The Manufacturer December 2021 by The Manufacturer

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DECEMBER 2021 | VOL 24 ISSUE 8

CLOUD

COVER Meeting sustainability ambitions @TheManufacturer

www.themanufacturer.com

Smart Factory Expo

Best of British

A fresh approach

The path to net zero

Powering the digital manufacturing revolution

TMMX Awards winners announced

Breaking down the barriers to automation

Using digitalisation to drive carbon reduction

EDITOR Joe Bush j.bush@hennikgroup.com The dust has now settled on what was a fantastic Digital Manufacturing Week (DMW) 2021 in Liverpool – the annual festival of advanced manufacturing including The Manufacturer MX Awards and The Manufacturer Top 100 ceremonies. I have only been on the editorial team at The Manufacturer for a short time, however, while attending the events, it certainly didn’t take long to get enthused and excited by the people working in the sector and the effort they’ve put in during the past 12 months (which, as we all know, has served up unprecedented challenges for UK manufacturers). Adversity can be a breeding ground for invention and innovation, and the examples of that showcased at the awards ceremonies, on the exhibition floor and during the Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit, couldn’t help but inspire. A full review of the event and awards can be seen in the following pages. As well as the integration of technology and the advance towards digitalisation, another key theme during DMW was sustainability – perhaps not surprising, considering the show took place at the same time as COP26. While the politicians mused over ambitious 2030 emissions reduction targets in Glasgow, down in Liverpool the discussion focused more on the need for action. A fact summarised by one speaker from the Manufacturing Leaders' Summit, who warned that activities such as setting up a sustainability working group by the end of next year are simply not good enough. Having net-zero roadmaps laid out to 2030 is all very well, but what is going to be done on Monday morning? Today’s leaders are

the first to seriously understand the full impact of climate change, but the last that will be able to do anything about it. The digital transformation of manufacturing is key to enhancing the sustainability agenda, can deliver emissions reductions, and can do so quickly. But crucially, it also makes sound business sense. In our lead interview this issue, Michael Wignall, Azure Business Group Lead, Microsoft, was quick to dispel the myth that being sustainable will cost money, and urged that the business case for digital transformation existed well before the one for sustainability. Another recurring theme from DMW, particularly with a view to the previous 18 months, was how digitisation has helped enhance business resilience. We have seen manufacturers and engineers come together during the COVID-19 pandemic, uniting around common priorities and collaborating to change the sector for the better – none of which would have been possible without digital transformation. It remains to be seen if this resilience will be called upon again in the coming months. At the time of writing, we are seeing a return to mandatory face masks as cases of the ominously named 'Omicron' variant of the COVID-19 virus begin to crop up in the UK. Fingers crossed that a lid can be kept on this so-called ‘variant of concern’, and that we can look forward to 2022 with optimism and confidence. Therefore, I would like to take the opportunity to wish our readers a happy, prosperous, but above all, safe festive break and New Year.

D E C @TheManufacturer www.themanufacturer.com

Editorial Advisory Board The Manufacturer’s editorial advisory board provides insight and guidance to the editorial team on a regular basis, helping maintain the relevance and quality of the magazine’s content, both in print and online. The board also provides diverse and expert comment on strategic developments in manufacturing.

Board members also advise on other The Manufacturer products and online publications, such as the Annual Manufacturing Report. Membership is by invitation only, but if you would like to be considered, please email j.bush@hennikgroup.com

Andrew Churchill

Thomas d’Arcy

MANAGING DIRECTOR JJ Churchill and The Manufacturer Top 100, Exemplar 2014

INNOVATION LEAD Rolls-Royce plc. Young Manufacturer of the Year, TMMX Awards 2017

Chris White

Sarah Black-Smith

Deirdre Fox

Christopher Greenough

DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRIAL POLICY Manufacturing Technology Centre

HEAD OF FACTORY OPERATIONS Siemens Digital Factory, Congleton

DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Tata Steel

CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER SDE Technology, and The Manufacturer Top 100, Exemplar 2016

Dave Mooney

Simon Edmonds

MANAGING DIRECTOR Drallim Industries, and The Manufacturer Top 100, shortlisted 2014

DEPUTY EXECUTIVE CHAIR AND CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER Innovate UK

Jan Ward

Roy Haworth

CEO Corrotherm, and The Manufacturer Top 100, Exemplar 2014, current Judge

ENGINEERING INTEGRATION MANAGER Airbus Defence and Space, and The Manufacturer Top 100, Member 2016

David Holmes

Marcus Burton

MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS DIRECTOR MAI BAE Systems and The Manufacturer Top 100, Exemplar 2017

NON-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Yamazaki Mazak UK

Bill Williams

Laura McBrown

CEO The Centre for Engineering & Manufacturing Excellence

MANAGING DIRECTOR G&B Electronics and The Manufacturer Top 100, Member 2016

The Manufacturer team is also proud to be acknowledged for the following…

FINALIST Best New Conference launch and best Congress of Convention in the Conference Awards 2019

GLOBAL TOP 25 Media Brand for Internet of Things RiseGlobal 2019

H E N N I K

FINALIST Small Digital Publisher of the Year in the aop Digital Publishing Awards 2019

R E A S E A R C H

FINALIST Event of the Year in The PPA Awards 2019

L T D

FINALIST Technology & Manufacturing in the British Journalism Awards for Specialist Media 2018

GLOBAL TOP 50 Brand for Digital Transformation – Onalytica 2018

www.hennikgroup.com

Decemb

DIRECTORY INTELLIGENT PROCUREMENT PLATFORM

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06 FIRST

LEAD INTERVIEW Cloud cover – helping manufacturers meet sustainability ambitions Microsoft discuss how cloud technology can make sustainability a reality

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14 – The best of British manufacturing Winners of The Manufacturer MX (TMMX) Awards 2021 announced 20 – Celebrating the UK’s manufacturing heroes The Manufacturer Top 100 welcomes the class of 2021

28 – Made Smarter Innovation showcases activities at DMW Highlighting the role digitalisation in manufacturing must play in the road to net zero

32 – IBM’s vision of the connected factory Providing the technology backbone to deliver the smart factory

COVER: Artishok/SHUTTERSTOCK

10 – Powering the digital manufacturing revolution The Manufacturer looks at some of the highlights from Smart Factory Expo 2021

22 – Sustainability takes centre stage The Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit 2021 formed an integral part of Digital Manufacturing Week (DMW) 2021

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The Manufacturer caught up with Len Palmer, MD of Lander Automotive, which was recently named Manufacturer of the Year at the 2021 TMMX Awards

SUPPLY CHAIN A demand for supply - where and when you want it. How can manufacturing mitigate future supply chain issues?

42 – Breaking down some data walls on the manufacturing floor Taking to the waters of manufacturing’s data lakes 44 – COP26 marks a historic moment for humankind How to drive sustainability through manufacturing 50 – Have yourself a stressfree Christmas Supply chain innovation could save the festive season

Ls LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY

Id INNOVATION & DESIGN

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54 – Prepare for a shock – innovating for resilience Top tips on how to ‘futureproof’ your business against an uncertain future 58 – Paving the way to net zero manufacturing Using industrial digitalisation to drive carbon reduction

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36 – Automation: A new perspective on an age-old issue Breaking down longstanding adoption barriers

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60 – Fast, on-demand prototyping Delivering complex prototypes faster 62 – On the frontline in the war for talent The battlefield of the UK employment market – 2021 and beyond

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THE INTERVIEW

Michael Wignall, Azure Business Group Lead, Microsoft

CLOUD COVER

Helping manufacturers meet sustainability ambitions

n January 2020, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, President Brad Smith and CFO Amy Hood, announced the company’s bold commitment to be carbon negative by 2030 and to remove its historic emissions by 2050. This signalled a raising of the bar for Microsoft regarding its sustainability ambitions and culminated with a set of commitments for the company to be carbon negative, water positive, zero waste, and protect more land than it uses by 2030.

What’s the history behind Microsoft’s carbon commitment? Michael Wignall: Microsoft has a renewed commitment to sustainability. We’ve been talking about carbon neutrality for about a decade, but it was only last year that we made some really clear commitments to becoming carbon negative, waste neutral and water positive - all by 2030. And so those three things

ALL IMAGES: MICROSOFT

At the recent Digital Manufacturing Week (DMW), The Manufacturer’s Joe Bush caught up with Michael Wignall, Azure Business Group Lead, Microsoft, to find out how cloud technology can make sustainability a reality

You can’t manage what you can’t measure

MAIN PIC: Firstline workers using Mixed Reality on the factory floor

(carbon, waste and water) are really high on the agenda at Microsoft. There’s a lot of work to be done between now and 2030, but we’re really pleased and proud of the stance that we’re taking in this area. How much of a challenge will it be to fulfil those ambitions? For sure these ambitions are incredibly challenging. We don’t want to set expectations that this is going to be easy - if it was, people would have done it already. However, I think the time is now and there’s undoubtedly a sense of urgency around sustainability. The difference between what we’re doing now, from what we might have done in the last ten years, is we’re concentrating not just on our own Scope 1 and 2 emissions - the core energy around our data centres, infrastructure and power – but we’re also extending that focus to Scope 3, to look at the entire supply chain. However, we don’t have all the answers yet. We have a target, a commitment and a plan in place, and part of the carbon negativity pledge (to take out of the atmosphere more carbon than we put in), is that we want to continue beyond 2030. So, by 2050, we have made a commitment to take out all our historic carbon that we have put into the atmosphere since the company’s founding in 1975. That’s a big task and there’ll certainly have to be new technologies developed to be able to do that.

