Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service contributes £16 million to Scottish economy in past 12 months

With an average of one manufacturing review taking place each day over the last year, the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS), established by Scottish Enterprise (SE) over four years ago, is witnessing unprecedented demand and in the last financial year has provided over £16 million in added-value to Scotland’s manufacturing businesses.

In the last 12 months, SMAS has completed 150 improvement projects reflecting a 210% increase over the same period last year and carried out 365 manufacturing reviews, a 59% growth year-on-year.  Since SMAS was established in 2006, it has made a value-added-impact of nearly £50 million to Scottish businesses and last week carried out its 1,000^th manufacturing review at Shetland Farm Dairy at Grimista.

SE established SMAS to provide direct and practical support to help Scotland’s SME manufacturers compete on a world-wide platform.  SMAS provides expert advice and one-to-one support as well as training, to help manufacturers improve productivity and generate cost savings.  SMAS is also delivered through Highland and Islands Enterprise to support manufacturing companies from all industry sectors and of all sizes from across the whole of Scotland.

Building upon the strong progress SMAS has made since its launch, last year SE doubled the SMAS workforce and introduced a number of new manufacturing efficiency services which has enabled SMAS to contribute nearly £50 million in added-value to Scotland’s manufacturers.  At a company level, this reflects a minimum return on investment of £11 for every £1 spent. The new strengthened team of 21 highly experienced industry professionals brings with them over 500 years of manufacturing expertise.

Steve Graham, director of SMAS, explained:  “The high level of demand from Scotland’s manufacturers for our help and assistance indicates that we are providing a very real and worthwhile service.  In the last year alone, SMAS has delivered over £16 million in added value productivity.  This productivity increase can be from improving work-flow solutions, better and more efficient procurement and assisting Scottish manufacturers become better aligned to meet the needs of their customers as well as opening new markets.”

Steve Graham further explained:  “We are witnessing many more businesses looking for help in the food and drink sector, which accounts for over 25% of our manufacturing reviews, and have recently carried out programmes for Diageo, Devro, William Grants and Pinneys.  The remaining manufacturing reviews are across a wide range of industries including construction, life sciences, energy, textiles, chemicals, engineering and general manufacturing.

“In the last six months we have introduced a new brokerage resource utilising third party specialists and associates across Scotland to work alongside the core SMAS team.  This service not only provides increased specialist expertise, but builds in a much greater resource and flexibility to respond to peaks and troughs in customer demand.

“Our aim is to deliver 70% of all improvement projects through our in-house team with the balance delivered by our specialist brokers.  Our extended service offer includes providing expertise in lean supply chain management, lean procurement and sourcing of materials, as well as manufacturing leadership and strategy.”