Redesigning Manufacturing ― Reimagining the Business of Making in the Uk

Manufacturing in the UK has an image problem. Although this image problem is more fiction than fact, it nonetheless has an impact on the sector's ability to attract staff, capital, and policy interest. Redesigning Manufacturing seeks to redress this situation by focusing on the real successes of the sector and the strategies used by makers to achieve sustainable results. In so doing, we broaden the debate about manufacturing to encompass issues of branding, design and creativity, craft, market creation, and supportive ecosystems. Rather than viewing the future of the manufacturing sector as reliant solely on productivity improvements, the pursuit of high technology markets, and investments in science, engineering, technology and maths, this book highlight the connectedness and complexity of modern manufacturing in the UK. Drawing on these insights and the success of many Midlands-based manufacturers the authors explore a more nuanced industrial policy.

Michael Beverland is Professor of Brand Management at the University of Bath, UK. His research focuses on branding and design-driven innovation in manufacturing. Michael has published in a range of journals including the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Product Innovation Management. He also published Building Brand Authenticity with Palgrave Macmillan in 2009.

Beverley Nielsen is Director of Corporate Affairs at Birmingham City University, UK, and Director of AGA Rangemaster, which manufactures and retails iconic brands including AGA, Rayburn and Rangemaster. She is the former Managing Director of Fired Earth and former Director of CBI West Midlands. Beverley is a Fellow at WMG, the University of Warwick, retaining an active involvement in various business boards.

Vicky Pryce is a leading economist and former Joint Head of the United Kingdom's Government Economic Service. She is the Senior Managing Director at the finance consultancy firm FTI Consulting, and was formerly Director General, Economics, at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Vicky is a Fellow of the Society of Business Economists, a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford, and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College Business School, UK.