BARA reports big demand for UK automation grant
15 Jun 2012
London – The British Automation and Robot Association (BARA) is urging UK manufacturers to apply for grants under the government’s Automating Manufacturing programme before the money runs out.
According to BARA, 156 applications were received from UK manufacturers to 31 March – the completion date of the first year of the government-funded scheme. This, is said, exceeding its best expectations by over 50%.
The UK has been much slower than its direct EU competitors in adopting automation, with just 25 robots per 10,000 employees as opposed to 127 per 10,000 employees in Germany.
“We are delighted with the uptake from industry so far,” said Mike Wilson, BARA chairman. “One of the keys to success in addressing the UK’s budget deficit is increasing the export output from the UK and the way to do this is by making UK manufacturing as efficient as possible.”
BARA points to a project at A K Industries as an example of how the Automating Manufacturing programme is helping UK companies to raise the level of automation at thir facilities.
“We recently hadd a review carried out on site and found this very useful,” said Allen Green, managing director of A K Industries. The automation expert has highlighted several areas that we could cost effectively automate and the pay back period is a lot shorter than we had thought.
“We are pleased that the government is prepared to help UK manufacturing take the next steps in remaining competitive in an ever increasingly global market place. We have just completed our first 6-axis robotic cell”.
