Digital technology, the solution to U.K. manufacturing’s workforce challenges

A skills shortage continues to plague the United Kingdom’s manufacturing sector, where about 49,000 jobs lay vacant at the end of April 2025.

In a mid 2024 survey of U.K. manufacturers, 97.5 percent of respondents said that finding and retaining skilled workers was a significant business challenge.

Hiring digital talent is especially problematic, because manufacturing companies must compete against other sectors that are perceived as more technologically advanced.

This means that even as they invest in robotics, artificial intelligence, advanced analytics and other digital solutions, manufacturers are unable to provision the specialized skills required to unlock the full value of those technologies.

Ironically, digital technology, which has contributed to the manufacturing skills crisis, could also provide a way out.

Addressing training needs through digitally enabled continuous learning

Training is the most important way of enhancing skills amongst the existing workforce.

With digital technologies evolving and becoming outdated at an unprecedented pace (their half-life is five years) manufacturers need to continually refresh workforce knowledge.

Standardized classroom-based teaching cannot meet the new expectations for highly personalized training delivered on the job in micro-modules, often exactly when needed, throughout an employee’s career.

Instead, manufacturers need AI-powered learning platforms that allow employees to decide the content, pace, and hours of learning.

Such platforms also democratize knowledge by making it easily accessible across the enterprise.

To prevent the tribal knowledge and expertise of retiring workers leaving the enterprise, manufacturers should capture it within knowledge management systems (or learning platforms), to be shared with others, including incoming employees.

Data gathered from connected operations can produce new insights, such as a shop floor best practice, which should be used to refresh training content.

Digital platforms also enable manufacturers to schedule and track training for new and existing employees.

Next, digital twins, which are optimizing operations and driving innovation in manufacturing companies, can also be used to enhance training.

Virtual replicas of physical infrastructure and processes offer a safe and interactive environment to train workers, especially those engaged in hazardous operations.

The use of virtual and mixed reality makes for immersive training, enhancing both learner engagement and knowledge retention.

Automating routine tasks to free employees from unproductive work

Even today, manufacturing workers spend significant time and effort on repetitive, low value adding tasks, such manual data entry, repeated material handling, redundant inspections, double-checking work, etc.

Automating these tasks can free up time that workers can devote to more important activities, such as innovating new solutions or solving complex shop floor issues.

It also allows employees to be upskilled and redeployed in other areas where there are crucial capability gaps.

For tasks that cannot be automated, digital workflow solutions can suggest ways to streamline processes, enabling them to be performed and monitored more efficiently.

Yet another way to free up precious employee bandwidth is predictive maintenance.

Advanced machine learning and predictive analytics solutions gather and process data from production assets and processes in real-time to identify equipment failure, bottlenecks, or other issues before they occur to not only improve equipment health and uptime, but also save employee time.

Adopting advanced technologies to attract next-generation workers

Talent acquisition and retention challenges are exacerbating the manufacturing industry’s skills crisis.

A 2023 survey found that 36 percent of manufacturers suffered attrition rates in excess of 10 percent among frontline workers during the preceding six months.

Safety was a top expectation of frontline employees, who also sought better work conditions by way of flexible scheduling, work-life balance, and ease of use in systems and technology.

The latest digital technologies can support all these requirements (recall how digital twins and automated maintenance improve worker safety) to improve employee satisfaction and loyalty.

What’s more, they can also give the manufacturing image a makeover, replacing visions of dirty, hazardous factories with clean, highly connected and smart operations to attract valuable next-gen talent.

A 2023 survey of American Gen Z workers illustrates this beautifully, while only 14 percent of respondents said they would choose to pursue a career in industrial work, 27 percent said they wanted to work for a company that used the latest technologies, including drones, AI, connected devices and virtual reality.

So, to acquire the best digital talent, U.K. manufacturers must provide a modern, digital environment and the opportunity to work with cutting edge tools and solutions.

Summing up

Three out of four U.K. manufacturers cite skills shortage as the top barrier to growth. Before fighting for fresh talent in a highly competitive market, organizations should optimize existing resources by reskilling and upskilling employees, and automating routine functions to reduce the demand for labor.

Technologies, ranging from AI to digital twins to analytics, can play a critical role here; they can also project manufacturing companies as digitally advanced workplaces to attract next-generation employees.

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