Manufacturing Leaders

Jason Pritchard: Transforming Personal Challenges into Leadership Success in UK Manufacturing

• Mark Bracknall • Season 9 • Episode 8

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Jason Pritchard shares his incredible journey from homelessness to becoming a prominent leader in the manufacturing tech sector, demonstrating the power of resilience and empathy in leadership. Topics explored include digital transformation, automation myths, the importance of data in decision-making, and the future of manufacturing jobs.

• Jason describes the significance of empathy in modern leadership 
• The importance of digital transformation for UK manufacturing 
• Common misconceptions about the costs of implementing new technology 
• The crucial role of data in enhancing operational efficiency 
• Insights on how automation can improve rather than eliminate jobs 
• Jason discusses upcoming innovations from Fit Factory and their vision for the future 

If you are interested in becoming our next guest on the Manufacturing Leaders Podcast drop us a message on Linked In. 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/theo-james-recruitment/?viewAsMember=true

Please subscribe to the channel for more content! Theo James are a Manufacturing & Engineering Recruiter based in the North East, helping Manufacturing and Engineering firms grow across the UK. Please call us on 0191 5111 298

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to an episode of the Manufacturing Leaders Podcast with me, mark Bracknell, marketing Director of Theo James Recruitment. Today we welcome on Jason Pritchard, the CEO of Fit Factory. This was an unbelievable episode and Jason's journey itself is inspirational Started off struggling at school, ended up unfortunately being homeless for a couple of months, and then fast forward to where he is today business leader of the year, multiple awards, helping hundreds of manufacturing and engineering companies through digital transformation. It was an unbelievable story and one I couldn't wait to record because I think it is perfect timing right now, with manufacturing engineering companies looking how they can automate, innovate and essentially improve their process within the factory. So we talk about all that. We talk about when to start this journey, how you start to automate your process, automate a factory, start to engage with that digital transformation, and actually how you start with a zero cost, and we really debunk some myths here about the cost implications of the digital transformation automation piece. So it's going to be one of those episodes where you're going to take a lot away, where you can actually start on this journey today, which is going to help you, which is going to help your staff, it's going to help your future staff and help trying to attract new people in your business.

Speaker 1:

I love this episode. It was brilliant. It was everything I hoped it would be, and more, and I'm sure you're going to enjoy it as well. So please sit back and listen or watch wherever you prefer to do, please, please, please, do me honor of just clicking that like and subscribe button. It really really helps grow the show and grow the channel. So thank you very much, very much. Hope you enjoy excellent. So a massive warm welcome today to jason bichard, the ceo of fit factory. How are you doing, jason? All right?

Speaker 2:

yeah, good thanks, mark.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for having me yeah, really looking forward this one mate. This, um, it's going to be a multi-faceted one. I'm uh, I couldn't wait for this episode, so, uh, it's a no pressure, but uh, first question is the same question. I ask everyone what does it mean to you to be a leader?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I was having to think about this sort of. What does it mean for me to be a leader? I think the main things for me, I think, are about inspiring and empowering my team to be able to achieve the goals that we set as a business. I think leadership is not just about the authority or the control. It's about the influence, the guidance and, mainly, the support that you can provide to people. I see my role as a leader at Fit Factory is ultimately to provide support to the team to be able to do the jobs that they're employed to do. Um. I spend a lot of my day is working with people, um, and and I think for me, being a leader is being able to be that person that they can turn to when they need to um give them the empowerment to do what they want to. They want to do um knowing that they're accountable for it. But including sort of empathy as a big part of being a leader is understanding and empathy to the team.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that empathy piece is interesting, isn't it? Because I don't think that would have been a trait that leaders would have probably mentioned 20 years ago, but it's arguably probably one of the most important ones now, that emotional intelligence piece, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, massively so. And I think for us in um, in the tech sector, um, we've got a lot of uh, younger, uh sort of generation coming through who who love tech and they want to work in the tech sector, um, and it's so important to have that balance and also to empathize with them a lot. That life is hard yeah, it is um, and being able to sort of be compassionate with them through the struggles they're going through, but also coach them and guide them to be able to sort of better themselves and ultimately, obviously do better for the business. But, um, I think it's much, much more prevalent now to be an empathetic leader yeah, 100 agree, so I want to.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to. Hopefully we'll understand a lot more about fit factory and how that benefits the manufacturing sector. Obviously, the bulk of my audience will be from. I think it'll be um important to understand a bit more about you and your journey. Um, I've read a bit about your journey. It's inspiring as well, and I think I've you know I'd be amiss not to sort of talk through that, because I think what you've you know, uh, what you've achieved is, is fantastic. Um, is there a reason you picked an award for t's valley sort of business leader of the year? Is that recent, was it?

