Future of Manufacturing - Q4 - Dec 2018

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Future of Manufacturing

“Ireland is home to some of the world’s front-runners in Industry 4.0 and is frequently cited as one of the readiest nations to exploit the benefits... It is time to capitalise on that readiness.”

Michéal Cassidy P2 IMAGE: GETTYIMAGES

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BioPharmaChem Ireland How digitisation is improving the efficiency of the biopharma industry P4

Science Foundation Ireland How innovative technologies are challenging the traditional manufacturing industry P6

Irish Exporters Association Preparing for the outcomes of the Brexit deal for the Irish exporting industry P6 CREDIT: GETTYIMAGES

Manufacturing goes digital Data is becoming the lifeblood of manufacturing and supply chain performance.

Industry 4.0 (Manufacturing 4.0) is recognition of the age of digital in the manufacturing world. Ireland is home to some of the world’s front-runners in Michéal Cassidy Industry 4.0 and is frequently cited as one of the readiest nations to exploit the Chief Technology Officer, Irish Manufacturing Research benefits of Industry 4.0. It is time to capitalise on that readiness.

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he importance of this disruption to industry is recognised nationally and internationally. Across the globe, governments are investing in industrial R&D centres to ensure their manufacturing companies are equipped for this disruption.

In Europe, massive funding is committed to large-scale research programmes and knowledge transfer for the benefit of industry. One such example is the Digital Innovation Hubs, which act as a one-stopshop for industry to access a vast range of knowledge, expertise and technologies across Europe.

Nationally, the Irish government has launched flagship initiatives such as the Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund to help industry

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develop and adopt next-generation manufacturing technologies.

Human workers and robots streamlined for increased productivity There are many technologies that can legitimately be grouped under the umbrella of Industry 4.0 as they share a common “digital thread”, which interlinks connected workers, smart products, smart processes and whole supply chains.

Manufacturing plants are now some of the most advanced workplaces on the planet with engineers and operators augmented with collaborative robots to increase productivity and streamline repetitive work, mobile platforms for knowledge sharing and decision

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making, and augmented and virtual reality technologies to enable interaction in both physical and digital domains.

The digital thread also carries through into processes, where digital twins enable real-time monitoring and control of quality and service.

Beyond the walls of the factory, the digital thread connects the manufacturing process to the smart supply chain and, eventually, to the customer.

The winners in Industry 4.0 will be the ones who build strong bonds with their consumers. They will respond quickly and in an agile manner to customer demands and will meet the highest standard of user experience to secure the strength of their individual relationship.

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Consumer-led customisation is the new normal Through digital technologies, consumers now have much more of a direct connection to the manufactured product. Mass customisation is the new reality, from individualised medicine through to personalised garments.

User interaction into the smart supply chain enables a value-add relationship between supplier and customer like never before and the ability for manufacturers to create brand connectivity and loyalty.

Additive manufacturing processes, such as 3D printing, enable direct digital manufacturing and also the ability to customise each part to customer requirements.

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Transformation in manufacturing industries is happening at a much faster pace and it is imperative that manufacturing companies stay upto-date with how these disruptions will impact them. Technology investment needs to be built around measurable business outcomes and long-term competitive advantage.

First adopters and fast followers are trying to understand how disruptive technology will bring benefit to their business.

Getting under the hood and discovering which innovations and technologies are going to be significant in Industry 4.0 to each company necessitates that manufacturing industry start today to demystify and de-risk their investments.

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Lean manufacturing challenge If you google “lean manufacturing failure rate”, the results show that 85% of initiatives are deemed to be failures – because they did not produce the desired outcomes for the investment. The challenge for managers is to understand how to appropriately use business transformation tools, rather than simply apply lean manufacturing rules and processes.

An effective strategy is to start with desired outcomes – normally your current pain points – and tactically apply business solutions that reduce costs and enhance productivity.

By engaging customer-facing employees in the decision and execution process, your team can share in your objectives rather than see your “productivity and profitability” initiative as a path to staff reduction.

A simple business transformation strategy that works To drive strategic change in your business, you need to create capacity so your team members (who are fully loaded because, of course, there are never surplus staff!) can accommodate – and welcome – the additional work, rather than see it as extra work merely for some new,

management fantasy.

