History of UK Biscuit Manufacturing Industry

The term "two-cooked biscuits" describes several pastries which are either dry, crisp, with
similar characteristics (in contrast to cake, is highly moist after it has being baked). This
means that biscuits are most likely to trade internationally compared with other baked
products (Mason et al 2014). In addition, the UK biscuit factory produces other goods based
on grain snacks. The number of products reported in 2018-2019; sweet biscuits earned
revenue of 36.1%. Crackers, preserved pastries and cakes and delicacies prepared with grain
are also produced by operators. The demand for biscuits is largely determined by the
customer-based demand for the markets. The UK's cookie sector is fairly fractured with only
three organisations, which hold market shares of over 5%. (reference). These three
organisations consist of United Biscuits with brands including McVitie and Jacob's, Burton's
Foods, Maryland Cookies owners, Wagon Wheels and Jammie Dodgers and Walkers
Shortbread, traditional maker.

Resourcing and development issues for UK biscuit manufacturers

All resources are used to organisations that focus on their company's long-term needs, while
development involves adding to values by educating personnel in an organisation (Taylor,
2019). The UK biscuit sector employs over 23,416 employees according to IBISWORLD
(2019). Mason et al (1994) carried out a study in the UK and in other European nations
(Germany, France and the Netherlands), showing that UK biscuit manufacturing skills are
polarised among unskilled workers (i.e. people without a degree or vocational qualifications).
Lowest levels of formal vocational qualification have been seen in British vocational skills
and training. In the case of the United Kingdom, however, the skills of people who had such
certificates by continental standards were quite minor, based on job-based training and full-
time labour. In addition, highly qualified employees with a university degree are also
included in their field. As said, most British supervisors do not have any type of technical or
vocational experience and their engineering departments have worked hard to manage
emergency repairs.

In addition, the most qualified managers and project engineers needed to deal with some of
the challenges. However, the observed problems are attributable to skill deficiencies, such as
the decreased transferability of skilled people across different goods and activities. The
majority of British managers have once again stated the necessity to refresh the wrapping
machines at the end of each product as a result of the constraints on flexibility. Moreover, in
the other European countries, the aforesaid difficulties have not been started; their presence in
Britain has been regular with the rates of defective equipment rose. In the British sample, the
frequency of machine breakup was higher with the most usual problems from hard-worked
transport belts, wrappers and board screwdriving machines.

Why is UK biscuit manufacturing companies lower in productivity than continental European

ones?

"Food processing is a prominent example of 'light' manufacturing that has historically found
that the productivity divide between Britain and most other leading industrialised states has
been small compared with other manufacturing industries (Prais 1981; Broadberry and Crafts
1990; Broadberry and Fremdling, 1990)." That is why Britain is perceived as having a
comparative advantage and a somewhat smaller comparative disadvantage.
However, their plant sizes are largely larger in British food processing than in other
industrialised countries, notably the United States. As a result, there are regular doubts as to
why the scale economies cannot develop British productivity performance.

Early comparative studies demonstrated that, contrasted to other modern manufacturing

countries, British productivity problems are not just of lower amounts per employee but also
of reduced quality standards. But there is a growth in import consumption, especially those
with bigger price differences, on the British market, which is 6 percent.

In Britain, the average value per tonne of biscuit in France and the Netherlands is roughly
40% lower compared to Germany and 10-15% lower. Following this added value index and
prior measures per hour per employee in each domestic industry, quality adjusted
productivity levels still fall below 30% in Germany, 20% in the Netherlands and 15% in
France (Mason et al, 1994). Moreover, the results show that, according to genuine
productivity levels in biscuits production, there are major changes in the inter-country quality
to the international level. In addition, quality differences are a key component in Britain and
France's productivity discrepancy. The derogation is that the Dutch sector managed, notably
through the production of medium-quality biscuits, to outperform the UK. In England,
Germany, France and the Netherlands there are estimated fluctuations in quality-adjusted
level of labour productivity, mostly in the form of inter-continental labour costs. Study from
Mason et al (1994) demonstrates that the average labour price in the food and associated
industries per hour in 1989-1991 was approximately 15-35% lower in the UK than that in
Germany, France and the Netherlands.

How can UK biscuit manufacturing businesses use HR practises to boost their market
competitiveness??