Speaker 2:

yeah, that was recent. So this year when t's tech leader um of the year for for 2024, following last year when we won tech company of the year, um, and also this year was uh voted in the top 100 inspiring business leaders for engineering and manufacturing in the uk which is a bit of a surprise, but yeah, nice to have 100, and I think that's it's important to know that.

Speaker 1:

To go right back to the start, do you know me in terms of you know where you start from, so tell us a bit about that. I mean, what, what was? What did you think you'd be in this position at some one stage in your, in your life?

Speaker 2:

I mean early on? No, definitely not. Um. So when I left school, um, I left with no, no qualifications, so I'm dyslexic. Uh, struggled at school, smart enough but just couldn't put it down on paper. Um, and then, after after leaving school, hit a few hard times, struggled, um, ended up for a month two being homeless, um, sleeping on a park bench, before I eventually sort of got a council flat. And at that, that point, no, there was no chance. I thought I would have been where I am now.

Speaker 2:

But struggled for a few years after leaving school and eventually, somewhere inside, just this internal drive came to say I've got to do better than this. And then what happened is sort of over, I think from the age of 22, I'd set myself some goals and said look, by the time I'm 30, I want to be a director of a company. I didn't know what, in no clue, didn't know how, but I just thought in my head at that age was well, they earn more money, so that's what I want to do. And then some further goals sort of were by the time I'm 40, I want to be financially free. And then the final one was by the time I'm 50, I'd like to sort of be knighted and again in for what I don't know. But I know I'm getting to the point where I enjoy giving back and I enjoy helping the community and working with them. So so that's something that will probably come.

Speaker 2:

But if I sort of go back to the early stages, was I just worked in sales, found some jobs working in sales, was really good at it, and then noticed that I was quite good at training people how to sell. So I worked my way up the ladder in website sales, seo content, into kitchen sales, like to business for a large company, and then eventually sort of took a switch into software and I actually joined a company where I was doing implementations of software, training engineering companies how to use ERP systems. Never used them in my life, didn't even know what they were when I got the job, but I was like I can train people. So I remember sitting in a hotel room on a night learning about works orders and bills of material and then going into a company the next day training them on the works orders and bills of material. It was crazy.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, I succeeded in that which I don't know, that that drive of really wanting to do better I succeeded in that, pushed myself hard, I learned. The processes came, process improvement came, quite natural, I think. Maybe being dyslexic, we think slightly, and I think that's a power that we've got, and along that with a fantastic memory. And then that company sort of hit a bit of a downturn and it was struggling and I put my hand up and said, well, I can sell and I now know why the engineering companies use the software, I know how they use the software, I know why it's important to them. And, um, put my hand up and started selling the product and then within three months was made sales director, which was a bit annoying because it was three months after my 30th birthday. I missed, I missed my goal can't with them them all.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you can't. And then I did that for a few years before being headhunted to come here Nearly four years ago now. I was asked to sort of come and join and grow the company and join as a CCO. I was here for two, three months before they asked me to be the CEO and since that period we've grown nearly 40% year on year. I led the company through an acquisition last year by a private equity firm and this year again we're on for circa 30% growth. So we've turned the business around from a loss-making business to a profitable business in the space of just under four years. Amazing, I've got an amazing team, which I think has been sort of the catalyst. We've gone from a 70% staff turnover rate to a 0% staff turnover in the last 18 months and I think that consistency has helped. Um, so yeah, really, I would never have thought I would have been in this position, but I love it yeah, and you know what, what I love?

Speaker 1:

I love so much about the story, but what I love so much about it is the fact that you mentioned there about you know, struggling at school because there's dyslexia. But what I hear there is that just wasn't your environment, that just wasn't your environment to prosper, and I think it's almost everything. Everything that's wrong with, still is wrong with schools and the curriculum, where we just try to to be taught how to pass a test. If you pass the test, your class is successful and so on, so forth. And uh, I think I think we're at a stage now he's you perhaps might see less people go to university because of the, the debt, and I I kind of hope that is the case, because I I don't think it's. I went there, but I went there for reasons. I don't think it's the best path for everyone. You're just someone who found found your niche and fine environment and by sound, you just work bloody hard to get where you are today yeah, there was a lot of ups and downs, even even through that that journey, as anybody would have.

Speaker 2:

But I think I remember somebody asked me sort of was there a point where I knew the career that I was going to take and this and it's helped me to get to where I am? So I said no, there wasn't. It's been like a catalyst. There's multiple different points in my life I can pinpoint that have taught me something and got me to this point where I'm at today. I think things like the empathy part.

Speaker 2:

I had some really rubbish jobs. I remember being in a call center having to do nearly 350 calls a day on a dialing system and it was demoralising. It was a really bad environment to be in and I hated getting up for work. And that's something now that I know and I talk to my team about constantly is I don't want anybody to have that Sunday night dread. I want everybody to enjoy working here. We've got goals to hit, but what can we do to make it an enjoyable place? What can we do to give you the work-life balance? And it's more about what I can do for them to make them happy, because if they're happy, then it has shown that they'll work harder, they'll push that extra boundary occasionally when it's needed, and they do a good job, a really good job, to be fair. So I think, because I do a good job for them that's my job is to make them happy and help them to be productive.