What strategy and roadmap are in place to achieve these goals? I lead the cloud business for Microsoft in the UK, so the first thing is to move to the cloud. There are clear benefits around economies of scale, efficiencies of infrastructure, and what we wrap around our next generation data centres, such as green renewable energy. For example, we’ve made a commitment that all our data centres globally will use 100% renewables by 2025. And moving to the cloud is part of how we enable that. However, that’s not enough. Part of the commitment is not just focused on what we do with our technology, but how we provide that technology to others - to manufacturers, the finance industry, businesses big and small, the public sector, etc, to help them achieve their emissions targets and become more sustainable. I think that partnership journey is really important because we can’t do it alone - we want to be sustainable and learn best practice, but we all need to work together to achieve this. What role will technology play on the journey to net zero? As well as needing to work with others, we need technology in order to meet our sustainability goals - it’s not enough just to perform efficiency savings. For sure that will get us a long way, but we still need

RIGHT: New approaches to enhance sustainability will require technology to enable them

to use energy to perform a lot of the things we do today. Moving to green energy will take some of the emissions away in that regards. However, one of our approaches is to become water positive. We want to provide more water back into the environment than we take out. To do that will require advances in technology. We will have to come up with new approaches and to think about how to do things differently. So, there’s really two elements to technology. There’s the underlying cloud enabled platform, but further to that, what will be key is how we do clever things with data and AI, come up with new business models, and think about how we can perform carbon removal and other approaches that just don’t exist today. And those approaches will require technology to enable them. As a manufacturer how can cloud technology help me to be more sustainable?

As well as needing to work with others, we need technology in order to meet our sustainability goals - it’s not enough just to perform efficiency savings 5 key takeaways > 1. When creating a sustainability strategy, firms must ensure they’re not just focusing on their carbon output, but also their waste and water output. > 2. The clock is ticking, organisations need to act now to cut their emissions to meet government targets and reduce global warming. > 3. Manufacturing organisations have a lot to learn from each other’s sustainability journey and can support the industry by sharing what they find.

> 4. Manufacturing firms should understand and utilise the array of environmental benefits cloud computing can bring. By switching to the cloud, businesses can reduce their energy use, decrease emissions, reduce technology waste and more. > 5. Implementing sustainable solutions does not have to be daunting - the tools to help manufacturing businesses get started already exist.

The first recommendation I’d have is to look at your current infrastructure, and there’s tools out there which can help. Microsoft, for example, has the Emissions Impact Dashboard which allows you to perform an inventory of your current infrastructure and the emissions that produces, and an assessment of how easily that could be moved to the cloud. We’ve conducted a whole range of assessments to look at the reduction in carbon emissions and energy usage which can be achieved just by moving what is there today to the cloud. So, manufacturers big and small should perform a sustainability assessment, look at their emissions, and then build a roadmap towards the cloud. They don’t need to do it all at once, they can start small with just a few elements. But that is a great first step. Because in doing that, they’ll be able to measure their emissions. Once you measure it, you can manage it – and that’s very important. Moving to the cloud is one step, but then you will not only need to collect data on everything you do there, but also from your downstream supply chain. Once you’ve got that data, and you know what the impact is, you can then put new techniques and approaches in place to manage it. You can’t manage what you can't measure, and part of the challenge we have today is that there really isn’t set standards on how to conduct that measurement. People measure things in different ways, and so with the Emissions Impact Dashboard, and the new Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, we’re trying to write a framework, based on open standards, to create a common method of measuring, and if people start to do that then they can manage productively. Is there a misconception among businesses that being sustainable will be costly? Absolutely. The perception that you must pay to be sustainable is one I come up against every day. I talk to customers and partners all the time, and one of the regular roadblocks is that they say to me: “That’s going to cost us, and we’ll need to sacrifice some profit to be able to become sustainable”. It’s simply not true. Even at the basic level of using core cloud services, there are business cases that we had well before we introduced sustainability-based ones, that showed the cloud is more cost effective than on-premises solutions.

How can Microsoft help?

ABOVE: Technology will help manufacturers become more efficient and therefore, will ease the journey to net zero

The perception that you must pay to be sustainable is one I come up against every day. It’s simply not true

Moving to the cloud allows you to reduce your costs, minimise CapEx and manage spikes in demand, so that you only need to pay for what you use, instead of buying lots of infrastructure that might sit idle for long periods. The business case around dealing with these issues was often around cost. If you reduce your costs through the cloud, then that is reducing energy usage and compute power, so there’s a knock-on effect on sustainability. So, we fundamentally believe that the cost efficiency savings you can get from the cloud, correlates directly with sustainability goals - you don’t have to trade off one against the other.

’m passionate about what customers do with our technology, what they build and innovate. We don’t have all the answers. We are a platform company that builds infrastructure, tools and capabilities. What’s interesting is the clever things manufacturers are doing on top of the platform. I spoke about some case studies during my keynote at The Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit. Recycleye are a small London-based start-up who are using Azure Machine Learning, image recognition and cameras to increase the amount of recycling and reduce overall waste. This is a really good example of where technology has been used to do something innovative. Rolls-Royce is another. It is working with our data platform and AI to perform simulations on engine efficiency. The more it can simulate different models and make tweaks to its engine design, the more it helps Rolls-Royce to build more energy efficient engines and therefore, become more sustainable in the long-term. Those sorts of examples are the ones that I’m really passionate about - manufacturers using our technology platform in innovative ways. Of course, there’s a benefit of simply using the platform in and of itself, but when manufacturers then go further and do something clever on top of it in the area that they know best – that’s when it really excites me.

Watch the full video interview here

POWERING THE DIGITAL MANUFACTURING REVOLUTION RIGHT & ABOVE: Smart Factory Expo featured a variety of emerging technology that can help manufacturers on the road to digital transformation

In its sixth year, Smart Factory Expo, held as part of Digital Manufacturing Week, brought together all the technologies that are driving the digitalisation of manufacturing. The Manufacturer looks at the some of the highlights

he business value of smart and connected factories cannot be disputed, and despite factors such as Brexit and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic industry adoption of innovative manufacturing technologies and the journey towards digitalisation has accelerated. In their talk around accelerating the journey to Industry 4.0, Jack Fitzgerald, Head of Manufacturing UK, Softserve, and Zerrin Derin, Customer Engineering Manager, Google, highlighted that Industry 4.0 holds the key to delivering on critical

business imperatives. They explained how the adoption of AI/ML, cloud, and big data solutions increase factory productivity, eco-efficiency, agility, and resilience. However, despite these clear advantages most manufacturers still view the transformation to Industry 4.0 as a pipe dream. To turn this dream into a reality Fitzgerald and Derin explained that there are a number of common barriers to Industry 4.0 adoption that need to be overcome, and offered a practical guide to help achieve this. “There has been over ten years of ‘Industry 4.0’ talk and our research has shown

that only 28% of use cases have been adopted. There are many reasons behind the smart manufacturing lag but some include issues with system integration, lack of clear ROI in new technology and lack of buy-in from the top management board,” says Fitzgerald. As discussed earlier, there are wider, ongoing disruptions that have created barriers to the adoption of innovative technologies. And, despite the acceleration of digitalisation during the last two years, it is not without its challenges. As an example, automation projects are costly, complex and

resource-intensive, and getting them wrong can leave a business with hard to manage legacy challenges. In the Cambridge University Institute for Manufacturing Theatre, Liz Salter, Industrial Associate, IfM Engage, introduced a systematic approach to decision making, and how this informs good equipment sourcing choices. She explored the potential downsides of automation alongside the more frequently presented benefits, as well as considering the implementation challenges that a specific solution needs to overcome to ensure that business expectations are met.

I’m delighted to see how busy it is... it’s been brilliant Mark Hughes, Regional Vice President UK & Ireland, Epicor

From the exhibition floor Down on the show floor a constant hum and buzz of conversation could be heard from the start of Smart Factory Expo to the finish. The thrill and excitement of being able to meet old friends and, in plenty of cases, engage with new contacts was there for all to see. There were exhibitors of all sizes; the likes of Epicor, Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge and The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), to the bright young start-ups and entrepreneurs on show along Innovation Alley. As we were exploring the show floor and chatting to

exhibitors, we came across Andrew Walvin who was manning the Cognite stand. When asked about the conversations he’d been having, he replied: “You won’t be surprised to hear it’s been around sustainability and reducing energy consumption. We’ve also had conversations around how a lack of production optimisation can lead to reduced cost effectiveness. So, some interesting discussions on different topics, but primarily people are talking about sustainability and CO2 reduction - particularly all the large manufacturing organisations." Walvin continued: “In

regard to sustainability, and in relation to what we do, I’d say a common challenge that gets brought up is the ability to identify and unlock data. Large manufacturers in the aerospace and automotive industry have collected the data, but they’re not quite sure how to unlock its value. “Being able to do that is key – because identifying the relationships in that data provides valuable insights into manufacturing processes.” Omron were also exhibiting equipment that was focussed on the current labour shortages in manufacturing. Dan Rossek said: “We’re showcasing some automation technologies that can support

this. We’ve got an example of an end of line palletiser, which is traditionally quite a labourintensive operation. We’re showing the opportunities for automation in those types of environments.” When asked why Smart Factory Expo was a good forum to showcase this technology he added: “The types of visitors here have very much got these ideas in focus, so it’s perfect. It’s great to be able to show this type of technology – there are some risks involved when it comes to exhibiting live! However, we’ve had no issues so far and I’m happy to say it’s been well received.” At the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) stand, Phil Jackson expressed his delight at being back in-person and being able to exhibit to people. He said: “It’s been terrific. There are so many great exhibitors and some wonderful technology on show. It’s really nice to see it all back after a really difficult couple of years.” The MTC were displaying an impressive selection of collaborative robots, hoping to

demonstrate the tremendous value that robotics and automation can bring to the business. “If you think about your application carefully and you go through a process introspection about what you need to achieve, and then put that into a specification and deploy it, then your business can achieve huge things with such technology,” Jackson explained. “We’re all about helping businesses to de-risk the adoption of robots. Cobots are a great way of showing what’s possible with relatively low-cost equipment. We’re showing how you can rapidly programme and deploy this kind of equipment.” Another exhibitor that was making something of a splash at SFE was AvePoint. News quickly spread across the show floor that there was a stand where you could get a coffee with a picture of your own face printed into it. Yatindra Ranpura met us at the AvePoint stand: “We’re looking after allowing organisations to migrate, manage and protect their Microsoft investments - and this is our first time here, so we’re excited to be chatting to organisations and helping them.” The barista on the AvePoint stand was making coffee for visitors in the same way as any other at SFE, but it was then passed along to a machine that could print any image taken from an Ipad onto the top of the coffee.

