ABSTRACT
The business environment for manufacturing industry is undergoing constant redefinition through intense international competition and continual technological change. The pressures are as acute for West Midlands industry as they are for international players, and therefore this discussion of rubber and plastics processing has wider implications for the stimulus and support of business growth, competitiveness and innovation. The processing of rubber and plastics (polymers) constitutes a key component of the national economy, and it is also significant in the industrial mix of the West Midlands region where a great diversity of mouldings, extrusions, composites, laminates and sheets are supplied to customers such as the automotive, construction, food and drink, electronics and engineering sectors. Consolidation and restructuring among these industries are influencing changes to customer-supplier relationships. UK processors are increasingly pitched against strong overseas contenders and they encounter pressure in both their domestic and export markets through the competitive costs and quality of overseas rivals. Larger processors are refocusing their activities onto either high-growth or core production areas. Prices of raw materials fluctuate, and both over-capacity and shortages prove problematic in terms of pricing and supply. Advances in information technology and communications are revolutionising production and commerce, and contribute to closer links between processors, their industry customers and retailers. Environmental compliance exerts ever more stringent and costly demands,
while producer responsibility obligations, affecting the manufacture and use of packaging, foreshadow take-back schemes proposed for other production sectors, such as vehicles and electronic consumer goods, emphasising material and component recyclability and waste minimisation.