Speaker 1:

They do a good job in return, and help them to be productive, they do a good job in return. Yeah, do you think you have a sort of bigger spectrum of empathy or emotional intelligence because of the place you've been to, in terms of where you've come from? Do you think that that is in some way helped who you are today?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think sort of a lot of it, since going through the acquisition and then this sort of year and last year being a big transitional year and winning the acquisition, and then this sort of year and last year being a big transitional year and winning the awards and getting quite a bit of recognition, a lot of people telling me that I'm doing a great job and that my story is amazing. I say, but everybody's got a story, yeah, and everybody's got their own struggles and their own difficulties that they have to go through, and but people sort of go no, but yours is a bit different, it's not not the normal one. I was like well, yeah, but there isn't a normal one.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's just yours, it's just mine and, yeah, definitely the stuff that I've been through at times is I would never want anybody to go through. So if I can help avoid that and help them avoid that, then I'm definitely going to do it.

Speaker 1:

I think everyone has a story, but not everyone uses it to help others and to inspire others, and essentially, that's what you're doing. If you think your biggest goal now is what you've talked about, that comes from helping others on a really big scale and that's what you're going for. That's not intrinsic, that's pure from helping the people. So I and that's what you're going for that you know that's not, that's not intrinsic, you know that's pure from helping the people. So I think you know that's just amazing and I'm really fascinated by the business and I'm really fascinated. You know it's not a company that I'm connected to, you know at all. So you know we can speak really openly about, you know what involves and it's no certain not to sell.

Speaker 1:

But I think, from what I know about it, it couldn't be more ready the sector, because if I think about the challenges now manufacturing has. The biggest challenge is the fact that we are losing ground and losing market share of manufacturing to other nations. We can use China, can use whoever you want, but we are and we're getting hammered by price and all the conversations I have now in terms of okay, that is the case, that probably isn't going to change, what can we do. Well, we've got to innovate and we've got to get people to understand how good the UK is within manufacturing because of its innovation, its process, its technology. So I think it's perfect timing for what you do, would you mind just?

Speaker 2:

giving a brief overview of what the business does. So people have got a bit of understanding of that. Yeah, um, so we, we provide, uh, digital software to help engineering and manufacturing companies um, improve their processes. So we refer to something called scale, and we help companies scale through digital transformation. What that stands for is streamline, so streamline your processes and your operations, get rid of waste, get rid of duplication. Then connect, so connect your people, plant, products and processes. So you've got a connected business. Then analyze it. That's the main thing. So, once you've got that data is to get data that you can analyze and you can make real time decisions based on the information you receive it. And then you use that information to level up your customer service, to level up your delivery, your on time performance, and use that data. And then you want to we class as extending your ecosystem. So we've got over 400 engineering and manufacturing companies who use our software, predominantly smes.

Speaker 2:

So then it's about connecting those businesses together to try and create a circular economy of shared work. They're all in engineering and manufacturing. They all offer different types of processes to each other. They can all add value to each other, but maybe they don't know each other exists because they're focused on keeping their head above water. They're focused on making some profit. Some profit would be nice, some profit out of the parts that they make. So for me, it's, then, about allowing those engineering companies to connect with each other. So, whether it's a heat, a heat treatment company connecting with a precision parts company, that they don't know each other exist but they can, they can work with each other. Um, that, that would be my end goal is to be able to create that um extended ecosystem and fit factory customers and allow them to share that, that work between each other nice, I like that.

Speaker 1:

So you're connecting a real network which again gets back to pulling on the uk is about how else that we should be able to do that and that collaboration piece. Um, I mean, in your opinion, where is the uk now compared to the rest of the world?

Speaker 2:

we say so it's a tricky one. So we I also do advisory work for make uk um in the northeast and also the northern automotive alliance um around digital transformation and you've got some really big players. You've got the big boys, the oems, who they're quite savvy with their digital um but they've got the money to be able to spend with that. If we look at the supply chain of sort of tier two and tier three, they really are struggling. There was a survey that was run I can't remember when it was, but I think it was last year but effectively we're ranked quite far down.

Speaker 2:

The digital adoption route in Europe, especially in Europe, isn't the highest in the world. So we've got a lot of work to do. If we look at our competitors in Europe, likes of Germany et cetera, they've got things that are in place by the government which help. So they've got an industry plan, a standardized industry plan that doesn't change with government, and we need to get something like that in place because what that will do is it will give the engineering companies confidence to say, well, we can now start to invest. If that strategy changes for who's in power or who's looking after that department, it doesn't give them the confidence to go and invest in digital doesn't give them the the confidence to invest in upskilling um and there's no strategy for how we we fix that, that skills gap um in in the sector. But it also doesn't have any strategy for how we bridge that gap in digital transformation.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's no consistency there. No, I completely hear you there. Do you think for a company or companies not utilising the digital side now, do you think the barrier is cost or education of how it works, would you say?

