What’s Next for the IET Manufacturing Technical Network? A Look Ahead at Innovation, Skills, and the Future of Engineering

Manufacturing has always been a field shaped by ingenuity. But in 2025, the pace of change is so rapid that even the most experienced engineers admit the landscape feels different. New materials, AI-driven optimisation, quantum simulation, and cross-industry collaboration are changing not just what engineers build, but how they think.

The IET Manufacturing Technical Network (TN) sits at the centre of that change. It offers a place where ideas evolve, professionals connect, and the next generation of engineering capability is shaped. For many members, the TN is where theory meets practical application—and where engineers rediscover the curiosity that first drew them into the profession.

The months ahead showcase exactly why this community matters.

Why 2025–26 Will Be a Defining Period for UK Manufacturing

Manufacturing is undergoing a shift in both identity and expectation. Productivity demands are rising, sustainability frameworks are tightening, and automation is accelerating. The engineers who succeed in this environment will be those who combine experience with adaptability.

The TN’s upcoming programme reflects this reality. The focus is not just on learning new tools, but on strengthening the mindset required to navigate a changing sector—something echoed widely across professional development resources, including upskilling pathways for working electricians. Whether in manufacturing, electrical installation, or energy systems, the message is consistent: static skill sets belong to yesterday.

2025–26 will bring:

• sharper expectations around data interpretation
• increasing crossover between software and mechanical disciplines
• sustainability-driven redesigns of legacy processes
• expanded use of simulation and modelling

This is why community matters—because engineering transformation doesn’t happen in isolation.

Lean Manufacturing Reimagined: What Engineers Need to Know

Lean has always been about efficiency. But modern lean goes beyond waste reduction to include:

• digital twins for real-time optimisation
• AI scheduling and resource modelling
• sustainability metrics within continuous improvement
• cross-functional collaboration between electrical, mechanical, and data teams

The TN’s September session, The Future of Lean Manufacturing and Beyond, explores how lean evolves when data becomes the heartbeat of every process.

Engineers increasingly operate in environments where safety, automation, and process control coexist closely. Understanding how lean interfaces with compliance—particularly safe systems of work in modern engineering environments—is becoming essential.

Lean is no longer a toolbox. It is a philosophy applied through digital intelligence.

Manufacturing and Space: When Production Leaves Earth

The rise of space-adjacent manufacturing is no longer speculative. Real research is underway on:

• low-gravity metallurgy
• orbital assembly
• space-based solar power components
• vacuum-optimised materials engineering

The TN’s October session revisits the theme following the success of the 2024 event. For engineers used to traditional factory floors, the subject seems far removed—but the real insight lies in constraint-driven thinking.

Space engineering forces teams to confront:

• weight limits
• energy restrictions
• reliability thresholds
• autonomous operations

Skills learned in one domain often transfer unexpectedly. As energy, transport, and manufacturing systems tighten their interdependencies, the ability to think across contexts becomes a professional advantage.

For electricians and electrical engineers, this echoes the shift seen in renewable integration and export-oriented systems—similar to how how policy changes reshape engineering decision-making influences domestic energy systems.

Innovation never stays in one industry for long.

Quantum Computing in Manufacturing: The Next Leap

Quantum computing is one of the most significant breakthroughs emerging this decade, and its impact on manufacturing will be profound. Quantum offers:

• simulation at a scale impossible for classical computation
• optimisation for supply chains, logistics, and routing
• material analysis down to the atomic level
• the potential to redesign manufacturing flow from first principles

If lean was the language of the early 2000s, quantum will be the language of the 2030s.

The TN’s November event will help engineers understand:

• what quantum can (and cannot) do today
• how hybrid classical/quantum models will appear in industry
• where early adoption is most realistic
• what skills future engineers must build

Manufacturers who prepare early may gain a competitive edge that lasts decades.

Looking Ahead to 2026: A Year of Deeper Specialisation

The TN is already planning its 2026 sessions, aligned with the industry’s shifting priorities. The selected themes reflect areas where engineering is both expanding and diversifying:

Composites and Advanced Materials

Lightweighting, durability, electromagnetic compatibility, and recyclability are driving major material advances. Understanding how these materials behave under stress, heat, and manufacturing processes is becoming critical.

AI Ethics in Manufacturing

AI brings new questions about responsibility, oversight, transparency, and worker interaction. Engineers will need frameworks for ensuring safe and fair deployment.

Industrial Strategy and Process Control

As energy systems become more complex and more distributed, process control is moving closer to the forefront of policy. Engineers need to understand how national strategy affects factory operations.

Soft Robotics

A discipline merging materials science, human-machine interaction, and embedded systems. Unlike traditional rigid robotics, soft robotics aims to replicate biological adaptability—opening new applications in healthcare, inspection, and delicate-material manufacturing.

Young Professional-Led Case Studies

An invaluable addition. Future leaders interpreting today’s challenges offer insights older frameworks cannot always predict.

Why Community Still Matters in a High-Tech World

Software and automation have not reduced the need for human connection. They have made it more valuable.

In interviews, TN volunteers describe the same experience again and again: stepping outside their day-to-day roles helps them see engineering with fresh clarity. Hearing perspectives from other industries broadens their understanding of what is possible.

And in a profession that is often process-driven, the emotional side of engineering—confidence, clarity, shared purpose—matters just as much.

This echoes principles found in reflective leadership models, including the idea that progress requires space: space to listen, space to rethink, space to connect.

Many engineers discover that volunteering or networking reminds them why they fell in love with the field in the first place.

Manufacturing as a Shared Endeavour: What Engineers Can Expect in 2026 and Beyond

Even as automation grows, the engineer’s role becomes more—not less—important. Someone must interpret the data, redesign the process, validate the models, and safeguard the system.

Future manufacturing will depend on engineers who can:

• interpret uncertainty
• manage risk
• integrate new technologies safely
• collaborate across disciplines
• learn continuously
• maintain professional judgement under pressure

The TN’s programme encourages exactly that type of development.

In a world where engineering decisions influence industries, communities, and safety, technical competence must sit alongside emotional resilience, thoughtful decision-making, and a willingness to evolve.

The best engineers of 2030 will not be the ones who mastered a single tool; they will be the ones who remained curious, adaptable, collaborative, and grounded.