BELOW: On the AvePoint stand you could get a coffee with a picture of your own face printed onto it

It’s been brilliant! I’ve really enjoyed the expo. There have been some good conversations and it’s been interesting and lovely meeting lots of new people after two years. You don’t get that free-flowing conversation when you have to put your hand up on Zoom! It’s been brilliant to get back to face-to-face Sarah Black-Smith, Siemens

ABOVE: Omron exhibited equipment that was focussed on the current labour shortages in manufacturing “We love tailoring to our customers' needs,” said Ranpura. “This reflects that – you can have whatever picture you want printed into your coffee! It’s been well received, hopefully we’ll be back next year with something similar to this.” An attraction that must be mentioned from SFE, is the hugely impressive Innovation Alley. Found right at the heart of the show floor, this straightline walk takes visitors down a road bustling with talent and innovation. Some of the UK’s best and brightest start-ups were exhibiting in the hope of networking and reaching a wider manufacturing audience. We spoke with Kim Lloyd from Supply View Limited who was desperate to have faceto-face conversations about

supply chains, and some of the challenges that have existed for manufacturers. “I haven’t stopped talking for two days,” said Lloyd. “This has been a great opportunity to meet likeminded people who really want to actually learn from COVID and from the fact that supply chains have been under a lot of pressure over the last two years.” Lloyd continued: “Our company specifically looks to make supply chains more resilient by really connecting all of the disparate IT landscape that exists in virtually every manufacturer that we talk to. We enable them to understand what’s happening in their supply chains, and more importantly, what they can do to correct it.”

Go to www. themanufacturer.com/videos/ to check out the news from the show floor

The SME Growth Summit 2021, in partnership with the MTC’s Digitalising Manufacturing Conference, saw strategic leaders of UK SME manufacturers gather to discuss the issues that matter across the sector

plethora of leading experts in digital manufacturing offered their insight via a high-calibre array of presentations and panel discussions. Delegates also had the opportunity to sit down with their peers at interactive roundtables to discuss and identify the most effective avenues of growth and how to act on them. Digitalisation on a budget One hurdle for SMEs on the road towards digitisation is, of course, cost. And for small companies on a budget, the implementation of new and emerging technologies must make economic sense. However, is it possible for SME manufacturers to tap into the benefits of digitalisation without the costs and risks inherent in large-scale solutions? In his keynote, Dr Greg Hawkridge, Research Associate, IfM, University of Cambridge, discussed ‘Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring’, an EPSRC-funded project which aims to understand and demonstrate how low-cost commercially available technologies for mobile computing, sensing and AI can be exploited by SMEs. Hawkridge explains: “Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring is a project that involves the following activities: requirements gathering, SME digital manufacturing assessments, options development, hackathons, pilot studies, engagement and application workshops, demonstration sessions and low-cost digital solution development. “From our initial research and activity with the manufacturing industry, we expect a high rate of adoption among small-to-medium sized companies. Shoestring removes the normal barriers these companies face when considering digitalisation: the cost barrier is removed by the low-cost approach; the risk barrier is removed by a non-core systems approach; and the complexity barrier is overcome by the requirement development approach, enabling companies to ‘dip their toe in the water’ and adopt one digital solution at a time.” Find out more at www.digitalshoestring.net

SME growth During the second day of the SME Growth Summit, Chris Walker, International Trade Policy, Federation of Small Businesses, shared some positive statistics on SME growth over the past 12 months. “According to our research, over 16% of SMEs developed or designed a new product over the last 12 months, despite obvious challenges. Ten percent of businesses diversified their product range into new products and 24% increased their use of digital technology.” John Pearce, CEO, Made In Britain, discussed the evolution and growth in the post-Brexit, post-pandemic economy, further highlighting the opportunities for SME growth and innovation as British manufacturing enters a new era. He also shone a light on some of the experiences of Made in Britain member companies, which have found innovative ways to grow and evolve against the backdrop of a swiftly changing economic landscape. “SMEs are the beating heart of the British economy - making up 99% of the businesses in this country and the vast majority of our membership at Made in Britain. Over the last year we’ve been growing at our fastest ever rate as manufacturers seek to capitalise on the rising demand for goods made in this country, post-pandemic and post-Brexit. As the UK has slowly been returning to normal over the past few months, I’ve spoken to dozens of our members whose order books are bursting, with instances of demand far outstripping supply. “More recently conversations have been dominated by supply chain disruptions, rising shipping costs, driver shortages - the list

goes on. All of which has affected multiple business sectors, up and down the country. This ongoing logistics crisis is just the latest in a series of extraordinary challenges for SME manufacturers already weathering the storms of Brexit, as well as all the other unprecedented limitations and restrictions of many COVID-19 lockdowns. “One of the positives to be gained following more than a year and a half of uncertainty, is being compelled to look at what we actually do make here in Britain. Our research shows that the majority of both consumers and SMEs are now more likely to buy British goods than before the

According to our research, over 16% of SMEs developed or designed a new product over the last 12 months, despite obvious challenges pandemic; eight in ten businesses and consumers would happily pay more for products made here, while two fifths of consumers and two fifths of businesses would prefer to buy British regardless of the cost. Britain’s manufacturing sector has a long-held reputation for quality, reliability and innovation.” To receive some of the show insights direct to your inbox, subscribe to The Manufacturer's Digital Briefings: K www.themanufacturer.com/sign-upfor-the-manufacturer-uk-newsletter/

Manufacturer of the Year WINNER: Lander Automotive

sponsored by High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC)

"Genuinely humbled and genuinely surprised to receive this recognition. It’s amazing for the team and it’s well deserved" Len Palmer, Managing Director at Lander Automotive Ltd, Manufacturer of the Year

The winners of The Manufacturer MX (TMMX) Awards 2021 were recently announced at a gala dinner and ceremony in Liverpool, the culminating event of this year’s Digital Manufacturing Week.

rganised by The Manufacturer in partnership with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), TMMX Awards are widely considered as the gold standard for the manufacturing industry and are the only peer-reviewed and judged programme of their kind. With 2021 such a challenging year, it was, arguably, more important than ever to encourage, benchmark and celebrate manufacturing excellence, which is why we were delighted to see such a broad spectrum of UK manufacturers entering, and a good mix of returning and brand new companies to the programme.

With categories ranging from recognition in innovation and sustainability, through to leadership and staff engagement, there were plenty of opportunities for UK businesses of all sizes and sectors to be recognised. Judges included previous TMMX Awards winners, IMechE Fellows, representatives from each of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centres (HVMC), leading academics and industry experts. The awards saw the great and the good of UK manufacturing gather to enjoy an evening of celebration, hosted by comedian, writer and actress, Sally Phillips. An inspirational keynote was also given by British paracanoeist and gold medalist, Emma Wiggs, MBE.

Runner up Manufacturer of the Year WINNER: ASM Assembly Systems Weymouth Ltd

presented by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE)

“This one is for the team! There’s around 400 of us working down in the sleepy town of Weymouth, and throughout the pandemic, we stepped up. We didn't even know we could get the resources together to even enter these awards. But we pulled it together, we set ourselves up and this is for everybody in the team.” The ASM Assembly Systems team

Sustainable Manufacturing WINNER: Accolade Wines, The Park

Achieving Customer Value sponsored by Cranfield University

"I know that there are many businesses doing a lot in this space at the moment, but at The Park we are constantly pushing ourselves to do more. This award is greatly deserved." Louise Reeves of Sustainable Manufacturing winner, Accolade Wines’ The Park

sponsored by Made Smarter Innovation

www.themanufacturermxawards.com

Celebrating the UK’s manufacturing heroes 20

This year's Digital Manufacturing Week saw the announcement of The Manufacturer Top 100 2021 This has come as quite a shock! It’s great to be recognised. I think a lot of people in this industry work really hard and don’t always get the recognition they deserve, so nights like this are very important 2021 inductee Kevin White, Tata Steel

he Manufacturer Top 100 is a showcase of those individuals who go that extra mile in their field. It's certainly no secret that the last 12-18 months has thrown up unprecedented and unique challenges for UK manufacturing. However, these challenges made it even more important to celebrate manufacturing’s personal success stories, and to be able to gather in person to celebrate The Manufacturer Top 100 was something that has been greatly missed by all in attendance on the night. The Top 100 is not a list of the biggest budgets, the highest revenues, or the longest careers. Rather, it looks to reflect the broad spectrum of talent in the manufacturing industry and recognises those starting

Official Talent Partner for the Top 100 was JPS which was created to provide customers with a technology solution that delivers the very best candidates for their roles in a fast, efficient and cost-effective way. JPS has teamed this with support and guidance from a Customer Success Team with decades of recruitment and advertising expertise. Executive Education Partner for the Top 100 was Cranfield University, the UK’s only exclusively postgraduate university, whose worldclass expertise, large-scale facilities and unrivalled industry partnerships are creating leaders in technology and management globally.

