The contract is for a two-year three-month £400,000 (inc VAT) evaluation of the Made Smarter Adoption Programme (MSAP). The Programme aims to boost manufacturing SME’s growth, productivity, efficiency, and resilience by supporting them with adopting industrial digital technology . It is available to manufacturing businesses in the North West, the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the West Midlands. A fifth region will also join the Programme later this year.
The Programme comprises of 1) intensive, expert adviser-led support, 2) digital road mapping, 3) match-funded grants of up to £20k to purchase specialist services and equipment, and 4) a tailored leadership programme. The MSAP is identified as a top priority for the Department, contributing to Innovation, Enterprise and Net Zero success outcomes and forms a key part of the Government’s approach through the Levelling Up White Paper.
The contract is for both a process and impact evaluation of the Programme. For the process evaluation we are interested in understanding the journey of manufacturing businesses from submitting an initial enquiry to receiving support, the role of Made Smarter Advisors in this journey, businesses’ experience of engaging with the support, and lastly, other stakeholders’ interactions with and interpretations of the programme (e.g., delivery partners; other manufacturing and business support programmes; regional and local manufacturing businesses; relevant trade bodies; funders in government; and innovation facilities). The process evaluation will also need to engage with those who were not successful in their application to understand why they applied, why they did not proceed, and their thoughts on the applicant journey. This part of the project will also need to review the strengths and weaknesses of the different delivery approaches regions have taken in the rollout of the Programme to date. A key output of the process evaluation will be to deliver recommendations on how the Programme could be improved to achieve maximum reach across the regions in the most efficient and effective manner.
The impact evaluation will need to assess the success of the Programme in achieving its aims which are to boost participating manufacturing SME’s productivity, growth (both in terms of skills and jobs), business resilience, and energy/resource efficiency.
It is anticipated that a range of techniques will be used to provide evidence on the success, or otherwise, of the Programme. We anticipate the below methods will be used:
• A theory-based element to collect evidence to assess the Programme’s Theory of Change.
• A counterfactual evaluation using econometric techniques to provide an objective perspective on the additionality and impact of the Programme.
• A value for money assessment. Specifically, this assessment will used to evaluate the benefit of the Programme to supported businesses’ GVA, productivity, and turnover.
To support the process and impact evaluations, a mixture of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods should be used, including surveys, analysis of management information, interviews, and case studies.
To support the comparison of the Programme to comparator offers it is anticipated that a literature review will need to be undertaken to compare and contrast both the processes of, and impact arising from, the Made Smarter Programme against similar UK and international programmes.
Improving productivity is a key aim of the Programme and so it will be essential that bidders devise and build on previous robust approaches to measuring productivity impacts of all the different elements (singly & in combination) of the offer over time including any early indicators. Suggested approaches must be able to distinguish between changes to productivity at the firm level and productivity at a regional level. The supplier will need to develop an approach to assessing the programme’s impacts on efficiency and on resilience.

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