The tools behind the future
The quiet infrastructure challenge that needs solving now.
By Mark Bowering, Chief Engineer for Civil Aerostructure and Shaw Beattie, Engineering Capability Lead for Design
There’s a part of UK manufacturing that rarely gets talked about but underpins almost everything we make. It doesn’t sound exciting. It doesn’t look flashy. But without it, nothing works. Tooling.
Tooling is the physical form - moulds, jigs, fixtures - that hold things in place while they’re made. Whether it’s an aircraft wing, a turbine blade or a hydrogen tank, it all starts with tooling.
You never see it. It doesn’t fly, or turn, or get sold. But it shapes the things that do. And at NCC, we think it’s time it got more attention.
Why now?
The UK is aiming to lead on net-zero aviation, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing. And the materials we use - lighter, stronger, more efficient - are changing fast.
But every part still needs to be made. And making it well, at scale, depends on the tooling.
Get it right and the process runs smoothly. Get it wrong and the delays, waste and costs ripple out quickly.
Right now, that gap is growing. Components are getting more advanced. The tooling needs to keep pace.
What we’re seeing
At NCC, we work on real manufacturing problems with industry partners. And across aerospace, energy and defence, we’re seeing the same bottlenecks:
- Materials and fabrication lead-times are long
- Limited flexibility to accommodate late design changes, or multi-product application
- Some materials can’t handle the heat or pressure
- Ever-increasing requirements to meet product and customer needs (tolerances, Coefficient of Thermal Expansion, vacuum integrity and more)
- Supplier resources and margins are stretched, with high raw-material and operational costs
- Smart features - like sensors or heating - are complex and hard to integrate
- There’s limited high-accuracy compensation modelling It’s difficult to justify investment for small production runs
NCC recently delivered a mould for an R&D programme that could survive high temperatures, deliver clean release, and integrate with measurement systems throughout the process. It worked - but it took time and care to get there.
Now scale that up across every programme. That’s the challenge.
The UK position
There are brilliant toolmakers in the UK. Skilled engineers. Capable suppliers. But it’s not yet a joined-up system. This is largely because not every supplier is in a position to deliver a complete solution to new demanding smart tools.
Right now, we’re exposed. Lead times are long. The supply chain is narrow. And industry is reliant on a few players to deliver essential infrastructure for manufacturing.
For a country that wants to lead on industrial innovation, that’s a weak spot.
What needs to happen
This is a call to arms.
NCC is encouraging UK tooling companies, researchers, and manufacturers to come forward for exploratory discussions on how we tackle the challenges we’re all seeing - and to help define where collective action is most needed.
We’re not launching a programme or writing a roadmap. We’re asking the people who know this space best to tell us what’s working, what isn’t, and what kind of coordinated support or collaboration could move things forward.
That includes:
- Reducing tooling lead times
- Improving reusability and material efficiency
- Enabling digital integration - sensing, heating, traceability and functionality
- Strengthening supply chain resilience
- Supporting the next generation of tooling engineers
NCC has already trialled new tooling materials, integrated real-time sensing, and developed digital workflows that reduce iteration. We know there’s great work happening across the country - but we also know it’s fragmented.
Why this matters to the UK
This isn’t just about improving quality and lead times. It’s about industrial resilience and sustained sector growth.
Without strong tooling capability, innovation stays stuck in development. We can design advanced products - but struggle to build them reliably, quickly, or affordably.
Tooling touches every part of manufacturing - speed, cost, quality, flexibility. If we want to make the next generation of products here in the UK, we need this capability in place.
Why it matters to you
If you work in industry, you’ve probably felt the effects - delays, rework, tools that don’t quite fit the job.
If you’re in policy, this is an opportunity to strengthen sovereign capability before it becomes a crisis.
If you’re a supplier or innovator, this is a chance to be part of something practical and grounded - led by engineering need, not process.
Let’s talk
If you’re part of the UK’s tooling ecosystem and want to be part of the conversation, get in touch.
Let’s figure out – together - how we ensure the UK has the capability, skills and capacity to make what it designs.