MAIN PIC: The Manufacturer Top 100 class of 2021

out in their career, as much as those who have already achieved recognition. This is done by dividing the 100 finalists into six categories: Bold Investor in New Markets, Driver of Cultural Change, Innovator, Inspiring Leader, Unsung Hero, and Young Pioneer. Nominated by their peers and judged by an expert panel, the Top 100 represents the very best of the UK manufacturing industry. And for those that have demonstrated particularly impressive achievements, the judging panel chose 20 for special recognition – who are called ‘Exemplars’. Speaking at the event, Top 100 alumni Agata Choma, Head of Operations, Woodlands Group, gave those in attendance insight into what it means to her to be part of the Top 100 community. “It is a great recognition of the efforts I have put into developing my inner passion for leading and motivating people, and also my

responsibility to promote UK manufacturing - especially to women,” she says. “As my company has been through extensive growth over the last 12 months, I have used my connections for advice in leading that change.” Another alumni, Rajkaran Singh Kharbanda, spoke warmly about how being part of the Top 100 really gave him a sense of purpose and refocus back into manufacturing. “When you meet inspiring people, you aspire to be the best version of you, and really push yourself out of your comfort zone,” he says. “The Top 100 really celebrates the breadth and the depth of the sector. There’s some groundbreaking, game-changing things happening in the manufacturing space, and the Top 100 is a real showcase for that.” This year's cohort join the Top 100 alumni - a community of 800 UK industry movers and shakers!

Download your copy at K www.themanufacturertop100.com

LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY

With the aim of informing manufacturers on how to develop their business models in a practical manner, drive innovation forward towards net zero and which technologies to deploy across the manufacturing eco-system, the Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit 2021 formed an integral part of Digital Manufacturing Week (DMW) 2021. Joe Bush reports

SUSTAINABILITY TAKES CENTRE STAGE 22

or many, DMW represented a first foray back into face-toface events after what has been a near two-year hiatus due to COVID-19. If the pandemic has taught us anything it is how quickly the world is changing around us, and manufacturing is having to adapt accordingly. Supply chain resilience, robotics and process automation, AI, innovation, sustainability, changing markets, remote working – there are a multitude of areas that manufacturers can focus on to seize a competitive advantage in this unprecedented era. Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit brought together leading professionals who offered their insight on how manufacturers can develop their business models in a practical manner. Connected manufacturing, sustainability and transformation In his opening keynote on day one, Remy Mandon, IBM Vice President for Industrial Sector Europe, delved deeper into how businesses are using data to build safer, reliable and improved products. Regarding sustainability, Mandon comments that while it is a maturing area, we have some way to go if we are to meet future demands. “Right now, companies are predominantly

trying to tackle sustainability in terms of merely reducing the energy costs of their operations,” he says. “Sustainability is on high level agendas, but if companies really want to show they are decreasing their carbon footprint, managing their waste more efficiently etc., they need to prove they can do that more specifically - benchmarking equipment or plant performance against another, tracking the level of energy consumption by energy type, and so on.” Read a full interview with Mandon on page 32. Discussing the sustainable factory of the future still further, Christopher Fielden, Global Supply Chain Director, Innocent Drinks, highlighted two scary principles in terms of the sustainability outlook; today’s manufacturers are the first generation of leaders who are fully aware that climate change is happening, and the last that can do anything about it. What manufacturing leaders do now will define the future for the next generation. Bearing those stats in mind the company is currently building a new, sustainable factory near Rotterdam. Fielden added that to face this challenge the company set itself five key KPIs – the two most vital being that the factory had to be carbon neutral, and secondly, to inspire wider change - to do something that people could copy, learn from,

KEY TAKEAWAYS > T he time for action is now. It’s no good thinking of sustainability this time next year. You need to be thinking more about this time next week here’s room for > T collaboration when it comes to sustainability – don’t keep it to yourself > The perception that you must pay to be sustainable simply isn’t true > D on’t get left behind – a sustainability strategy is about more than just mitigating risk hese are challenging > T times so the opportunities and benefits of digital can’t be ignored

As the cost of collecting data decreases, the cost of securing data increases Remy Mandon IBM Vice President for Industrial Sector Europe

LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY

ABOVE: Delegates participated in deep-dive discussion breakouts where they shared insights and challenges with one another

Don’t keep sustainability to yourself, it shouldn’t be something we’re competing on. Christopher Fielden Global Supply Chain Director, Innocent Drinks improve on, challenge and then take into their businesses. “My four big takeaways regarding sustainability would be the bigger the dream, the bigger difference you can make; don’t underestimate your power to make change happen; sustainability is not a compromise; and you can use your business as a force for good – don’t keep sustainability to yourself, it shouldn’t be something we’re competing on.” Pressing the sustainability accelerator In their keynote, Yelena Ageyeva-Furman and Imran Dassu, Partners at Kearney, called for a step change in sustainability, pushing beyond mere experiments and

pilots, to drive action at scale. They stressed that the time to press the accelerator on sustainable manufacturing is now, as catching up later will be exponentially more expensive. Manufacturing is leading the transformation of current business models to new sustainable practices, and the winners during this period of seismic shift will be those who can display the ability to redefine their business, introduce radical innovation, build new capabilities and establish strong partnerships. Ageyeva-Furman commented: “It’s very timely to be talking about sustainability with the COP26 conference taking place in Glasgow this week, which will accelerate the need for a response to sustainability demands.” She added that there are currently three varying levels at which business leaders are approaching and addressing sustainability. The first is those who are operating a right to operate stance – or ‘doing right’. These companies view sustainability as a compliance and risk management issue. She stressed that these companies need to evolve. She continues: “The second approach is license to operate – ‘doing good’. This is where the majority of businesses are at today – optimising processes, conducting projects and engaging with the supply chain - which is a satisfactory intermediate step.” However, the goal is to take the third

approach which is license to thrive – or ‘doing more’. “These are the companies that are already doing something different and are pushing boundaries. They’re redefining their value chains, influencing regulation and pushing their own industry. Interestingly those are the businesses that are reaping the benefits today, while the rest of their field needs to catch up.” Further to this Dassu highlights that while manufacturers are undoubtedly feeling the pressure of sustainability demands, they often struggle to operationalise commitments. And to deliver this step change, manufacturers must act across three key areas – new business models, governance and capabilities, and radical innovation/partnerships. “For manufacturers, the reality of mitigating challenges will allow them to scale up what today may still be tentative projectbased initiatives. Ultimately, that’s what it will take to deliver on an organisation’s strategic vision. Just managing risks is not going to be enough to meet targets, and ultimately, businesses will have to establish mutual sustainability goals, but also meet costs, quality, safety and resiliency.” Preparing for a shift The question of whether manufacturing is ready for a paradigm shift to digital was addressed by Katherine Bennett, CEO at the High Value Manufacturing (HVMC), as she reflected on how digital can help manufacturers meet these challenges.

If every factory in the country was as good as the best that currently operates, profit would increase by 24% on average Steve Evans Director of Research in Industrial Sustainability, Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge

ABOVE: Steve Evans (left) Director of Research in Industrial Sustainability, Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge; and Michael Wignall (right) Azure Business Group Lead, Microsoft

She comments: “These are testing times for manufacturers, but are we really seizing the opportunities that digital can deliver? I’m not always sure that we are, and at a time when factories are facing unprecedented obstacles, the opportunities and benefits of digital can’t be ignored. “My organisation is made up of seven centres spread throughout the UK and we deal with many parts of the manufacturing sector. We can make sure manufacturers harness those latest technologies, so that they are equipped to face the challenges of today. Where we have the right tools and ecosystems in place, and where we can harness the true power of digital, amazing things can happen in manufacturing.” One such achievement Bennett cited was during the pandemic, when the HVMC and a large number of manufacturers joined forces for the Ventilator Challenge and delivered 20 years’ worth of ventilators in 12 weeks. This achievement could not have been realised without the integration of digital tools which allowed volume parts to be made quickly, production volumes to become aligned, and people to be trained at speed and in multiple locations.

Bennett adds: “Digital tools were at the heart of the challenge, managing an incredibly complex supply chain involving over 15 million parts from suppliers around the world. But I am proud to say that 95% of those parts were manufactured in the UK.” Shifting to the cloud Day two of the summit saw Michael Wignall, Azure Business Group Lead at Microsoft, kick-off proceedings, discussing how moving to the cloud can help manufacturers realise their sustainability ambitions. Echoing the themes on day one, Wignall stresses that the clock is ticking, and the pace of the sustainability journey needs to increase considerably. He notes that recent research, released alongside COP26, has shown plenty of net zero ambition among businesses. “Sixty-four percent of UK leaders want to cut emissions, and have it as part of their business strategy,” says Wignall. “However, the bad news is that only 41% of organisations are on track to meet their targets. What the findings of the research shows is that 74% have the ambition, but don’t have the commitment. Clearly that’s where we need to come together and talk about how we can support businesses on their journey.” This is where a cloud-based infrastructure can help on the sustainability journey. Read our lead interview with Wignall on page 6.

Making business sense It was a similar message from Steve Evans, Director of Research in Industrial Sustainability, Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge, who explained that not only can companies use industrial digitalisation as a tool to drive carbon reduction, but it can also increase labour and capital productivity – making it a clear win-win. “COVID-19 has been a huge bump in the road, but there are going to be more in the next two decades, so we’re going to need to build systems that are resilient to disruption. That plays into the sustainability agenda,” he comments. “This is something manufacturers are already good at – seeing a problem and doing something about it. Efficiency is not going to get us to pure net zero by 2050, but it will get us on the path, and at the same time, make us money. We made a calculation that if every factory in the country was as good as the best that currently operates, profit would increase by 24% on average. “Learn how to be energy efficient and grab some of that 24%. Some of the later steps on the journey are more expensive, but isn’t it better to have the money in the beginning? That’s the sort of ROI that I like. If we do that well, industry (which represents approximately ten percent of GDP), can deliver around 50% of the change that the nation needs.” Read a full interview with Steve Evans on page 58.

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Made Smarter Innovation showcases activities at DMW The Manufacturer’s Digital Manufacturing Week in Liverpool succeeded in highlighting the role digitalisation in manufacturing must play in the net zero agenda. Simon Edmonds, Innovate UK’s Deputy Executive Chair and Chief Business Officer reports

he events highlighted the best manufacturing case studies, collaborations and stories of tech developers supporting manufacturers on the road to digital transformation. The Made Smarter Innovation challenge, funded by UK Research and Innovation, aimed to showcase the myriad of partners and projects it is delivering alongside its stakeholders and partners across KTN, Digital Catapult, ESPRC, ESRC and Connected Everything. Activities included the Made Smarter Innovation Summit, which ran over two days and brought together a wealth of speakers from across industry and academia, and some highly engaging panel discussions to discuss the ‘here and now’ of Made Smarter Innovation and the importance of digital manufacturing innovation in future plans. The conference also brought in key themes around climate emergency and explored the opportunities for digital technologies in solutions to achieve net zero.

