Making more.
Earning less.

This gap is the story of the region's supply chains. It isn't a shortage of effort or of orders. It is how much value leaks out between an order landing and a product leaving the gate.

It is also not new. The gap between the East Midlands and the UK average has barely changed since the mid 2000s, according to the House of Commons Library.

Where the region stands

Manufacturing made up 14.8% of the East Midlands economy in 2023, against 9.1% for the UK as a whole. Yet that weight doesn't turn into wealth. GDP per person here was £32,064 in 2024, more than £9,500 below the UK average of £41,627 and the third lowest of the twelve UK regions and nations.

The pains that never go away

These are the problems I see in almost every Midlands manufacturer, in good years and bad.

One supplier, or one region, that the whole business depends on, and nobody has priced what happens if it stops. Cash sitting in stock that nobody can explain, while the items that actually matter still run out. A production plan that lives in a spreadsheet and in one planner's head. Freight treated as a fixed overhead rather than a line someone manages.

And people. When skilled people are scarce, every process that depends on one person knowing how it works becomes a risk.

Demand is returning

The picture changed this quarter. After a hard spring, the East Midlands Chamber's Q3 2026 survey reported UK sales up 13% and orders up 10% on the previous quarter, with 23% of firms expecting to grow their workforce. Inflation is still the number one concern.

That is good news, and it raises a harder question. Hiring is still difficult for most firms, so dependence on a few key people has not gone away.

One number in the same survey matters more than the rest.

Put those facts side by side. Most firms have room to make more, and orders are now coming back. The problem isn't the size of the factory. It's the flow through it.

The risk now is the reflex. When orders dip, businesses cut training and delay investment. When orders return, they hire, buy and expand to meet demand. Both moves treat the symptom. Neither asks why the same output costs more here than it should.

Busy, profitable and underpowered usually means one thing. The margin is being earned despite the operation, not because of it.

Find the real problem first

Before any fix, spend two weeks understanding what is actually happening. No new software needed. Four questions do most of the work.

Where is the cash sitting?

Stock, work in progress, and invoices held up by late or incomplete deliveries.

What happens to one order?

Follow a single order from arrival to dispatch. Count every handoff and every wait.

Can you trust your numbers?

Check the stock report against the shelf. If they don't match, every plan built on it is guesswork.

What would stop you in a week?

Name the supplier, route or person whose absence halts production.

The answers usually point somewhere different from where the business thought the problem was. That's the point.

What actually fixes it

The solutions are rarely dramatic. They are disciplined.

Get sales and production in one room, once a week, working from one set of numbers. Most scheduling failures are really two departments not talking.

Sort your stock by what matters. A simple ABC review often frees cash and cuts stockouts on the items customers actually care about.

Put a second source behind your most exposed supplies, starting with the ones that would stop the line. Then negotiate with your own data, not the supplier's.

Protect capability. Cutting training when staff are this hard to find makes the dependency on a few people worse, not better.

And use the support that exists. Made Smarter East Midlands supports manufacturers with expert advice and funding for digital projects. Check current eligibility and funding levels on their site before you apply.

Money spent on a machine bought before the diagnosis is still money wasted. Spent after it, it goes where it pays back.