A new report by Source suggests that, in an otherwise dull consulting market in Europe, the prospects in manufacturing are bright.

The pressure to maintain sales at home and grow sales abroad, and to shrink the cost base is not going away, and manufacturing companies are very aware that they have to keep momentum going on these issues if they are to avoid going to the wall. Step forward consulting firms: according to our research more than half (53%) of respondents to our survey said they expect expenditure on consulting services to increase in the next six months (some significantly) versus just under a quarter (24%) who expect it to fall.

Outside help is required for two key reasons: firstly, the changing dynamics of globalisation require expertise that many organisations simply don’t have in-house, at least not yet. Secondly, recent efforts to reduce the costs have left companies with no excess capacity to manage large projects. However, before consulting firms rush to divert under-utilised consultants from other parts of their firm, they should recognise that manufacturing is an industry which, more than any other, values specialist skills. What they want is not just deep manufacturing expertise but deep manufacturing expertise across a range of geographies. As one interviewee from a manufacturing company in France told us: “This is a critical issue for us: business is now so global. We need to be able to point to the differences between one country or region and another.”

The full version of this report is available to subscribers only.  For further information about this report please contact Julie Ahadi.