ABOVE: The Made Smarter Innovation Alley LEFT: TrakRap has have received Innovate UK funding in the past and has worked with the Manufacturing Technology Centre, part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult

The £20m Smart Sustainable Factories Collaborative R&D competition was also launched at the show. UK registered businesses and organisations can apply for a share of up to £20m for digital innovation projects that will improve the resource and energy efficiency of manufacturing processes in factories. Applications are encouraged from consortiums comprising a mix of manufacturing and technology development capabilities working together on innovative developments or novel applications of digital technologies. Projects can range from £1m to £8m, run for up to two years and tackle themes such as reducing in-process material losses, and better sequencing manufacturing operations to reduce energy consumption.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Simon Edmonds, Innovate UK’s Deputy Executive Chair and Chief Business Officer Feedback! All feedback gratefully received. Twitter: @SJSEdmonds

K www.gov.uk/government/people/ simon-edmonds

UK registered businesses and organisations can apply for a share of up to £20m for digital innovation projects that will improve the resource efficiency and energy efficiency of manufacturing processes in factories

One company that is already innovating in this area is TrakRap, who have received Innovate UK funding in the past and has worked with the Manufacturing Technology Centre, part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. Other Made Smarter highlights Made Smarter Innovation Alley ran through the heart of Smart Factory Expo and brought together 57 of the new and developing technologies that will change the landscape of manufacturing over the next five to ten years. Groundbreaking solutions from the next wave of technology and consultancy businesses targeting manufacturers were demonstrated on the stands.

INNOVATION & DESIGN

Innovation resources for manufacturers

ABOVE: The Made Smarter Innovation Summit

Fifteen companies from the Alley also took part in the Made Smarter Innovation Alley Investment Readiness programme where they had the opportunity to pitch their innovative solution to in-person and online Angel and VC investors ready and willing to invest in the sector. The Made Smarter Emerging Technology Show showcased the early-stage R&D which is occurring across the manufacturing ecosystem from the Made Smarter Innovation EPSRC Research Centres, the Made Smarter Innovation ESRC Network and Connected Everything. The InterAct network, launched at Digital Manufacturing Week, is a call to arms for academics from the social sciences to support the innovation and diffusion of digital technologies that will result in a stronger, more resilient UK manufacturing industry. The SME Growth Summit, supported by BEIS and the Made Smarter Adoption programme highlighted the benefits of adopting industrial digital technology through the Made Smarter programme – read a full review on page 15.

Two very interesting innovation resources for manufacturers have been made available through the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN). The first is a practical 5G guide for the manufacturing industry. KTN colleagues are working as a delivery partner for UK5G, the national innovation network dedicated to the promotion of research, collaboration and the industrial application of 5G in the UK. Its mission is to ensure that the UK is at the forefront of global 5G development. UK5G has developed a new online resource and event series which is designed to increase understanding of 5G technologies, generate immediate demand, and facilitate commercial deployments across the manufacturing sector. The second is a series of interviews with quantum organisations working with businesses in the manufacturing industry to create innovative technologies. KTN colleagues have interviewed these businesses to find out more about their work and the impact of quantum technologies on manufacturing in the future.

Other funding opportunities: Innovate UK Smart Grants

UK registered organisations can apply for a share of up to £25m for game-changing and commercially viable research and development (R&D) innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy. The closing date for applications is Wednesday 5 January 2022. K https://apply-for-innovation-funding. service.gov.uk/competition/1035/overview

For more information visit www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk

Jan 202

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

IBM’s vision of the connected factory EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

IBM is helping to provide the technology backbone to deliver the smart factory. At Digital Manufacturing Week, Joe Bush caught up with Remy Mandon, VP of Industrial Sector and Euan Pirie, Client Technical Leader, IBM, to find out more

s the headline suggests, connected manufacturing, sustainability and transformation are three key topics that are high on the agenda of manufacturers today. Each will form a key pillar in the smart factory of tomorrow and will shape the way it looks as well as the way it is run.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Where are each of these three key manufacturing topics on the road to maturity? RM: Connected manufacturing is pretty far advanced, and there has been plenty of integration between IT and OT processes already. Manufacturers are monitoring overall equipment effectiveness, the mean time to repair and so on. So, in terms of IT/ OT integration and the performance of plants and equipment we have already come a long way. As far as sustainability is concerned, it’s an area that is maturing, but we’re nowhere near where we need to be in the future. Right now, companies are predominantly trying to tackle sustainability in a sense of reducing the energy costs of their operations. Sustainability is on high level agendas, but if companies really want to show they are decreasing their carbon footprint, managing their waste more efficiently etc., they need to prove they can do that more specifically - benchmarking equipment or plant performance against another, tracking the level of energy consumption by energy type, and so on. IBM provides

tools to monitor that at an extremely granular level. EP: What’s really interesting is that when we did our manufacturers' survey last year, sustainability was quite low down on the agenda. But that’s really turned on its head this year, receiving a lot more attention, particularly after COP26. Within a manufacturing environment, who is taking responsibility for these key elements of digitalisation? RM: Currently we’re talking to heads of manufacturing, engineering, maintenance etc. Sustainability is a completely different agenda within organisations, but it’s still a key line of business and is being tackled from the top down. Boards are asking each team within the manufacturing line to prove they can be more sustainable within their operations. How do we move from theory to reality? RM: All manufacturers are looking for quick wins, and are looking at equipment and

solutions to deliver them – to enhance overall equipment effectiveness, produce more with better quality, enable products to be manufactured as designed, and prove to authorities that this can be done in the right way. That’s the anchor to the reality. Secondly, there’s a lot of manufacturers that have specific processes. So we help them run discovery workshops – we work with the engineers on the shop floor and in the field, on things that can be improved and processes that can be done differently. We work with them to build minimum viable products, change and improve operations within the plant from there we can move to the next level, deliver quick wins and scale. EP: Everybody tends to get stuck in proof of concepts and pilots etc. And nobody really thinks about the production scalability from the beginning. That is a really important point. When we’re looking at Industry 4.0 connected manufacturing, we really need to be thinking about how to scale, how to productionise and how to get the real benefits across all the different elements of the business.

Watch the full video interview here What is IBM currently doing in this space? RM: As far as our software is concerned, we are providing solutions for specific use cases that can deliver the quick wins that manufacturers are looking for. We have a solution called Maximo Application Suite which can monitor equipment effectiveness, asset health, asset performance, and visual inspection. And these kind of quick wins can already be delivered as part of a standard product. We are also working with customers in the field on things which are not necessarily already coded in the software. Something else which IBM brings to the table is that we are open source.

We are building in AI so that an operator or maintenance engineer can actually perform a specific task better, faster and based on much more informed decisions Remy Mandon, VP of Industrial Sector

EP: We've been working very closely with a number of providers on collaboration. IBM provides the core platform, and we enable the agility of partners and SMEs to deliver on top of that. Can you explain a little more about IBM’s 5G Factory of the Future programme? EP: I’ve been involved in 5G Factory of the Future in conjunction with the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre Northwest, BAE Systems, NTT which is providing some data and edge capability, and AQL which is providing the 5G network provision. It’s part of the Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport 5G Testbed and Trials Programme, and it’s the largest of all of the testbed trials. We’ve been working on it since August last year and we’ve got another year to go. We’re working through a number of use cases to test out 5G and edge in manufacturing. It’s progressing really well and it’s an exciting project to be involved in. Can you explain more about the use cases? EP: There are five key use cases that we're looking at. The first is around closed loop control, specifically how we adjust manufacturing or robotic arms on reconfigurable manufacturing floors in real-time using data. So we’ve got a number of sensors, both in the building and on the equipment, and then we’re monitoring what’s actually happening on the machining head – whether it be cutting, welding, joining etc, and adjusting that in real-time. We’re looking at digital twins. That focuses on reconfiguring a manufacturing production line over 5G. For example, 5G can take over a million sensors within a square kilometre, which really transforms what we can do with the amount of data we’re collecting into that use case. We have a use case which looks at factory ecosystem monitoring - looking at the environmental aspects within a

When we did our manufacturers' survey last year, sustainability was quite low down on the agenda. But that’s really turned on its head this year, receiving a lot more attention, particularly after COP26 Euan Pirie, Client Technical Leader, IBM

factory, and how that affects quality on the production line. For example, if somebody leaves a door open, how does that impact the air temperature? And how does that affect quality of the product we are manufacturing? We are also looking at supply chain and traceability. And then the final use case is around augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), asking how we transform the field service engineering experience using AR. How is IBM supporting the transformation of asset management to more advanced predictive applications? EP: In our Maximo Application Suite, we are able to collect and analyse a lot more data using artificial intelligence and predictive modelling, and we’re using a variety of techniques to do that through visual inspection and data collection etc. But it’s all about the data in these use cases. We’ve got the core platform in Maximo to manage and maintain those assets, and now we’re applying the advanced techniques on top of that to provide that capability to manufacturers. RM: With the explosion in the number of sensors and data points, it’s very important to help the operators with augmented intelligence, so we are building in AI so that the operator or maintenance engineer can actually perform a specific task better, faster and based on much more informed decisions.

