Success in the UK mechanical engineering industry has not been easy to achieve in recent years, but its requirements can be simply stated. A successful UK-based engineering business must do difficult things and must do them well. We define “difficult things” as activities with high engineering content delivering products or processes with the following types of characteristic:

• High specification & demanding applications
• High entry barriers and well defended intellectual property
• Constant product development influencing customers designs
• Customer or regulatory approval difficult or expensive
• High degree of process know-how
• Difficult to replicate or transfer
• Serious consequences for product failure
• Demanding logistics requiring closeness to the customer