will be not on the scale that some have predicted and, more relevantly, increased digitisation will allow greater productivity and reduced costs within the businesses.

Therefore, whilst there are troubled waters for some manufacturing businesses in the UK,  this study suggests that the sector could capitalise on new technologies to make their businesses even more efficient and effective in an increasingly competitive global environment.