What are the long-term benefits of technology on the road to digitalisation? EP: If we look at how a company is going to deploy these emerging technologies, 5G works in combination with edge, and edge works in combination with AI. So 5G is the network transport, edge is the ability to interpret and manage the data that comes from the shop floor, and AI is the enabler that really gives us the benefits. It’s the combination of those three technologies that’s really going to help manufacturing moving forward. There are now a huge amount of data points that we can start to collect, be it from robotics and plant floor, through tools and sensors, and raw materials. And with an open and transparent supply chain that’s really going to help us transform to much more efficient operations. RM: In the past, a manufacturer would send data to the cloud and perform analytics. Now that process has been completely reversed. Because of the increasing number of data points, data resides at the edge (where it is being collected). So IBM brings AI analytics to the edge - where the data can be analysed and AI models can be performed - so that performance improvements can be done on the shop floor, and decisions can be made where the data resides. It saves money and is better in terms of security and performance - it’s all about real-time decision making.

SMART FACTORY

Automation

A new perspective on an age-old issue

Automation and robotics provide the means to transform the productivity and global competitiveness of UK manufacturing, but only if long-standing barriers to adoption are finally overcome. Jonny Williamson reports

lmost a decade ago, within the pages of this very publication, I summarised what was said during a panel discussion on ‘Automation: The Great British Enabler’ held at The Manufacturer Directors’ Conference [now Leaders’ Summit]. For context, 2013 had seen the highest number of industrial robots ever sold in a single year – 178,132 units, up 12% yearon-year. Robot installations in the US

Robots replace roles not people, and removing a labour-intensive element of someone’s job with a new skill such as programming, will offer much more long-term value and purpose Tom Bouchier, Managing Director, FANUC UK

ALL IMAGES: MTC

SMART FACTORY

ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION: A NEW PERSPECTIVE

increased by six percent, Germany by four percent and China became the world’s largest robot market. In that same year, UK robot installations fell by 16%. During the discussion, the panellists debated why the UK continued to be among the lowest users of robotics automation compared to other leading technology nations. Their responses centred on an absence of skills, finance, awareness and support, with small businesses being the most affected. Shortly after the event, I interviewed Mike Wilson, the author of a new book which offered practical advice on how businesses could successfully integrate robot systems. Wilson told me: “Many UK companies don’t think robots are appropriate to them, they believe them to be too difficult or complicated for their operations and they also don’t know how to go about investigating and buying this type of equipment.” Lagging behind The seven years since have brought Brexit, COVID, half a dozen Business Secretaries, the rise and fall of an Industrial Strategy, the Made Smarter programme, and numerous Treasury initiatives. All of which have influenced capital investments made by UK businesses – exactly how much, how widespread and for how long remain unclear. Despite the global pandemic, sales of new robots in 2020 surpassed that of

2019. Industrial installations in the UK were up by eight percent. Yet, its shipments were about ten-times less than Germany, four-times less than Italy and half that of France. Progress is happening, but at a glacial pace. The UK remains well outside the top 20 for robots installed per 10,000 employees and lags behind in productivity as a result. If the UK is to reach its target of doubling the contribution of manufacturing to the economy by 2030 and of reaching £1tn in exports annually by the mid-2030s, then automation and robotics must be more widely adopted. How to achieve that has been outlined in a new report compiled by experts at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) and the Industrial Policy Research Centre, Loughborough University. Growth opportunities Mike Wilson, now Chief Automation Officer for the MTC, is one of the report’s principal writers. The author and former Chair of the British Automation & Robot Association (BARA), and the International Federation of Robotics, believes a stepchange in adoption holds the key to reversing 50 years of industrial decline. According to Wilson, the return of a strong manufacturing base would increase investment and employment and improve the prosperity of the country, particularly in more deprived areas. “[Additionally], the pandemic has exposed the weakness of our extended supply chains, leading to increasing recognition of the need to improve resilience within our manufacturing by increasing local content by reshoring production capacity,” he adds. The combination of reshoring and the proven efficiencies automation provides will also be critical to the UK reaching its goal of becoming a net zero economy by 2050. However, Wilson warns that a significant expansion of manufacturing capability cannot be achieved using current methodologies, “largely based on manual labour and obsolete equipment. “Firstly, the labour isn’t available, and this situation is unlikely to change as we cannot bring in a large workforce as we have done in the past. Secondly, this approach would not produce goods that were competitive in comparison to our overseas suppliers, which must be achieved to grow exports.”

126 UNITS World average for the number of installed industrial robots per 10,000 employees. At 101 units, the UK ranks 24th

183

BILLION

How much the application of industrial automation and robotics could add to the UK economy over ten years, according to the Made Smarter Review

to agree on the future skills needs of industry, particularly in relation to automation and robotics. • Support and extend robotics exposure in schools, and enhance pathways into engineering education, using robotics as a vehicle to encourage engagement. • Provide easy-access short courses to upskill existing staff with the capability to implement and operate automation and robotics systems; delivered in a way that minimises disruption to existing workplace activities.

Skills and Education

The lack of knowledge and skills within manufacturing to procure, implement and operate automation and robotics systems is a major issue. Expert Insight: “There are some good educational offerings and opportunities, but the overall structure is fragmented and there is no apparent consensus on what industrial robotics looks like from an educational, or indeed from an industry, perspective,” Professor Phil Webb, Cranfield University. Recommendations: • Demystify automation technology for businesses, employees, users and the public through educational material and demonstrating the benefits of adoption. • Bring industry, education, academia and the professional institutions together

Finance

Expert Insight: “Investment has been both lower and slower as a result of recent events creating a potential reserve of funding for improved investment levels moving forward. The cost of credit also remains low, allowing firms to access additional funding in cost effective ways and to enable investment in a way that preserves working capital and further aids business resilience,” David Atkinson, UK Head of Manufacturing, Lloyds Bank. Recommendations: • Ensure the finance community has a better understanding of the benefits of automation and robotics, and is willing to support longer-term investment strategies. • Government should continue to provide tax reliefs targeted at supporting investment in plant equipment, including robotics and automation.

Global average robot density grows by 12%

• Guidance and support should be provided to businesses to identify the most appropriate areas for investment, and particularly to develop the supporting business case.

Awareness

NOTE: – UK RANKS 24TH with a density of 101 units Press Conference World Robotics 2021 | 28 Oct 2021

Expert Insight: “Building clusters of manufacturers with the skills, finance and confidence to invest alongside automation providers and integrators can start to stimulate more competitive UK supply chains,” Professor Sam Turner, CTO, High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC).

*All robotic installation figures c/o The International Federation of Robotics

Accelerating adoption The established approach to grow manufacturing is to look to new, advanced technologies. An alternative and much less risky approach, Wilson says, is to look at what businesses can do today to ensure they can compete in the global marketplace. “[Robotics] is not a new technology, the solutions are available and proven… the challenge in the UK is adoption.” The report has identified four key issues that would assist and accelerate the future adoption of automation and robotics should they be rectified. You won’t be surprised by the four categories – skills and education, finance, awareness, and support. By implementing the report’s recommendations, the authors hope to finally lay these enduring issues to rest.

• Research activities on industrial automation and robotics need to be enhanced with a focus on solutions that could be used across multiple applications and sectors.

QUICK Q&A Recommendations: • A concerted effort must be made to address the fear of change and the perceived threat of unemployment through awareness activity explaining the benefits of automation and robotics adoption, working in cooperation with the media to ensure accurate and representative information is presented.

The Manufacturer caught up with Mike Wilson to understand more about the report’s recommendations: employment. Dispelling the myth should result in greater political support. Ultimately, I believe a lack of investment in robotics and automation leads to a loss of competitiveness which results in decline and job losses. The opposite is also true. Increased adoption of robotics and automation will lead to growth and job creation.

• Technology vendors, relevant trade bodies and the media must ensure accessible information is made available to increase awareness and engage a wider audience. • Better communication between the various networks, in the broadest sense, should be established to enable all stakeholders to learn from each other through collaboration and shared knowledge, ensuring that the most is being made of the technology available.

Support

Expert Insight: “Manufacturers need access to trusted support to evaluate which parts of the business are most ripe for automation and robotics and to help to develop the business case for investment,” Professor Sam Turner, CTO, High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC). Recommendations: • Enhanced non-partisan support for businesses in the whole process of adopting automation, from identifying the appropriate applications and gaining workforce buy-in, to developing the business case and producing a requirements specification, to the selection of an appropriate supplier and the implementation of the solution. • Provide ways to achieve collaboration and knowledge sharing across manufacturing and the automation supply chain to develop, demonstrate, test and de-risk affordable and deployable automation solutions. • Specific encouragement for SMEs to adopt automation and robotics technology. • Build on and extend existing networks to enable knowledge sharing across industry, not just manufacturing, to learn from previous failings and identify new ways for robotics and automation to be used to solve problems and grasp opportunities.

SMART FACTORY

Would extending the reach of the Made Smarter programme provide specific encouragement for SMEs to adopt automation and robotics technology? The Made Smarter North West pilot was expanded to the North East, the West Midlands and Yorkshire in March 2021. Rolling the programme out nationwide was always part of the proposal, but the government has been unable or unwilling to extend the programme on that basis. If it did, leveraging the existing infrastructure and resources of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult would deliver a national programme more quickly and at a lower cost. What can be done to address the fears of automation-related job losses? The popular press often reports robotics as a threat to jobs, but this is often due to a lack of clarification between robot process automation (RPA) and industrial robotics. RPA is essentially software bots that have been developed to undertake clerical tasks, which may have an impact on white collar roles. Industrial robotics is very different. Various papers have forecast a significant impact on jobs, but the largest impact is RPA related. We’ve seen a reluctance on the part of politicians to engage in supporting the cause for automation largely due to this fear of a negative impact on

Studies have shown that manufacturers prefer to, and indeed have the funds, to self-finance projects. This would suggest access to finance isn't a leading barrier to adoption. Access to finance isn’t the barrier - an unwillingness to invest is. We need to reach the point where financial directors understand the benefits of adoption, the long-term competitiveness it creates, and are actively asking their engineering and manufacturing directors why they aren’t submitting business cases for investment. Regarding building on and extending existing networks to enable greater cross-industry collaboration; is part of the problem the number and diversity of existing networks leading to a fragmented, albeit well-intentioned, landscape? It is, so we need to ensure that activities are less siloed. Industrial robot communities (educators, researchers, vendors, users) rarely speak with service robot communities. Knowledge and expertise aren’t being shared, despite the two sectors increasingly using similar technologies, such as vision recognition and AI. We believe in establishing robotics clusters, based around local centres, which would encompass all robotics activity, without divisions by sector or technology, and share solutions, experiences, skills and expertise. These local centres would be brought together under a national robotics body. The concept is based on a successful approach in Denmark which has produced globally successful robotics businesses, a much higher adoption rate and strong pipelines of both skills and start-ups. Download your copy of the report at www.bit.ly/MTC_Automation

!! First 50 tickets for each Symposium are FREE !!

