Peter Kyle sets out next-gen manufacturing at Make UK

Let’s put the big idea up front: design it, make it, sell it. In a GOV.UK transcript of his 3 March 2026 speech to Make UK, Business Secretary Peter Kyle framed manufacturing around “conception, production and utilisation”. (gov.uk)

He opened on safety. With tensions over Iran and Middle East airspace, he asked firms with staff there to register and follow Foreign Office advice, and said DBT is working to cut supply‑chain disruption. (gov.uk)

When we talk about conception, we mean the design stage where more value is captured. Think AI tools, digital twins and simulation doing the heavy lifting in software long before a single component is cut or printed.

Two quick definitions for your lesson plan. Artificial intelligence is software that learns patterns from data to make predictions, suggest options or generate content. A digital twin is a precise virtual version of a product or system that you can interrogate, test and refine before anything physical exists.

The production piece is where ideas meet energy bills, suppliers and downtime. Across richer economies, governments are pushing factories to modernise. The UK points to schemes such as Made Smarter to help smaller firms adopt robotics, AI and 3D printing so productivity ticks up.

Skills came through just as strongly. Ministers flagged apprenticeships, college‑industry partnerships and more technical education, backed by over £1bn in sector skills packages, a new upskilling and reskilling programme, and short courses via the Growth and Skills Levy from April 2026. (gov.uk) That tells us something practical: the engineer of the future needs to be as confident with data as with a milling machine, moving comfortably between CAD, code and shop‑floor troubleshooting.

Then comes utilisation-the bit on selling. UK Export Finance can support smaller manufacturers to win contracts abroad, and more firms will earn by selling outcomes as a service. Think jet engines paid for “by the hour”, with sensors enabling predictive maintenance and dependable performance. (gov.uk)

Product‑as‑a‑service in plain English: a customer pays for what something does, not the thing itself. When it works well, it rewards performance, pushes better design, and encourages long‑term relationships-though it also relies on trustworthy data and clear service standards.

Under the hood, Kyle also flagged specific tools: a Supercharger policy, a British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme, an expanded DRIVE35, and a Critical Minerals Strategy to secure supplies like lithium, copper and aluminium for clean‑tech manufacturing. (gov.uk)

For classrooms and workshops, here’s a simple way to use the speech. Start with conception projects: students build a digital twin in CAD, run a lightweight simulation, and only then prototype. Invite them to track carbon, cost and manufacturability as part of design.

Next, move into production. Pair a prototype with a basic microcontroller or sensor to gather data, then ask students to write a short note on how automation or additive manufacturing might change the process in a real factory.

Finally, tackle utilisation. Students define the service that wraps their product-what outcomes they promise, how they would monitor performance, and how they’d protect customer data. It mirrors the government’s three‑part framing: invest in conception, modernise production and maximise utilisation.