Design for Growth: Manufacturing from Design Council on Vimeo.
Deborah Meaden
Contrary to what many people think, manufacturing in the UK is alive and well. Innovative businesses - small and large - are growing. And design is key to that success. But many manufacturers could be using design better.
Design for growth
Design and manufacturing
Design can help commercialise new technology, grow our advanced manufacturing base, exploit the UK’s strengths and accelerate exports to a world market. So why, and how, should you invest in design - and use it more strategically?
We know there’s no future for commodity based manufacturing in the UK, it’s almost become a trueism that we have to go up the value added chain but in going up the value added chain our international competitors particularly from emerging countries are chasing us up the ladder as fast as we go up.
Most businesses are run by accountants or salesmen and not by engineers or designers, which is a great pity, because I think manufacturing is about making things that people want, that people use, that perform well. And it’s designers and engineers who understand that.
What’s been a traditional problem in Britain and this goes over decades has been translating our fantastic science and technology into something that was a good commercial proposition and this is one of the great things design can do, it can take those things that are still very much in the formative stage and actually assist in the process of translating it into actually commercial products.
In 2007, manufacturing devoted 24% of total intangible investment to design, compared with the 14% across all industries
Success story: Navetas smart meter
Deborah Meaden
New technology start-up company Navetas developed this ‘smart meter’, which can monitor from a single point, how much energy is being used by each appliance in the home.
Our technology is about measurement of energy but visualising it for consumers so that users can make informed decisions and ultimately reduce their energy consumption and reduce their energy costs.
Deborah Meaden
Taking technologies like this one from universities into the commercial world is a complex, and sometimes risky, process - but it can have potentially high rewards - as Navetas has proved .
Chris Saunders
Our technology came from the university of Oxford and they’d developed raw technology that was lab based, demonstrating that artificial intelligent algorithms can deliver this kind of information to consumers.
Deborah Meaden
But it was good design - and an effective design process - that took this innovative technology to commercial reality.
Chris Saunders
We raised our initial venture finance round in November 2008 and that was only possible because we were able to demonstrate the design potential of such technology in order to get the interest of investors.
Navetas has secured funding of £4,000,000 for further development and trials with a major UK energy company
Terry Scuoler, Chief Executive EEF
Design and innovation is perhaps even more important for SMEs, and it’s not just about product development or indeed service development it’s also about what we call process, productivity, taking cost out of businesses and generating the smooth flow that can lead to growth.
Mark Prisk MP, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise
The point about innovation for a business is that very often that innovation is what, not only keeps a company ahead but actually allows them to enter new markets and that’s one of the crucial parts about design. So good for the economy and good for businesses.
Success story: Dyson digital motor
Deborah Meaden
Since the first electric motor was invented almost 200 years ago, its design has remained largely unchanged. But not at Dyson.
James Dyson
About 15 years ago, we started developing new technology electric motors, this is the state of the art, vacuum cleaner motor, but we developed this, which replaces that - so, it’s much smaller, much lighter, much more efficient and it‘s much more robust.
Deborah Meaden
And it’s been design that’s lead to new applications for the motor. So far, it's being used to power two vacuum cleaners and the Dyson Airblade hand dryers.
James Dyson
Because it goes so fast, it’s able to create a very high pressure which is why it’s so good for our hand dryer, so the sheet of air that blasts out is only possible because we developed our own motor. It gives us a terrific advantage over our foreign competitors.
Each week Dyson invests £1million in R&D and in the last year it doubled is team of design engineers
If design in a general form is not at the the key not within the key role of the business the business will struggle. Because its added value that nobody can afford to be without now that that’s the point.
Britain is the most productive vehicle manufacturing location in Europe and is a global centre of excellence for engine development and production
Success story: Range Rover Evoque
Deborah Meaden
The Range Rover Evoque began with the unveiling of a ‘concept car’- the LRX - at the Detroit motor show in 2008.
Gerry McGovern, Design Director, Land Rover
Some people think that design is something that is applied once you’ve created the product. Certainly in our business design is what actually starts it off.
We’re living in a society now where people’s expectations are rising by the minute. For the companies that think about design as something you apply they can’t ultimately create true products that really resonate from a desirability standpoint.
Deboarh Meaden
Gerry Mc Govern believes that design in itself can create emotional impact.
Gerry McGovern
The way you engineer and design something has to be intrinsically linked and if design is just something to apply afterwards then clearly it becomes subservient and what you end up with is at the best mediocrity.
Jaguar Land Rover is to invest £5billion on product development and equipment at its UK plants
Deborah Meaden
Strong evidence there that design is crucial in securing the future of high-growth manufacturing business. But it’s also clear that we could, and should, use design more to bring more innovative ideas to life.
Terry Scuoler
Manufacturing in the UK is in good shape. That said we’ve still not reached the levels of pre-recession output and we’re driving towards that - and just having our innovators having the courage to invest even in challenging times is very important for us.
Mark Prisk
If I had a call to industry as a whole about the importance of design it would very simply be design can make a really important difference to your bottom line.
James Dyson
I think people who ignore design do so at their peril. Those who ignore it are going to create an unpleasant environment and unpleasant products and they’re going to fail. You, you ignore it at your peril.
Thanks to
Deborah Meaden, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and all who appeared in this film