State of Subcontract Engineering in Current UK Climate

[Parallel Precision Ltd]

Hi All!

I would really appreciate it if everyone adds their two pennies' worth to this discussion! From far and wide, I am trying to understand how my fellow engineers feel about the performance of the Engineering/Manufacturing sectors across the UK at this current time. Specifically, I am trying to gauge how subcontract engineering companies are thriving or decaying.

The kind of things I am looking for clarity on are:


Workload?

Do you work for a subcontract company? Are you snowed under with work or are you currently suffering with minimal workload?


Complexity of work?

What is booming for the UK right now? Is there lots of complicated aerospace work being undertaken or are we just drilling a few holes into some basic castings?


Sector?

Is Aerospace a major player? Motorsport? Is Oil and Gas making a comeback?


Foreign competition?

As a collective, are UK companies still loosing work to overseas? Or are we becoming more competitive via implementation of lights out production and other productivity solutions to better balance quality/price?


Customer Data

For subcontractors, are we seeing an increase in 3D CAD models supplied? Is is 50/50 with technical drawings to CAD data or do "Back of Fag Packet" sketches still seem to be the customers preference?!


Batch Sizes

Is there a surge of high volume, repeat jobs coming through or is low volume and 1-offs still common ground? This might be industry specific.

All comments and opinions welcome! I will have more questions to come.

Thanks!

[magicniner]

As a leading UK CNC sub contractor you might want to start by telling the class why you want the information, and what you plan to do with any info provided.

[Parallel Precision Ltd]

As a leading UK CNC sub contractor you might want to start by telling the class why you want the information, and what you plan to do with any info provided.

Hi magicniner

I have read a variety of reports, including the recent EEF Manufacturing Outlook (which can be found here https://www.eef.org.uk/resources-and-knowledge/research-and-intelligence/industry-reports/manufacturing-outlook-2018-q1). I am purely looking to just gauge if the positive outlook I gathered from the said report matches the real feelings of the working people. The information and views shared by commenters will not be referenced to or shared elsewhere.

[magicniner]

I make unobtainable, obsolete and bespoke parts in a very niche area of engineering and always have enough work to keep me more than busy but that report runs above my pay grade or that of anyone I know.