Using a ‘stop, start, continue’ tool to create capacity and reinforce change with positive feedback works in businesses that may have limited formal processes. With this model, every step can be seen by the participants as positive and designed to make their jobs easier.

STOP • Initially, you must define the status of the workflow, ‘as it currently stands; the ‘As Is’ stage. Decide this status with management and employees and build the next stage – the ‘To Be’ – stage with management.

• The ‘To Be’ stage defines the desired objectives, and must be rolled out to employees. Strangely, this obvious plan is rarely made explicit to all parties.

• This enables your team to ‘Stop’ doing things that are not

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Why do so many lean manufacturing initiatives fail?

All businesses evolve to become low-cost manufacturing or service providers over time.

Decisions on which efficiency strategies to adopt are often inhibited by past failures or suppliers who simply do not understand what you are trying to achieve.

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Ian Beckett Chief Executive Officer, Eirtight Technology Limited

aligned with objectives and ‘Start’ implementing the desired change.

START • Create capacity to change by cherry picking an easily-accessible intervention that gives employees capacity to participate in change.

Employees are often at maximum capacity, so finding this space for change can be a challenge but it is very important to find this opening.

CONTINUE • Confidence building is supported by simultaneously identifying what employees do right and supporting them to ‘Continue’ doing the same.

This works most effectively when all parties communicate and share plans with stakeholders.

Ian Beckett

What is the impact of Eirtight Technology’s efficient workflows?

Eirtight Technology Ltd have developed required workflows and software for one of the largest manufacturers of energy-efficient windows and doors in Europe.

With our software, we have enabled the company to manage their deployment and support services from their 1.2m sq ft manufacturing facilities in Ireland and the UK. With our workforce automation tools, tasks that used to take days, now take hours and will facilitate operational expansion in the future.

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Applications and adoption of 3D printing in the Irish manufacturing industry

James Wall Managing Director, 3D Technology Ireland

3D printing is quickly becoming an integral part of manufacturing in Ireland. The idea that ‘the technology is moving too fast to invest’ is nonsense and shouldn’t be intimidating to potential investors.

Take a car for example; a car today is slightly better than a similar car three years ago, but the fundamentals are still the exact same with some minor improvements – 3D printers are the same.

Case in point: injection moulding sees a 30% increase in efficiency with 3D printing solutions

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3D printing means medical implants can be bespoke to the individual

D printing is ideal for lowvolume, high-value items as well as bespoke consumer items and medical devices. With advances in software, medical device designers can now use real patient MRI data to produce a 3D-printed working model to help with the design of the medical or delivery device.

Since the inception of industrial injection moulding, keeping an even temperature on the surface of the mould has been a constant challenge. 3D printing is helping to overcome this challenge – designing cooling channels that naturally follow the contours of the part to be produced – is now positioned as a solution for controlling injectionmoulding temperatures. This has resulted in efficiency increases of up to 30%.

Producing hearing aids that are designed for the individual’s ear, so are a perfect fit, and patient-specific implants, can help surgeons as well as patients. Perfectly fitting implants deliver better surgical

outcomes and recovery times, putting less of a burden on the HSE.

Digital moulding to replace injection moulding Digital moulding is now becoming a new era for manufacturing.

As an industry, 3D printing is seeking to disrupt industrial production practices that have been dominated by injection moulding for over a century.

Today, we are closer than ever to that reality: sophisticated 3D printing technologies are proving to be a viable means for fulfilling new manufacturing philosophies centred on quick turnarounds and smaller-volume production.

Automated parts production is cheaper for manufacturers The 3D technology for this application uses a series of connected print engine modules integrated with an automated

robotics system to continuously produce plastic parts quickly and efficiently – enabling tool-less digital moulding.

By eliminating tooling requirements and speeding up the time to market, digital moulding using 3D printing also offers cost advantages to manufacturers.

Notably, by eliminating various manufacturing steps associated with traditional manufacturing, digital moulding delivers reduced labour, machining, iteration and testing costs.