Speaker 2:

I think for me it's education how it works, would you say. I think for me it's education how it works. I think there was a whole thing three years ago, four years ago still gets banded around now industry four. Um, I was never a fan of the term it, it was jargon. That was, yeah, yeah, scaring people it didn't really make any sense and then they talk about iot, these areongering people.

Speaker 2:

It didn't really make any sense. And then they talk about IoT. These are all buzzwords that we don't really like to use here. We keep it simple and we keep the language simple, and it's a lack of education for a lot of companies to go. Well, actually, if I can automate a process using a bit of technology and that's my biggest pain at the moment can that make me slightly more efficient? Can it improve my margin slightly more? If it can, great. If it can't, then look elsewhere.

Speaker 2:

There's so many, I would say, archaic systems in place that companies have had for such a long time that potentially work for them in one aspect, but they don't work for them in the rest of the business. So therefore, they've got a shop floor that's disconnected to the main office. So the main office don't know what's going on on the shop floor. They can't see live job costing, they can't see live scrap shop floor, they can't see live job costing, they can't see live scrap rates, they can't see live machine utilization and all of the things that actually cost the business money, um, that they can correct are on the shop floor, yeah, and yet it's the most disconnected area of the business and it doesn't need to cost hundreds of thousands. It doesn't even need to cost tens of thousands. There's software out there to suit any business and any business's budget. There's free software out there. There's free software out there that would improve what people do.

Speaker 1:

And that was going to be my question, because, you know, take now, for example. Budgets come out recently, change at NI. Let's say it's costed a company 75 people strong, so it costs an additional 90 to 100 grand. They've probably gone oof. We can't recruit now, we can't grow. We've got to get more process-driven, which could end up being a positive for the business. Not good for me, but good for the business, potentially so. But let's say that company is, is a, you know, galvanized, galvanizes steel for the construction industry. You know, um, potentially quite old school in terms of its process. It might not do, it'll do some batch work, but not, uh, you know some bespoke of as well. What if you're advising a company like that and they'd really had no education behind it? What? What would be the first steps you'd take if they said we know we need to automate, but budgets are tight. What would be the sort of starter pack, if you like?

Speaker 2:

So the first thing that we would look at is we're trying to assess where they're losing most of their money, where they're the most inefficient. That could be on their shop floor, or it could be in the quality department or it could be in the office, depending where that is. We'll then sort of deep dive and look at okay, if we were to improve your processing, from order entry in to invoice out and remove the duplication, for example, prime part could be let's say there's a bottleneck in purchasing and purchasing department. Their job is they're just raising purchase orders day on day and they haven't got a foresight of what orders have already been agreed in the pipeline that are coming next month or four weeks down the line and they're not pre-planning their purchasing because they haven't got visibility of it and they're not going to look for. They haven't got time to go and look for best pricing, um, with maybe a slightly increased lead time. They haven't got time to aggregate their purchasing so they can get a better buying power.

Speaker 2:

Find a lot of companies then pay because they're doing it, so such short notice, they end up paying multiple delivery charges and they get multiple deliveries day after day from a steel provider. All of these are quick wins that you can go. Well, let's automate this part of your business and let's improve that process so we can streamline the sending of a purchase order, because that's really simple but actually we can then get your team, who are procurement specialists, to actually reduce and save you money in in the quantities that they're buying. Can they get a better buying power with a longer lead time. Can they reduce your delivery cost so you you're not paying that and you can get um a better profit margin on that. And these are areas that businesses don't look at all the time because they're constantly so busy just trying to get the orders through the system that they haven't got time to look at themselves on where they can do process improvement.

Speaker 1:

And I guess the next step from there, if a company did have some investment behind them or had some cash to go, we're going to spend to get some real ROI. What are the real meaty things that you can see, making you know real difference? What do you say?

Speaker 2:

the really meaty things that we're seeing at the moment is the improvement on on the shop floor. So machine utilization is a big one. So we won um best innovation product with make uk last year um for our machine monitoring. But there's other machine monitoring systems out there that exist and what they do is they measure the energy consumption of your machines when they're working, but they also tell you whether they're working, whether they're not and whether they should be.

Speaker 2:

We've got there's AI tools.

