State of Subcontract Engineering in Current UK Climate

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!

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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...utlook-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.

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.