Large furniture retailers using 3D printing to create customers’ unique designs Large retailers are now looking at bringing bespoke consumer products in-house for sale. 3D printing is perfect for innovative design, allowing designers full freedom when creating their products and giving the consumer

a bespoke product that differs from anything else in the market. We are now seeing this adoption with large furniture retailers.

3D printing is allowing industry to create intricate designs that are immediately manufacturable. It is delivering lightweight parts for aircraft that meet or exceed weight to strength requirements and increase the speed of product design and production from months to days. It is an exciting opportunity, and very much worth investing in, today.

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Biopharma companies could double their outputs through digitisation The biopharma sector in Ireland continues to expand rapidly. It is estimated that around €1 billion per year has been invested in capital over the last decade – much of this in state-of-the-art biotech manufacturing.

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wo emerging trends are going to influence future expansion of the sector, globally, over the next decade.

If Ireland is to retain its leading position, it needs to embrace and excel at these.

Digitisation is making biopharma more efficient Digitisation, sometimes known as Factory of the Future, Factory 4.0, The Internet of Things, Cloud Manufacturing etc. has made a major impact on all manufacturing since the 1990s. Now, digitisation is

manifesting itself in the biopharma sector.

New, digital technologies are transforming the entire biopharma value chain, increasing flexibility, quality and speed. The sector has a long tradition of collecting large amounts of data, mainly for regulatory or quality purposes, and now companies are seeking to use this data to enhance their own efficiency and relative competitiveness.

Companies could double their outputs from smarter working This ranges from applying software programmes to reveal true data, right the way throughout the manufacturing process and using this to manufacture more smartly.

Companies talk of using this to reveal the so-called ‘hidden factory’ and are finding that savings can be substantial, in some cases doubling

their output from existing facilities.

At the other end of the range, we see companies looking at applying high-end digital practices to their manufacturing operations. Such practices would allow them to establish virtual platforms, enable points along the supply chain to communicate intelligently with each other, and build intelligent neural networks within parts of their plants. Naturally, given the highly-regulated nature of the sector and the risk profile of the types of products they manufacture, companies will proceed carefully.

Collaboration for testing new applications The National Institute for Bioprocess Research and Training (NIBRT) has entered into a novel partnership with the biopharma sector and the technology sector, supported by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to develop

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Matt Moran Director, BioPharmaChem Ireland

a test bed where such applications can be designed and tested in a non-product-facing environment.

It is envisaged that this alliance will allow the Irish biopharma sector to keep at the forefront of the revolution in digitisation.

Biopharma to follow nonpharma processes of continuous manufacturing Pharmaceutical products and their ingredients – known as active pharmaceutical ingredients – are traditionally manufactured by batch processing. The manufactured batch is then checked against the quality requirements set out in its license.

An obvious disadvantage of such an approach is that the check is retrospective. If quality attributes are not met, the batch is deemed unsuitable for use – often with significant cost. The non-pharmaceutical chemical

industry normally uses continuous manufacturing to generate its products. Now, the biopharma sector is looking to employ such technologies for the manufacture of products and ingredients.

Lower costs and smaller carbon footprint Advantages include real-time control of quality attributes, lower costs and also a lower environmental footprint as these plants are typically smaller and use fewer resources.

A number of manufacturers here are developing continuous processes in API and drug product production.

Irish contract development company APC specialises in process development in the continuous space.

Ireland is well positioned to be to the forefront of both these important developments.

Matt Moran

Beyond manufacturing, Irish medtech targets high value innovation, connected healthcare and AI

David Tallon Chair, Irish Medtech Association

The Irish Medtech Association are building on Ireland’s reputation for manufacturing excellence and targeting opportunities for growth with a move to stimulate companies to increase their R&D investments and step up the intensity and ambition of their R&D activities.

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n the past 25 years, the medtech sector has gone from a burgeoning industry to a global powerhouse. The number of companies has increased from 50 to 450+, and exports have quadrupled to €12.6 billion.

This growth has really sped up in the past couple of years, with more than €259 million in investments

publicly announced, 2,070 jobs being added to 38,000 professionals already in the sector and Irish start-ups gaining international attention with €102.55 million in financing raised.