2022 EVENTS

21 APR 2022

19 MAY 2022

Location TBC

EFFICIENCY AND GROWTH

INSIGHT AT SCALE

Data-minded manufacturing leaders will be coming together for the fourth year to discuss the role of data in their business. They will be exchanging views on the best practice to collect, process, store, analyse and monetise data to turn it into actions that create significant business value.

Automation-minded manufacturing professionals will be coming together to examine how to successfully expand the use of automation such as robots, cobots, wearables, CNC and vision inspection within their manufacturing operations. manufacturing-robotics.uk

industrial-data.uk

16 JUN 2022 40

Location TBC

REDUCE, RE-USE, REMANUFACTURE & RECYCLE

14 JUL 2022 Location TBC

DEVELOP, DISRUPT & TRANSFORM

Digital-minded manufacturing leaders will be discussing how to successfully plan and implement a digitalisation strategy across their businesses.

Sustainable Manufacturing Symposium welcomes 100 sustainability-minded leaders for a day of keynotes and interactive discussions providing the opportunity to virtually gather with their peers to discuss the role of sustainability in their business. The online Symposium platform will bring together all attendees in a single virtual room – concentrating the event’s focus on a series of high-profile content sessions.

The symposium will investigate key issues such as organisational and operational change, upskilling the workforce and when and where to implement enabling technologies. manufacturing-digitalisation.com

sustainable-manufacturing.uk

WEBINARS Concise deep dives in to specific topics led by industry specialists. Watch a back catalogue of practical how-to webinars on demand, or watch live and ask questions to stay on top of the latest trends and technologies with our fortnightly schedule. themanufacturer.com/webinars

Find out more: www.themanufacturer.com/events

December 2021 HouseAds.indd 2-3

MONTHLY

Virtual

PEER TO PEER NETWORKING

The home for directors and C-Suite of manufacturing businesses interested in networking with their peers. Regular virtual roundtable discussions over a glass of wine, focussed on key business issues to drive efficiency, sustainability, and innovation. Apply to join: directorsforum@hennikgroup.com

2022 EVENTS 14-18 NOV Liverpool

TA DIGI

MANUF WEE

AC K

SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRY 4.0 UNLEASHED

RING

Digital Manufacturing Week brings together ideas, experience and energy across a range of events engineered to support manufacturers at all levels of their digital journey. Driven by expert content, valuable peer to peer interaction and the best solutions available - listen to the world’s best speakers, see the newest and best tech, and experience global subject matter experts and solution providers. Join thousands of visitors, have important conversations, and expand your professional network. Read on to find out more about the core events...

NOV 2022

INDUSTRY’S BIGGEST DIGITAL MANUFACTURING SHOW

Liverpool

For the sixth year, Smart Factory Expo brings together all the technologies enabling the digital manufacturing revolution – creating a carefully-curated shop window for manufacturers at all stages of their digital journey.

The exhibition is spread out across eight distinct Visitor Zones, each of them anchored by a Solutions Theatre with free-to-attend presentations from manufacturing and technology experts..

NOV 2022

NOV 2022 Liverpool

SUSTAINABLE GROWTH THROUGH DIGITALISATION

Liverpool

Over the 2 days we will be covering key strategic, business and technical challenges across the manufacturing ecosystem – with maximum opportunity to network, debate and engage with your peers. Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit is the go-to event for 2021. For businesses with a turnover >£100m.

Liverpool

CELEBRATING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT

THE SCALE UP SUMMIT FOR BRITISH MANUFACTURING

A crash course in business growth tailored for the strategic leaders of SME manufacturers - linking together strategy, product, and the workforce to your wider business ecosystem.

World-class, case-study driven content delivered by best-in-class manufacturing speakers from around the globe.

NOV 2022

SME GROWTH SUMMIT

The Summit is designed to identify the most effective avenues of growth and equip you to act on them - growing your revenue, profitability, and workforce, as well as dealing with the growing pains that come with business growth. For businesses with a turnover <£100m.

NOV 2022 Liverpool

CELEBRATING MANUFACTURING EXCELLENCE

Find out more: www.digital-manufacturing-week.com

02/12/2021 10:09

INDUSTRIAL DATA PARTNER CONTENT

Breaking down the data walls Slimane Allab, SVP Manufacturing at Cognite, explains that the time is right to take to the waters of manufacturing’s data lakes

Slimane Allab is SVP Manufacturing, Cognite

odern manufacturing is about realising possibilities through technology. Data lakes have become commonplace, but their enormous potential remains untapped across manufacturing companies. As much as 90% of all data sitting in data lakes is not used by anyone in the company. And it’s not because the industry isn’t collecting enough data. It’s because it needs context. Unlock the value of your industrial data Data lakes are central to the digitalisation of manufacturing. But there are usually only a few people within the organisation who understand how to effectively navigate them, as data lakes only store raw, untransformed data. That’s like having a set of coordinates but no map — useless to most people.

To bridge the gap between data and people, manufacturers need the right infrastructure to store, refine, and make the relevant data available to anyone who needs it to create business value. Nordic manufacturer Aarbakke has put this theory to the test. According to their CTO Rolf Thu, “With the powerful data we have, we can do many things to improve our processes and reduce our carbon footprint. We can track and trace, analyse, and see where the emissions are coming from — and then take action to reduce it.” He adds, “One of the biggest benefits is how rapidly we can move from idea to solution. We are also able to work with enormous amounts of data using a very lean team. And we can do amazing stuff with it because the tools and the data preparation are so good. We’re developing things quickly and cheaply, which is positive for our ROI.”

INDUSTRIAL DATA PARTNER CONTENT

Data in context enables you to see your pain points, guiding you to almost unlimited possibilities to improve. It gives you the insight to see which tools have the greatest potential for optimisation How to make sense of your data Aarbakke was able to break down the walls between the separate systems that tracked machine operation data and work orders, helping the company analyse and optimise cutting tool usage. This solution is helping the manufacturer reduce tool assemblies by 60% and increase cutting tool efficiency by ten percent. Aarbakke were also able to monitor more than 22,000 unique cutting tools. In another example, the manufacturer created a dashboard of CNC machine alarms, helping their engineers reduce the number of breakdowns and extend the lifetime of the machines, resulting in 20-30% reduced service costs and reduced downtime and unplanned stops. Just as this example shows, the first and most essential step to make your data useful is by contextualising it. Contextualisation makes your data accessible so that everyone in your organisation can draw insights into your data and operations. Assets in your facility may have process variables, work orders, documents, and inspection data across several sources all residing in your data lake. Contextualisation establishes a meaningful relationship between the data sources and types, empowering everyone

ABOVE: In order to bridge the gap between data and people, manufacturers need the right infrastructure to store, refine and make the relevant data available to anyone who needs it to create business value. The Nordic manufacturing giant Aarbakke has put this theory to the test.

in the organisation with real-time information, democratising knowledge previously only available to experts, and rapidly developing and scaling new and existing applications. Data in context enables you to see your pain points guiding you to almost unlimited possibilities to improve. It gives you the insight to see which tools have the greatest potential for optimisation and how you can increase utilisation of your assets. Digital decision-making based on trusted data and real-time insights Today, manufacturers rely on data and analytics to make decisions. For data to be operationally used at scale, it needs to be trusted and consistent If you and your colleagues don’t trust your data, it’s useless. In order to build trust in your data, it is vital to ensure that the time series data used to generate insights is in a healthy state. By integrating data from a range of dispersed sources into one place, you can manage and control your data. Access to detailed time series data allows you to easily verify the quality of the data, and also modify requirements based on specific use cases. Without verifying the quality of the data, your teams can end up reacting to inaccurate data. With the right solutions, you can automate data cleaning, save significant amounts of time, and most importantly get accurate data for decision-making. On their own, data lakes provide no business value. To provide value, data has to be contextualised, accessible, and trusted. Once you realise the value of your data, you are laying the foundation that will make your operations more efficient, smarter, and even achieve greater sustainability.

SUSTAINABILITY PARTNER CONTENT

COP26 marks a historic moment for humankind Making <1.5°C work: Sumeet Ladsaongikar, Partner in Kearney’s Strategic Operations Practice, explains how to drive sustainability through manufacturing

Making a change Multiple studies by the IPCC and other bodies offer compelling evidence that implementing known industry-specific and cross-industry levers can significantly reduce emissions. And the evidence also suggests that energy intensity in industry could be cut by around 25% from today’s levels through wide-scale upgrade, replacement, and deployment of bestavailable techniques (BAT) - especially in countries where these are not currently used, and in non-energy-intensive industries. In our experience, these initiatives often help deliver a marked improvement in cost performance too - particularly as technologies evolve and start generating a positive financial impact. We have built on our deep expertise in operations and supply chain - gained over hundreds of manufacturing site improvement projects - and have created a framework to assess the maturity of manufacturing plants when it comes to key sustainability practices on environmental and social standards.

