The globalisation of industry, shorter product lifecycles, decline in demand for the products of traditional industries and growing research and development costs have all put pressure on UK industry over the past 20-30 years. This situation has been compounded by the rise of the manufacturing economies of the Far East, with Japan leading the way, followed by Korea, Taiwan and now Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Given the low-wage structures in several of those countries British, indeed European, industry must maintain competitive advantage by using technology to produce better products, reduce costs, improve safety and reduce environmental impact.
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