Cambridge Manufacturing Engineering students have a long tradition of visiting areas of great importance to global manufacturing, presenting honest and challenging findings about current manufacturing trends. This year their international study programme is investigating the current and future development of industry in India.

Objectives

This year the tour will focus on India’s emerging manufacturing sector. By exploring three areas that underpin India's competitive advantage, we will be able to identify the following: 

• Opportunities for UK companies to invest in India and work in partnership with Indian firms.
• Potential threats to UK industry as Indian manufacturing expands and begins to muscle in on UK areas of expertise.
• The knowledge to be gained from India's successes and failures during its economic expansion to date.
• What to expect from India's manufacturing and service industries in the future.

Focus

The tour will concentrate on three areas in particular:

Sustainability versus growth

India's manufacturing sector is in its infancy; can sustainable manufacturing practices and manufacturing sector growth be achieved simultaneously?
We will be exploring industrial strategies for issues of growth and sustainability, identifying priorities and real and perceived trade-offs. Examples of factors affecting industrial sustainability will be sought, identifying key trends.

The parallels between the service industry and manufacturing

India has a booming service sector. Can the manufacturing industry benefit from service sector expertise and replicate its success?

High-tech versus low-tech industry

India's industry is currently known for steel and textiles production. But can India's ever-growing stream of engineering and technology graduates innovate to compete with the R&D reliant high-tech industries of more developed countries? Or does its competitive advantage lie purely in the large unskilled workforce?

Implementation

Following several months of Cambridge-based research, the team of manufacturing engineering students and staff will make a two-week visit to India between 28 June and 13 July, visiting a selection of multinational and Indian companies, research centrea and policy makers.

Report and presentation

The detailed findings of the project will be communicated in two ways:

• A comprehensive written report
• A presentation of the findings at the Institute for Manufacturing