Speaker 2:

We've got AI tools built into the back of ours which will help to optimize schedule. There's AI tools We've got AI tools built into the back of ours which will help to optimize schedule so it can plan jobs based on energy consumption and energy cost at times. So, for example, if you've got a heavy part that needs to be done by X date, if you can rejig your schedule and do it in a more costeffective period where they're using renewable energies et cetera, so your rate is cheaper but still get it out on time. These are areas where they can improve. But also we find a lot of companies say that their machines are 100% efficient or utilized say 100% utilized where actually they're only 60% efficient and they're not quite familiar or sure how that's happening, um so by having a better optimized schedule which looks at um similar parts that are coming down the pipeline, so you have to minimize tool changes, etc. These are all things that will give them a an added value and allow them to make more profit at the end of the job.

Speaker 1:

Interesting. I think you might find companies who have some anxiety, or have you ever had any companies that had some anxiety behind? We want this, but we haven't got anyone on site. I'll be able to use this tech and do you know, is that? Is that something you come across?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, all the time Because they're not sure what a lot of companies aren't really sure what they can actually do with the data that they get. So what we tried? Well, what we actually do is we'll, we'll sit with the companies and most tech companies will do.

Speaker 2:

This is they'll sit with the companies and they'll understand what.

Speaker 2:

What's the core information they need to see which is going to make an impact to the bottom line, and we'll get rid of the rest of the noise.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you don't need a rocket ship, there's no point in giving you a rocket ship if you just need a Ford to get you from A to B. And the real good thing around sort of scalable software in modules is, historically you would have to buy a CD-R-rom which would have the piece of software on it, you would install it on your server and you have this big behemoth of a product. Now you can have really small modules to suit little areas within the business and get iterative improvements. And we we use the term land and expand because then once you start to see that benefit of that small process that's helped your quality control management area, then they start looking well, actually my bottleneck or my issues move from there and it's now over here. What piece of software do you have for that? But it's about also tailoring the information that they have so it's actual data that they can use and will have an impact on them.

Speaker 1:

Apologies for interrupting this podcast with a very quick 30-second description of my business. Theo James are an engineering and manufacturing recruitment search firm based in Durham. We specialize in contracts and permanent opportunities from blue-collar semi-skilled roles right the way up to C-suite level exec positions. From blue-collar semi-skilled roles right the way up to C-suite level exec positions. If you're looking for any new, additional staff or new opportunity for yourself in the industry, please contact me or the team. There'll be a specialist in your area waiting to help. I'm incredibly proud of this business and what we've built since our inception in 2015. And I would love to extend that service out to you. So thank you very much. Hope you enjoy the episode. And typically, who in the business do you think should lead this type of stuff? What do you say?

Speaker 2:

It depends. It needs to have buy-in from the top down. Yeah, it really does need to have buy-in from the top down and an understanding as to why it's being done and why it's being worked on. But we're looking at people. We deal with anybody from production managers, operations managers, general managers, directors but then also we're dealing with a lot of businesses now, family-run businesses. Maybe it's a son or daughter who have come into the business early 20s, maybe late 20s, and they've got a knack for software and they understand it and they've got an interest, which is the main. They've got an interest in it and we're finding that they're our fastest accelerating companies.

Speaker 2:

We had a post come online this morning actually which was from one of our customers who had used software before, but they've now introduced our system in and replaced it and they were struggling to hit 70% on-time delivery and this month now they've managed to achieve I think it was like 93% on-time delivery. But that was the owner took took ownership of that. He just knew that he wanted to improve that and give a better service, um, and he took the ownership to make sure that he got it implemented and up and running. I think sometimes in the smaller businesses the owner knows exactly what it is they want to achieve. And you talk about a leader go outside their comfort zone. Maybe software isn't their comfort zone, but they're showing their team. I'm going to come out my comfort zone here. I'm going to learn this piece of software and I'm going to learn how it can improve our business yeah, I imagine once it's implemented, one you've gone.

Speaker 1:

Once you've gone through that, I guess you know initial pain to get things running. It must be so much easier for for people in the business leaders, engineers, maintenance staff, whoever's is to make decisions based on that data. That must be eureka moment when that's cracked.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, that's sort of the biggest type of feedback that we get. It's not the software does obviously improve what they do, but it's that visibility that they say to us wow, we've been doing this job for 15 years and we didn't know we were really losing money on it. Or we didn't know the runtime was actually five hours instead of three hours, or it's five hours but we're always quoting six, seven hours and we're at risk of losing that job because we're over-quoting on it. And another company down the road say it only takes them five hours and they've got the data to back it up and we've always quoted it at seven hours.

Speaker 2:

But actually we didn't know it actually only took us five hours. These are stories that we hear all the time from businesses saying well, I know my business, I know how it runs, we've got our spreadsheets, maybe We've got our paper-based systems and we run a cost analysis after the horse has bolted and the job's already out the door.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, because that has to be the goal, doesn't it? If you can get better projects, send you on board which can be quicker, more cost-effective, high margins. That must be the end goal for everyone. It's great to look nice, but you've got to use this information for your advantage, isn't it? Something like that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and what you find even more so now is that the more that businesses were pushing towards net zero, the bigger supply chain companies are saying well, I want the data from you, I want to know how efficient you are, I want to know what the carbon output of this part is and I want to know what systems you've got in place.