Ireland is the gateway to Europe’s €110bn market As we look to the future, the medtech sector here is well placed to build on this momentum. Nine of the world’s top 10 medtech companies already have one or more sites here, choosing Ireland as the strategic location for access to the world’s second largest medtech market – Europe – which is worth €110 billion.

Ireland is already a world leader in manufacturing. We boast more Shingo Prizes per capita than

any other country. This is thanks to the depth and breadth of the collaborative medtech community here, which includes FDI multinationals, start-ups, contract manufacturers, designers, as well as third-level institutions and research centres.

Making Ireland a location of choice for R&D Now, we need to mobilise this community to increase the R&D ambition and the intensity of the Irish medtech sector so we can tap into this strategic area for global growth.

The FDI manufacturing sector here already spends an estimated €771 million on R&D annually.

That’s not including the spend by start-ups or funding awarded

by Horizon 2020, the biggest EU Research and Innovation funding programme.

More needs to be done to help companies increase the level of sophistication and complexity of their R&D activities here and expand their mandate to include R&D ownership for complete market segments and global product portfolios.

Global medtech R&D spend growth has risen from 3% in 2012 to 4.8% this year. By 2024, global medtech R&D spend is projected to reach $39 billion.

Innovation revolutionising healthcare The world of medtech is being revolutionised with thousands of surgical robots now being

used across the world’s hospitals and 54% of global healthcare executives predicting that AI will increasingly be used to support medical decisions.

To tap into this growth potential, the Irish Medtech Association is leading a major project to make Ireland a location of choice for R&D. That why the theme for our annual CEO Conference Medtech Rising 2018, co-hosted with Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, will focus on the theme of innovation.

This is not only an exciting time for medtech, but an exciting time for Ireland. We need to nurture a culture of innovation with diversity of thinking and encourage government to invest in the right infrastructure to realise our potential.

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Industry 4.0 is due to put offshoring into reverse Dr Ciarán Seoighe Deputy Director General, Science Foundation Ireland

Manufacturing is on the verge of huge change.

Smart manufacturing, including things like 3D printing, will see the demands of customers dictate how businesses are run. SFI’s research centres are looking to reduce the guesswork for businesses.

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tanding at the dawn of the fourth industrial revolution, or ‘Industry 4.0’, and trying to predict how manufacturing may change, is a tricky prospect.

The advent of innovative technologies could put the traditional model of off-shoring production into reverse.

On top of that, work done within factories is likely to change, with robotics unlocking what man and

machine are capable of in terms of production and personalisation.

But how does Ireland ensure that its manufacturing industry, which contributes 24% of its total economic output, fully embraces these changes?

Irish research centres need financial support to keep ahead Professor Mark Ferguson, Director General at Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of Ireland, believes promoting collaboration between industry and researchers will keep Ireland ahead of the curve.

“Funding research centres, which are aimed at ensuring Ireland occupies a leading position within this manufacturing revolution, is essential in helping us maintain

Professor Mark Ferguson Director General, Science Foundation Ireland Chief Scientific Adviser, Government of Ireland

Ireland’s competitive edge.”

Shared solutions to 3D printing and AI to help the wider research community These centres will focus on smart manufacturing, artificial intelligence and 3D printing, giving their industry partners access to research expertise and innovative technologies.

“These centres keep the leading edge of both types of organisation pulling in the same direction, towards a common goal,” says Dr Ciarán Seoighe, Deputy Director General at SFI. “By developing that community of practice, you create a space where people can share ideas, share challenges and find solutions to problems faster, building up a core of knowledge.”

In the future, it could be the norm to design your shoes to your exact spec

Outreach programmes encourage uptake of 4IR innovations

Increased collaboration between industry and academics should help participating businesses navigate the sizeable impact that smart manufacturing will have on how they operate.

That impact is likely to completely change the relationship between business and the customer, according to Seoighe.

“If you want to buy a pair of running shoes, today, you go in, get analysed and buy something that’s readily available.”

“In future, people will expect to be able to design their own product to their own specifications, have it built and receive it far quicker than they might do today.”