HR practises are the strategies people utilise to enhance an organisation and their personnel
(Bratton and Gold, 2012). The study undertaken by Mason et al (1994) showed that at least
10 percent of projected machine-work time was lost in British factories due to the breaches
and impredictable cuts, compared with 3-4 percent in other nations. This imbalance related to
various priorities in terms of preventive maintenance i.e. only one fifth was reported as
serious efforts to maintain regularly in Dutch and German facilities during the visits to the
British plants; four fiveths were reported to have carried out detailed maintenance
programmes and two thirds were reported by French plants. In addition, an international
study by the National Institute was made which demonstrated that most British biscuit
facilities have been trapped in a harmful cycle with increasing emergency maintenance
militating against the start of a preventive maintenance strategy that can minimise failures.

This conundrum revealed the importance that British machinery managers had to work harder
and longer in terms of payback on new investments than those on the continent. As indicated
above, there was also a strong lack of management of production, supervision and other staff
in Britain due to the high degree of urgent downtime The study has shown a few reasons why
managers evaluate their engineering department at comparable urgent downtimes and waste
rates in the UK sample. First, maintenance employees in one factory were unable to quickly
recognise the problems and to handle them in such a way that they were not able to do it.
Secondly, a preventive maintenance programme was rejected since jobs could take a long
time or could not be fully finished
In order for the other three advanced industrial countries to challenge Britain, it has to have
outstanding policies that can allow them to pick up the basics among professional colleges
and employment systems in the full and part-time vocational studies. First of all, Britain must
match the needs of the sector with what its employees anticipate to be appreciated and driven
to take extra steps toward the company's success (Stairs and Galpin, 2010). Buckley et al.
(2016) reports that combining an organization's requirements with what its employees want
helps to make smart recruitment decisions and helps to make business strategy successful. In
this situation, the UK factories must guarantee that their skilled personnel are assigned the
function they can best do to meet their objectives in this sector.

Recruitment and selection is about a company selecting the appropriate individuals, with the
right talents, for the right job as the success of a business is contingent on the quality of the
personnel (Armstrong and Taylor, 2017). (Armstrong and Taylor, 2017). In the case study,
Britain needs to make sure it has a recruiting and selection policy to support it in employing
skilled employees and also in enabling the industry to achieve its short- and long-term
objectives. For example, due to their requirements for hiring supervisory and process posts,
the Dutch factories had skilled workers, while most German personnel were recruited from
apprentics bakers with better field expertise.

In addition, the study emphasises that British factories have unqualified employees. In this
situation, they should receive additional training as they have the potential for the position.
The hiring shouldn't be based on the same, according to Linos and Reinhard (2015), but
rather on what people can give the firm and their experience because some individuals may
not have the qualification, but have what they need to be part of the company.

Most significantly if Britain follows a continual training strategy, it will aid their engineering
department enhance the skills and knowledge of the workforce and enable them becoming the
finest in electronics in compares to French (Mason et al 1994). (Mason et al 1994).
Continuous training is one key aspect in HR practises as it allows managers to emphasise the
areas of development by so doing, they are able to evaluate the situation and supply the
employees with training which gives them more confident and knowledge regarding their
sector (Paine, 2019). (Paine, 2019). The supervisory personnel at the German facility
received enhanced training to enhance the talents and skills for their jobs, and also help the
manufacturing process. Not only does the German factory improve its training personnel, but
the Dutch factories also ensure that they improve their training programme to have the best
job applicants to meet their objectives. The study by Mason et al (1994) indicates that the
French plants have spent on continuing training on an average of 3.5 per cent of their overall
wages.

In addition, if the UK biscuit production adopts the aforementioned HR standards, then they
will have the best prospects to support the sector in their competitive market position.

Conclusion: In a summary research, the overview was provided as regards how, compared to
the other continental nations, the UK galley industry was operated in 1994 and its employees
during this period. For every organisation, regardless of the country it is based, it is crucial to
guarantee that they hire the right job prospects to win over their competition.

The comparison of the four European countries indicated that the productivity level of the
British factories was lower than that of Germany, French and the Netherlands and so they
need to improve on their business strategy to continue in the competitive market. In German,
French and Dutch plants, there was not only a greater quality, but also a high level of
productivity.