Engineering headaches

 

Continuing the trend from 2017, engineering recruitment is still an issue for many factories.

 

A lack of new engineers entering the market, the lure of contracting for existing people and a huge surge in available jobs has lead to gaps in countless engineering teams UK wide.

 

Longevity in engineering roles appears to be dwindling due to the attractive financial packages now on offer elsewhere,  as well as a lot of companies offering more days based working patterns for similar salaries to shift-based roles.

 

It’ll be interesting to see how this develops in 2018 and how companies react. More apprenticeships may be the way to combat this in the long-term but, again, it is dependant on new people entering the market.

 

Are the robots coming?

 

Automation in the sector will be something that develops over time but how far away are we from seeing more ‘robots’ in our food and drink factories?

 

Robotics firm OAL secured investment in Februaryfor machines designed to reduce the costs of raw ingredients handling.

 

Warehousing will possibly see the biggest influx of robotic processes with the likes of Amazon already investing hugely in automation over the last 1-2 years.

 

How long will it be before the cost of these things comes down to the point where it makes more sense to invest than not?

 

2018 ‘megatrends’

 

Euromonitor International reported to Food Manufacture about the 8 ‘megatrends’ that their market research suggests will impact the industry.

 

Some really interesting info here including how they see the grocery side of things changing by 2021.

 

Take a look at the full article here

 

Processed foods and calorie reduction

 

Not exactly ‘new’ news but this is certainly something that shows no sign of slowing down.

 

Food manufacturers have been set a target to reduce calories by 20% by 2024 with several categories of food highlighted in particular.

 

This was on the back of a survey that showed just how much processed food the UK is consuming.

 

These things show just how much consumer trends are likely to change over the next few years. It could be expected that, as a nation, we will become more conscious about what and how we eat/drink and manufacturers will need to react accordingly.