The challenges that this new era of manufacturing presents for industry aren’t to be ignored, but neither are the vast opportunities. Education on how smart manufacturing might boost workers’ prospects could go a long way towards negating the fear of robotics, centred around a loss of jobs for humans.

“Our research centres run outreach programmes that aim to encourage the public to embrace the changes that Ireland’s manufacturing industry will see,” Seoighe said.

“We want to have the most informed public when it comes to science, hopefully replacing fear of the unknown with excitement at new opportunities.”

James Alder

Irish exporters are preparing for a no-deal Brexit scenario

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hile the Irish exporting industry continues to be experiencing strong growth, concern over an increasingly uncertain global trading environment, higher operating costs and the perpetually impending impact of digitalisation, pose a number of challenges for exporters and their supply chains.

Irish exporters are building a no-deal Brexit contingency plan The underlying challenge for this, of course, is the United Kingdom’s expected withdrawal from the European Union on 29 March 2019.We cautiously welcome the recent draft agreement by UK and EU negotiators on the Withdrawal Agreement and its proposals for a Single Customs Area and close alignment of legal and

regulatory standards. In light of the UK’s internal political challenges, Irish exporters, however continue to step up their no-deal contingency planning.

In particular, contingency planning revolves around critical access to warehousing space and alternative transport and shipping routes to the European continent. Moreover, with customs declarations for UK-Ireland trade expected to increase ten-fold and have serious implications on justin-time supply chains, a no-deal scenario is expected to be extremely detrimental to Irish manufactures and supply chains.

Storage space is crucial to the post-Brexit supply chain Availability and access to sufficient warehousing and storage space is

critical to the successful operations of many businesses in the exporting supply chain. Although, there is a move toward building new warehousing space, current and post-Brexit mitigating demand already greatly exceeds the supply available.

For those considering increasing their capacity, knowing whether or not to press the investment button (in the light of increased uncertainty) is a very unenviable choice to make. This is especially true for cooled and controlled handling facilities at Irish sea- and airports.

Barring any significant developments in the Brexit process, the UK will become a third country to Ireland and the EU for any and all aspects of trade and customs procedures at the end of the transition period.

North West Centre for Advanced Manufacturing, to find out more about the Centre contact www.catalyst-inc.org/nwcam

Simon McKeever CEO, Irish Exporters Association

It is clear that the Irish business community is taking note, as we have seen unprecedented interest in customs-training, AEO trusted trader status and alternative goods routing to the European continent.

Germany, France and Spain are most sought-after European export markets In addition, IEA members are already strongly looking to access new exports markets. Germany is often cited as the top destination for diversification with other EU markets featuring prominently.

France being third with 23%, Spain fourth at 19% and the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Sweden all appearing in the top 10.

We are also seeing growing interest in English-speaking markets with the USA (27%), Australia (17%)

and Canada (16%) all gaining popularity as well as high growth markets like China (10%), Japan (8%) and ASEAN nations (8%).

IEA At the Irish Exporters Association we offer a wide range of high-quality training courses to get your business Brexit ready, including a two day course on efficient warehousing strategy and design and Brexit for your Supply Chain.

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How digital twin technology will transform the manufacturing sector Digital twin technology could be worth $90bn by 2025. It is fast becoming an invaluable measure of real-world success potential for the med tech research sector for its real-time ROI. Professor Conor McCarthy Director, Confirm Centre

A digital twin is a virtual or cyber representation of a physical object, machine and/or their interacting process, which is continually updated in near realtime, and incorporates historical and current data, explain Confirm’s Centre Director, Professor Conor McCarthy, and Researcher, Dr Eoin Hinchy.

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he backbone of digital twin tech is an integrated system of sensors, actuators, data storage, data analytics and digital models. With the iterative miniaturisation of sensors and the rapid increase of networked IoT devices and computing power, digital twins are now becoming

Dr Eoin Hinchy Researcher, Confirm Centre

affordable and offer significant return on investment.

Live insight from the realworld tech, feeds into its digital twin

Digital twin tech is becoming more affordable, with significant ROI

Digital twin technology is being actively researched using advanced software to design the 3D models, run simulations and animations, which are updated in near realtime with live production data.

