Throughout the latter part of the 20th Century, the traditional manufacturing sector was seen as the industry vertical most likely to provide sustainable employment and develop the Irish economy. This plan was ably assisted by the Government through generous tax breaks like the low manufacturing tax and substantial grant aid through the IDA. The Western seaboard in particular had numerous IDA funded factories manufacturing items ranging from clothing to machine parts.
The Irish economy is now unrecognisable from that era less than 20 years ago and the concept of the Knowledge economy is now to the fore. In a manufacturing context this simply means high tech manufacturing has replaced traditional manufacturing and many of these companies are Irish owned and employing graduates versus traditional production line lower skilled workforce. There are a number of issues to be aware of when examining the manufacturing sector in Ireland and we have identified and analysed a number of business issues in manufacturing that driving this ever dynamic industry.
