Section A: UK Manufacturing: Impact of Technological change

Impact of Technological Change 

Benefits

Improved Quality- Robots at Nissan Sunderland are used for welding car body parts together. This reduces the chance of human error which leads to less rework which may be one reason why productivity is around the highest in Europe. As they use internal customer care there is less chance of the paint shop returning car bodies for inaccurate welds. 

Increased productivity and lower production costs. CCE use CAM to produce 2000 cans per minute using less energy. The latest canning line can work faster due to increased technology thus one canning line has replaced the previous two. Reduced energy cost is one key benefit of their latest CAM equipment lowering unit costs. This enables CCE to offer stable prices to customer like Asda who seek to keep down costs due to price elastic supermarket industry. 

Enables better products to be development/ product differentiation. Could increase sales if new technology is embraced or decrease sales if left behind. Nissan U have developed the latest Lithium-ion battery technology allowing a faster charge time and a greater driving range of 123 miles before recharging. This provides a USP through their innovation- the second generation Leaf is far superior and gives Nissan first mover advantage, launching one- increaing sales and reputatin and enabling them to command at £28,000 price tag. Likewise BAE systems moving into pilotless aircraft enables them to differentiate (Porter).

Removal of waste. 3D printing is where products are made from the molecule upwards rather than cut of existing sheets of metal so there is no wasted material. Moreover 3D printing allows prototypes to be gradually adjusted and printed with lower costs e.g. BAE systems are trying to make plane parts lighter by experimenting with different structures within metal components like wings. Rather than build each prototype by traditional methods e.g. setting up tooling for CNC machine or making a mould to make one component (high set up costs) they can instead print out a 3D prototype and test it. Eventually this will enable them to make aircraft lighter, allowing BAE to differentiate further from…