In this article, Geoff Cousins, chairman at G&P, explains why outsourcing can provide a simple way for manufacturers to stay competitive and innovative during uncertain times.
What’s keeping UK manufacturers awake at night? Right now, uncertainty is the answer that many across the industry would give. According to the Make UK Executive Survey 2026, one in two British manufacturers believe that economic uncertainty and geopolitical instability threaten their future business performance. As a separate Make UK study puts it, “confidence in the wider economy has reached its lowest level this year”.
As negative GDP growth continues, adding to soaring energy and employment costs, the scenario is unlikely to change any time soon. In this gloomy economic climate, outsourcing critical functions like quality management (QM) may seem like a luxury. However, tightening finances, the need to prioritise capital investment and the evolving nature of the manufacturing market mean that keeping QM in-house may not be a viable option either.
The manufacturing dilemma
Data suggests that UK manufacturers will be more reluctant to hire in 2026, following a marked contraction in recruitment activity in the last quarter of 2025. The upcoming increases in minimum wage and new employment rights may impact this further, with a staggering 86% of manufacturers expecting to see employment costs rise sharply in the next 12 months.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, at the end of 2025, there were 48,000 live vacancies in the UK manufacturing sector, 2,000 more than in the previous quarter. Rather than significantly increasing their headcount, most companies see investing in innovation and diversification as the way forward.
More than half of UK manufacturers plan to expand their product ranges, 60% are committed to investing in digitalisation, AI and automation, while 42% are looking to new export markets. But, if hiring new talent isn’t on the table, how can manufacturers achieve these ambitious goals without the right in-house expertise? This is something that many manufacturers are well aware of, with limited access to domestic labour and skills seen as one of the top five risks to business success.
This widespread concern may explain the renewed focus on retraining existing employees, especially in areas such as management, higher-level technical skills and digital capabilities. While upskilling in-house resources may be part of the solution, it can be costly and time-consuming. The constantly evolving nature of manufacturing calls for a new, more flexible approach. This is where outsourcing can help.
Is outsourcing quality the answer to changing manufacturing priorities?
The manufacturing sector isn’t new to outsourcing. Over the past three decades, there has been a trend towards outsourcing non-core activities to reduce costs and increase profitability. However, many businesses continue to believe that critical functions like QM belong to the in-house realm. The bottom line is: if you’ve always solved problems in-house, why would you trust a third party to do it?
While these are all valid concerns, the manufacturing sector is rapidly moving towards a more innovation-driven and customer-centric approach to product development and production. The outcome of this transformation is a proliferation of new products. With customer engagement becoming a top priority across the industry, businesses must become more agile and adaptable to changing priorities, ensure faster delivery and personalise products and services. This evolving landscape requires a more flexible and bespoke approach to QM.
Launching new products almost inevitably entails running into problems. The growing number of product launches will lead to a growing number of problems that require additional resources to solve them. But, to stay cost-effective, most companies will only need these resources on an ad hoc, temporary basis, in line with the peaks and troughs of production. And, crucially, as the most experienced QMs approach retirement age and the skills gap widens, the ability to rely on flexible, skilled resources becomes critical.
The right quality, at the right time
Outsourcing QM means more than just acquiring temporary quality managers. Ultimately, it’s a collaborative partnership that augments a team’s expertise and capabilities when its needed most.
And we’re not just talking about the OEM level either. Whether a prototype project or a new programme, the road to quality begins long before final assembly.
With countless suppliers involved, it’s not unusual for quality issues to escape when pushing to get production over the line. Without effective management, quality-related costs can be as high as 15-20% of sales revenue. That’s why investing in quality management processes throughout the supply chain is one of the most effective methods to reduce overall costs associated with poor quality parts.
Deploying agile and scalable resources can help to tackle issues at the root cause. By rectifying these upstream issues through quality inspection, containment, control and rework, OEMs can prevent disruption within operations while ensuring that manufacturing teams can deliver upon their original build schedule.
While in-house QM can help to tackle quality issues higher up the supply chain, it’s not necessarily an efficient solution. Working with an outsourced partner brings a number of benefits. First, it relieves pressure on in-house teams. Secondly, it is a well-tested route to quickly and efficiently identify quality issues and implement solutions in a timely and cost-effective manner. Finally, it allows customers to leverage the knowledge and abilities of a highly skilled team with decades of accumulated experience across multiple manufacturing industries.
Trusted and experienced providers like G&P enable manufacturers to outsource their QM functions in three key areas – supply chain, QM systems and engineering. In this way, manufacturers can count on agile and scalable resources with specialised skills, including Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP) to achieve Production Part Approval Process (PPAP) and Supplier Quality Assurance (SQA) to resolve issues and improve process capability.
Outsourced QM can also aid new product development with tailored resources that can help design more satisfying and reliable products through verification methods, technical risk mitigation and design for manufacturability.
On a broader level, qualified lead auditors can help assess a manufacturer’s QMS against ISO, TS, and AS standards. This approach is critical to identifying gaps and implementing improvement programmes to achieve or retain certification.
Ultimately, outsourcing core services like QM remains a highly consequential decision to make during uncertain times. But, in the current climate, it’s a commercial imperative for many businesses. With more new products than ever hitting the market, having the right QM resources at the right time has never been more important. It will be a critical success factor for UK manufacturers that aspire to stay competitive and innovative in an increasingly challenging market in 2026 and beyond.