Speaker 2:

I want to know that you're reliable and I want to see that data. And it's okay saying we've got a system in place and it works and sometimes you can show them. But what we're now finding is companies are wanting to connect to that data and they're saying well, actually, if you've got a system in place, we want to be able to connect to it. Prime example when that comes is you've got a big tier one or an OEM that's got a big system in place and they want to automate sending purchase orders to you. They don't want somebody sending them, so they want to create a link into your system so they can automatically send purchase orders from theirs and it creates an order in yours yeah and then, when you deliver it in your system, it automatically sends their system a notification to say that it's on its way and it's being delivered.

Speaker 2:

These are things that they're pushing for, because they're wanting to automate as well.

Speaker 1:

Um, even further yeah, I, I um spent quite a bit of time with uh chapwell, phil hackinson, who's the md of bts fabrication, and they've done amazing stuff on their sustainability that they, for me, they were trailblazers really in terms of the industry. They did it before most, and he was explaining to me which I had no idea about that you know, if you get assessed, you know you can be carbon neutral, you can hit your own own, but until your supply chain is with you it's almost pointless. So and I had no idea about that it's huge, isn't it? And that's the biggest percentage of people's carbon footprint. Is the supply chain? Isn't it Massive?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's interesting. So that's why we went down the route of developing our machine monitoring software. Initially it was to get overall equipment efficiency, so the oee of the machines. But then we we sort of figured out well, actually we're doing it through electrical current, so then what we can do is we can actually convert that current into a carbon output as well as a cost. But we can get, we can get an estimated carbon output and then if we track the life of that part and it's been on this machine, this machine, this machine we get a collective carbon footprint when it leaves the factory. What we were then finding is it was actually going from maybe one of our customers, who was a precision engineer, to a heat treatment company who also used our software, to a painting company who also used our software, and we were then able to sort of get that collective carbon footprint and then give a better scope.

Speaker 2:

Three is effectively that particular area. Yeah, and give the OEMs or the tier ones Right. This is from point of conception when it started and it's gone for this service, this service, this service before it's at you, and that's when we talk about that extended ecosystem. And that's when we talk about that extended ecosystem. We want to then be able to use that collective power of a connected supply chain and speak to the tier ones and the OEMs and say, well, look, we've got a connected supply chain that can offer you this whole service and you can get a carbon footprint from it, because it tracks it from point of delivery to you, and hopefully we'll then be able to start winning uh, allowing that supply chain to win work so our customers to work based on their connectivity yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1:

It's scope three. That was it. I know it's a term I can forget, it's go. Three is that you mentioned that sustainability piece and obviously, um, you know there is still funding available for that. They might have cut us for everything else, but they're still so funny for that. The um just it can. Can companies, to your knowledge, utilize any funding to this and the data piece and what have you is that? Is that something they could look at?

Speaker 2:

yeah, there's still. There's still quite a bit of funding around um. So you've still got the made smarter fund um, which is a national fund um for engineering and manufacturing companies to tap into where they can go on cohorts and training courses they can get an understanding of where they are digitally and then they can apply for some funding. I think it's match funding up to sort of 50 000 I think on some projects and that's purely on digital transformation to make things smarter. So that's there. Some of the councils still have funding available for digital transformation. And then we work on some of the bigger projects with some of our customers through Innovate UK. So if we're looking at things like the machine monitoring we actually did with three or four of our customers as a cohort, we applied through Innovate UK to develop the product. They then get the product out, the end of it, but it's built for the market and they were allowed to be case studies for us and help us direct in what we needed to build for them.

Speaker 1:

Nice, excellent. I also think the timing of all this could be better because, again, what's the challenge of manufacturing? Skill shortages, not enough. Good, you know, young people coming through. Young people want to be involved in tech. They want automation, you know they don't. I think engineering still has a bit of a connotation of of just a dirty john blue overalls, and that doesn't necessarily have to be the case. You now, there's some really sexy roles out there. Do you know what I mean? People can be involved in. So I think this is where that data, this is where companies can again use this type of stuff to their advantage, because young people now want to be part of this type of stuff as well, don't they?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean we've seen an increase in our customer base. Um, we do some work with universities, we do work with colleges so we allow them to use our software, um to to upskill sort of students whilst whilst they're learning their their um apprenticeships or their degrees, and that works really well for us because they then leave that environment and join a business in practice and they're able to say, well, actually, like there are software out there that can help improve this and what it does. In essence, obviously, it makes a business much more functional and much more profitable. Um, because you're removing waste, which engineering and manufacturing has been great at doing through Lean and Six Sigma and those processes of reducing waste on the shop floor, but they've never been great at reducing waste in administrative tasks. Yeah, and this is where technology can allow them to really fly, and then what it allows them to do is focus on what we say is more added value activities.

