§ 50. Mr. Hal Millerasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many engineering companies are located in the west midlands area; and what information he has as to now many of these are capable of making full use of flexible manufacturing systems.
§ Mr. ButcherThere are about 2,000 engineering establishments with more than 10 employees and at least that number of smaller establishments. I cannot estimate how many of these could make use of flexible manufacturing systems, but at least 1,000 of the 13,000 manufacturing establishments in the region are sufficiently large to be able to make use of such systems. In addition, the smaller establishments would be able to make use of the advanced manufacturing equipment which forms the component parts of flexible manufacturing systems.