A digital twin test-bed demonstrator is also being developed at the University of Limerick, which combines the product, process and the machine in one system.

This test-bed will showcase digital twin technology to industry by joining plastics/composites to metals using ultrasonic welding and orbital drilling technologies.

Digital twin offers several business advantages in product design and manufacturing. For example, when designing a complex product such as a hip implant or a wind turbine blade, a digital model can be developed to test product performance under various loading and extreme operating conditions to ensure safe and reliable performance.

Once manufactured, the product can feed real-time data to the digital model, updating the digital twin on its performance over its lifecycle. This information can be used to develop more efficient, better performing and cheaper future products with a faster time to market.

Designing hybrid materials that will benefit Irish industry Availability of such hybrid material

combinations will offer significant design and performance enhancements to products developed by many Irish industrial sectors. A new, €1.4m SFI-funded, robotic joining suite will provide a physical platform for further digital twin research.

&RQÀ UP &HQWUH The digital twin research is led by the Confirm Centre Director, Professor Conor McCarthy and Professor Noel O’Dowd. The system architecture is being designed and developed by Dr Eoin Hinchy, with the joining applications being researched by PhD students, Damian McCarthy and Pat Mongan.

To find out more about the value and benefits of digital twin, as well as technical implementation, Confirm is hosting an industry workshop and open day on Thursday 6th December in Thomond Park Stadium, Limerick.

Please RSVP at confirm.ie/register or scan the QR Code.

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Brexit’s potentially disastrous impact on Irish researchers There are over 1,000 active research collaborations between The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, industry and academia see Brexit potentially derailing impact as a direct threat to their good work.

Dr David Tormey Academic Director,

Dr John Bartlett Head of Research, IT Sligo

Until relatively recently, links between academic researchers and industry were often confined to internships or small-scale projects.

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ompanies often worked with researchers on specific, short-term tasks, without necessarily taking advantage of the creativity research students could bring to their everyday work.

Several European Commissionfunded projects focus on academic researchers and industry working very closely together to address technological and societal challenges. The benefits of bringing researchers closer to the industries that will shape the focus of their future research and career is very clear.

IT Sligo are one of the higher education institutes forming strong links with industries working on advanced manufacturing and Industry 4.0 challenges.Their Head of Research, John Bartlett, believes this level of increased collaboration stands to benefit both the companies involved and the PhD students making their first strides into industry.

“Now, the model focuses on going to industry first, discussing the needs of an organisation and then designing research projects around those needs.”

NWCAM and RENEWABLE ENGINE involve academic partners from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Western Scotland and support over 13 Postdoctorates and 25 PhDs working on advanced

PEM Research Centre, IT Sligo

manufacturing and renewable energy projects in collaboration with several industrial partners including Abbott and GSK in Sligo.

These innovative projects require close collaboration between Northern Ireland and the Border Counties, something threatened by any Brexit deal resulting in a hard border between the two.

A poor Brexit deal could be disastrous for us Dr David Tormey, Academic Director of PEM Research Centre, foresees a bad Brexit deal having a disastrous impact on his project.

“We have several PhD students and post doctorate researchers who travel regularly across the border to meet our NWCAM academic partners. Researcher mobility is very important for us; a bad Brexit deal

has the potential to limit the impact of our research projects and inhibit PhD student development.

200 projects could be scrapped IT Sligo has over 200 open collaborations into Northern Ireland, all funded by the EU. A loss of that funding could have a disastrous effect on future projects, likely to be scrapped should EU funding dry up.

Bartlett believes the damage caused would impact on relations between researchers working on both sides of the border.

“It isn’t just about the money, it’s what the money makes possible. It’s the building of relationships and shared visions between the two countries, that could be in serious jeopardy.”

James Alder

,7 6OLJR The Institute’s Centre for Precision for Materials and Manufacturing Research (PEM Research Centre) is funded by Enterprise Ireland to support the R&D needs of the manufacturing sector. The PEM Centre is also a partner in the I-Form Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre funded by SFI and the North West Centre for Advanced Manufacturing (NWCAM) funded by Interreg VA and SEUPB.

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