Speaker 2:

So we talk about procurement as an example, rather than just sending purchase orders, because that can just be automated Once you know what you need to buy and you've got a supply chain that you're going to buy from.

Speaker 2:

My procurement team really should be focused on getting me the best possible price, the best delivery profile with the cheapest delivery options and really trying to maximize my spending power. Same for quoting is a lot of companies, if they do repeat parts and things like that, maybe they haven't got an up-to-date price on what it actually cost them. So what they end up doing is they end up quoting it at the price they sold it for last time, not knowing that it actually made a loss because they needed to do some amendments. Um, and by having all of that rolled in and say we'll actually use the last price that it it it cost me and put that in and then I'll put my uplift and margin on it and automate that process. These are all sort of quick wins that companies don't really know that can be added through using tech yeah, I completely agree.

Speaker 1:

What's the risk of not adopting tech, in your opinion?

Speaker 2:

um, I think we'll be left behind. Yeah, um, yeah, I think. And we will be left behind through lack, not through the lack of skills that we've got and the parts that we can push out, but the lack of connectivity that people want. We're in a day and age now that, if you think about historically, you would order something online I use that as an example. You'd have to wait in all day. Nobody wants to wait in all day anymore. They want to know that my driver's two stops away and I've got enough time to get back.

Speaker 2:

So, as consumers naturally it doesn't matter whether it's a business-to-business consumer and work they want that real-time information. They want to know what's going on, how efficient you are. They want that data when they want it. They don't want to wait to come and audit you. They don't want to wait to find and audit you. They don't want to wait to know that you're like to find out that you're going to be late. They want that information live and as fast as possible.

Speaker 2:

And that's just going to become more and more and more, because ultimately, we're dealing with humans and it doesn't. We take our own habits from our day-to-day life, we bring them into work and you and you sit and you say, well, why do I need to sit and wait in all day? I wouldn't and and that would stop me from buying somebody. I don't know about you, but if you had two choices of delivery, one that said, right, well, you have to wait in all day, and it's eight and eight. Or one that said we'll give you, give you half an hour time slot of when it's going to be delivered. Maybe one was 10 pounds more, 20 pounds more, sit there, I need to be out that day. So I'm going to pick that one because that's going to be more convenient for me yeah, yeah when you get into business yeah, 100.

Speaker 1:

I, I completely agree. I, what? What do you say? The people who, which they do go automation is is is going to be the death of, so it's going to be death of jobs, do you mean? When you get that myth, when you get people saying that, what in reality do you see in 15, 20 years time, manufacturing engineering looking like once this has been fully adopted? Do you think?

Speaker 2:

um, I think, ideally it. It for me, I would hope and I would expect it to go down the route of it's not about replacing jobs, it's allowing the people to do the people part better. Ok, that's really what it should be. There's no need to spend the time on the phone phoning around your suppliers to check what's happening anymore. So actually what you can do is it will allow you to forge better relationships. It'll allow you to spend time on the stuff that's important customer relationships, supplier relationships, people relationships and I think using technology will enhance that. And what actually I would hope is we'll take away the mundane stuff that can be done by computers and we then introduce the stuff that can't be done by computers that personal, personal relationships, that personal connectivity, um, and ultimately it will still be people buy from people.

Speaker 2:

Um, you build those long-term foundations based on the people and the trust that you build with them. So I would hope and expect that actually it will. It will improve that. It will reduce that. We're so busy blinkers on, we need to get this order out. I can't speak to them anymore because I've got to send this order out. Then I've got to follow up with this task, and that can all be done now, and actually now we can focus on the people side and build in stronger relationships.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I completely agree, like I know everything said there, because it's even, like you know, in a world where which there probably will be where you can pick up the phone and, let's say that supplier is, let's say there is a robot. If it is a robot and I know it's a robot it doesn't care how well they communicate. I don't want to speak to them. Do you know what I mean? I still want that, because I'll just feel that this isn't real. I want to speak to a human being, but if that human being is armed with information and data to make our conversation a higher level, it's a win-win. So I completely agree.

Speaker 2:

I think we go back to when we talk about leadership and that's empathy and empowerment and things. At this moment in time you've've got ai, you've got all these things. I think we're far away from that, especially with the, the industries we're talking about, sme, engineering and manufacturing um, they're never going to be able to have that empathy. And I would do exactly the same. I don't want to speak to a robot. I don't want to speak to an ai chatbot. I want to speak to a person. Yeah, um, that's where we're going to do do the business. That's where we're going to get to know each other.

Speaker 2:

Um, and I think that just empowering the people to have that information at the touch of their fingertips and get rid of the mundane stuff, um, you'll get better productivity from people. They'll add more value to the business because they'll they'll be able to build stronger relationships, whether that's through increasing orders, whether that's a now increase in profit margins, whether that's a reduction in your spend through better relationships with these suppliers. This is stuff that we see on a daily basis through the companies that we are working with and we have digitalized is that they don't lose jobs. In fact, they win more work and they make more profit and they get better buying power and they can send the jobs out faster and more on time and they've got happier customers. You rarely, rarely see an MD who's bought some software from us, buying it to replace people's jobs, because that's not what it's there to do. It's to make their people's jobs easier so they can do more added value activities for the business.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, 100%. The final question I was going to ask you, which you probably answered anyway, so I might test you if you think of anything else. But are there any myths that we haven't debunked in this episode that frustrate you, that you hear on a wiggly basis that just just aren't true?

Speaker 2:

if you're ready to be fair, well, I'll probably say something a bit controversial because of base or everything that we've is that technology will transform your business? It won't, and the reason why I say it won't is it won't if you just expect it to do it on its own. You have to be involved in that. It needs the people side of it. And we do get a lot of companies who contact us, who have contacted us, who want to buy the piece of software and they just think it's going to revolutionize their business with no effort from them. Because I know it's a piece of software. It's only as good as the information you put in it. So if you put crap in, you get crap out. It's right, it's there to be used as a tool to make things better. Yeah, it's not going to solve of your problems if your problems are people problems.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. It's a bit like you hire someone to do a role. It doesn't mean you need someone to work with them. You know, hire a marketeer, it doesn't mean you just hire them and go right, get me more work. You have to work with them, give them information for them to be creative, to do so. You can't just leave them, leave them to crack on and do so. It's the same, isn't it? It's uh same with data. It's got a. It's that collaboration piece. You know, I think that's a. That's a really, really good bit to one. I think that's superb. Um, just finally, in terms of the fit factory, you've already mentioned some exciting stuff on the risings. What's the next sort of 12 to 18 months looking like?

Speaker 2:

I think for us, the next 12 to 18 months is continuous growth. We've got some new products that are coming out next year to again help the engineering manufacturing companies in areas that we see that we're still lacking in our offering. The technology changes so fast. It's crazy, um, and we need to be able to get um enough of an upkeep on it to mean that we're not constantly changing it for customers. So we've got to build that um sort of core base which will be there for 10-15 years um, and it will allow it to improve but not go out of date um. So yeah, we've got some really exciting products that we'll be launching next year. Um again continuous growth, um, as we have been. Really just much of the same, I think yeah, I love you, man.

Speaker 1:

Look, thank you so much because I I was looking for this episode. It certainly didn't did not disappoint, because I just knew it would add value. Because I just think the timing right now it couldn't be better, because companies are, you know, some companies are really struggling. You know some companies have suddenly got, you know, big old payrolls and you know the can's getting kickstill and projects and it's a difficult times for businesses.

Speaker 1:

This is a time sometimes you have to look to change things to be more efficient. So I think the thing, the stuff you've talked about today will definitely raise some fear that these things have to cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. You have to wait 10 years to get return investment. You know you can start small, build it up and then gradually, gradually start to build the better things and I think that's important people to know and it needs to happen, because I'm really passionate about uk manufacturing and it just pains me right now to see the way it's going. I don't someone a few weeks ago I said she reckons we've got two years to turn around and I and I agree and I think she mentioned it herself what, what will change it? Digital transformation, because we can be the best at that and, uh, you know, I think you've, uh, you've communicated that perfectly. What's the best at that and I think you've communicated that perfectly what's the best way to find you, would you say, to sort of engage with you or the business?

Speaker 2:

I think for us. You can visit our website, so that's fitfactorycom. You can follow us on social media. Not to be confused with the gym, there's also a bit of factory technologies.

Speaker 1:

There's a franchise in america called fit factory, which is a gym, and they won't help, but not the business you're good man and um, and you have kindly said you bet you will be one of the speakers at the event I'm running on the 15th of may. So it's the first time I've talked about this podcast, so I'm looking forward to that. So thank you, jason. We appreciate it, man.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Thanks, Mark.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Manufacturing Leads podcast. It absolutely means the world to me. Please let me know if you need any assistance. As a business, we look at providing partnerships with manufacturing engineering companies to really help their recruitment and retention. On the recruitment piece anywhere from blue-collar semi-skilled staff right the way up to C-suite level executive appointments, but also much more than that we run events. So please let me know if you're interested in any of those.

Speaker 1:

If you are interested in becoming a podcast guest, we'd be very, very keen to speak to you as well. More than happy to do so. But as a business, as I say, we look at key partnerships to really help your recruitment, your retention, your marketing, your training. We really believe in the partnership piece and being an extension of your business, so we're very proud to work in this sector. I love manufacturing engineering and my staff are just as passionate about it as I am, so thank you once again for listening. Please get in touch to talk about anything we can do to help. Look forward to speaking to you very soon. Thank you.