Fig. 1

ALL IMAGES: KEARNEY

ot long ago, government leaders gathered at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow to make policy commitments that will shape the future of our planet. The world now stands at a historic crossroads: our governments must act decisively to cut GHG emissions to net zero by mid-century, and control average temperature rise, or to face calamitous consequences such as the irreversible melting of the Antarctic ice sheet and a rise in average sea levels of more than 0.07 inches per year from 2060 and beyond. COP26 focused on four core objectives: first, to secure net zero and keep 1.5°C within reach; second, to urgently adapt to protect communities and natural habitats; third, to mobilise finance; and fourth, to work together to deliver. Over the coming weeks and months, much of the attention will be on the government action needed to achieve these goals, but what really matters is how those commitments are executed at the gemba (at the place of action). Manufacturing-based industry accounts for around 30% of direct and indirect global GHG emissions, as shown in Figure 1. Given the size of this contribution, both manufacturing companies and individual plants must play a leading role in tackling emissions if we are to respond positively to this pivotal moment in our history.

The framework features four levels of maturity (Stages 1—4), spanning 19 sub-dimensions of environmental and social standards, aligned to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). However, the emphasis of this approach is on practice maturity, unlike the GRI, which often focus on reporting maturity. This ability to assess maturity is critical to identifying initiatives that can significantly reduce emissions. Overall sustainability strategy maturity assesses the extent to which sustainability is embedded in the business strategy and in product and process technology for the plant. In addition, it looks at the portfolio of initiatives, KPIs, adoption of novel technologies etc. to achieve sustainability objectives. Each individual topic area is assessed under environmental standards both on practice maturity and reporting maturity, with a primary focus on the practices adopted. For example, on materials, the assessment includes the maturity of sustainability practices in a plant along the following subdimensions: a) Renewable/sustainable nature of materials used (including packaging) in production b) Extent to which the sustainability of materials influences product design c) Understanding of material mass-balance in the plant with continuous improvement programmes to tackle waste and improve yields

...using advanced analytics models to understand the precise range of material input and production process parameters, to drive optimal yield in chemical reactions or metal refining processes, can significantly reduce solid waste

Sumeet Ladsaongikar Partner in Kearney’s Strategic Operations Practice

Fig. 2

Sustainability gemba In our experience, conducting a three-to-fourweek sustainability gemba at individual plants represents a compelling way to: • Assess current maturity level • I dentify and quantify the impact of improvement levers • Build a roadmap of improvement initiatives • Identify external technical partners

d) R ejection rates, reduction in rejection, and the extent to which rejected materials are reused/repurposed e) Extent of cooperation with community stakeholders (e.g., local municipalities) to improve recycling. For each topic area, plants are assessed on Level 1 to 4 based on their practices, and highlight opportunities for improved sustainability and cost performance, leveraging a database of process and technical levers. For example, in several process industry plants (speciality chemicals, metal refining, cement manufacturing etc.), electric motors represent a major source of energy consumption in pumping, compressors, HVAC, and other applications. A proactive strategy of moving to higher-efficiency-class electric motors, along with the adoption of variable speed drives to control speeds versus throttling using valves, can cut energy and equivalent GHG emissions by 5%-20%. Business cases made for reducing emissions need to account for the holistic impact - both in terms of financial and sustainability benefits - of any investment decision. Similarly, using advanced analytics models to understand the precise range of material input and production process parameters, to drive optimal yield in chemical reactions or metal refining processes, can significantly reduce solid waste. This, in turn, can lower the need for recycling, cut energy consumption per unit of output due to higher yields, and create smaller waste streams.

Experience has taught us that the most effective approach is to undertake these gemba exercises at key plants that represent all major plant archetypes in a given manufacturing network, and then scale up these practices to other sites.

Manufacturers cannot deliver this change on their own. Support of external technical partners becomes critical to quickly execute individual initiatives. Technical partners in sustainability across energy audit, software, and hardware solutions (for diagnostic, monitoring, and management of ESG elements), and highly experienced sustainability experts, are needed to support the assessment and solution deployment projects. The human race has reached a pivotal point in its history. COP26 marks the moment for world leaders to act to preserve our planet for future generations. However, commitments to tackling GHG emissions must extend beyond governments: to deliver tangible, lasting change, those commitments must be championed - and convincingly executed - on the production floor of manufacturers across the globe. Sumeet is Kearney’s global 4-walls improvement lead and specialist in manufacturing, supply chain and end-to-end operations transformation topics Email: Sumeet. Ladsaongikar@kearney.com Co-authored with Teodor Stanilov, Manager, London Email: teodor.stanilov@kearney.com K www.kearney.com

SUPPLY CHAIN

A demand for supply

Fleur Doidge is a contributing writer to The Manufacturer and TM.com

where and when you want it COVID, shipping and haulage issues, semiconductor shortages, changing workforce demographics, and Brexit are all hitting today's complex global supply chain

ith supply chain disruption ongoing in a multitude of sectors, exacerbated by multiple factors from COVID to workforce demographics, the question has to be asked: how can manufacturing mitigate similar problems in future? Jan Burian, Research Director at IDC Manufacturing Insights, says building in alternative options in defined, precise

manufacturing is tricky. "As a first step, the supply chain might look at how it cooperates with research and development. It’s not just about being less dependent on certain materials or components," he suggests. Technology is already disrupting supplier and OEM relationships in favour of online networks of certified partners. Trust and standardisation can be key here, as well as innovative vision, coupled with attention to people, processes and culture as well as technology, beyond simply identifying ROI opportunities. Burian says: "It requires a lot of data and outside access to data." He notes that some of this is already happening. IDC analysis suggests that 90% of global manufacturing supply chains had invested in technologies and business processes for resiliency by December 2021.

poor performance across the shipping industry, resulting in cuts to costs and capacity. But for Naus, the largest challenge is people. "Countries have ageing populations; youth is coming in with varying views on locations, hours and so on - hitting transport, warehousing and factories," he says. "Put everything together and it becomes quite a big mess." Looking through a sustainability lens should help shorten supply chains, rather than offshoring to lower costs. Shorter chains typically have fewer links to go wrong, are more predictable and can be fixed more quickly because lead times are shorter too. This should favour UK strengths in high-value products, and riskier products with a "real impact" if something goes wrong - although redeveloping skillsets and capacity is challenging.

Data on hand for better decisions "Generally speaking the value comes from better enabling humans with information to make decisions," Burian says. "It's about sales, logistics, production, planning and R&D, and it's anything but one-solution-fits-all." Emile Naus, Partner at consultancy BearingPoint, pinpointed long-term

De-risk your sourcing His prescription? Take a good look at sourcing, not just the cost per item but the amount of inventory required, and think about the risks, the sustainability impacts and "the smaller things" like ease of visiting, understanding the environmental footprint and overall visibility.

LEFT: IDC's Jan Burian: "It's not just about being less dependent on certain materials or components."

SUPPLY CHAIN

IMAGE: markus-winkler/unsplash

Shorter chains typically have fewer links to go wrong, are more predictable and can be fixed more quickly. Emile Naus, BearingPoint Naus’ advice is to look at digital twinning. A digital copy of your supply chain offers all the data needed to tell what's going on - from inventory to the pipeline of purchase orders, to components of supply via suppliers, contractors and sub-contractors. Nitin Dsouza, Supply Chain Head at consultancy Publicis Sapient, adds that investment in intelligent ports will matter. "Today, you don't have a fully IoT-driven force telling you about congestion although it will tell you there will be lots of ships waiting." Dsouza agrees with Naus on a fresh workforce focus too - giving HGV driver shortages as a symptom. Skills require investment, and driving, for example, needs to hold appeal. "So take the employee lens and make sure you're pivoting as an employer of choice. That has to be an industry-led effort," he says. Within the technology stack - the collection of computing hardware, software and services that supports an entire organisation - manufacturers should look at deploying flexible, composable setups to empower decision making across global supply chains. For instance, if systems are interconnected and a logistics manager doesn't have to go in on weekends because data is available remotely, this can boost efficiencies and reduce unsustainable pressures on staff. Manufacturers must think further ahead to solve future supply chain challenges.

This is the world we need to return to." Eglon says that buyers are now better informed about their choices, competitive landscape and the provenance of product.

Richard Parkinson, Director at the port of Solent Gateway, notes that solving the supply chain requires accurate triage across workforce availability, at key air, land and sea nodes, looking too at governance and regulation. If fewer ships are operating, and this means higher prices, incentives for more vessels might shrink shipping and container costs, improving volumes and delivery times, and international cooperation may be key, Parkinson points out. Richard Eglon, Chief Marketing Officer at inventory-as-a-service provider Agilitas IT, agrees that sustainability and corporate responsibility should drive change, helping extend product cycles, incorporating product recycling and reworking where possible. "Industries are based around selling 'new product'," he says. "Only 30 years ago, a domestic appliance might have been more expensive but when something went wrong you had it fixed.

Collaborate to increase visibility Future inventory management requires vendors, suppliers and end clients to work together more closely and make supply chains transparent - digitising, automating and streamlining legacy manual processes and changing behaviours. "Firms taking a more collaborative and holistic view will succeed in coming years," Eglon predicts. Paul Crutcher, Operations Director at Bisley, emphasises the criticality of reducing single points of failure across supply chains. "You've got less of an opportunity for the physical logistics side of things to interfere," Crutcher explains. "A resilient supply chain or distribution system has multiple nodes." He points out that partly because China has become such a massive global node, even if Chinese supply is cut for a couple of months, with no Plan B the resulting knock-on effects can be enormous. "There's an argument for reshoring where it's economically sensible," he agrees. "And apparent foes actually have a lot to gain from collaboration. Often they're competing for part of the same supply

KEY TAKEAWAYS Global supply chains have seen longstanding issues balloon postCOVID I ndustry and sector disruption is huge and will continue

Future-proofing manufacturing supply chains require a long-term approach Collaboration, coordination and data are key to transparency and visibility overnments, industry bodies, G financiers and others must play a role

IMAGE ABOVE: eilis-garvey/unsplash

ABOVE: Bisley's Paul Crutcher: "A resilient supply chain or distribution system has multiple nodes." chain. Together, you can find ways to mitigate instability." Rivals may often have different core differentiators when it comes down to creating value. Pinpoint these, then resist the natural tendency to be parochial about data, and work out how to collaborate in other areas, he suggests. Also, although lean favours a one-piece flow, companies have a tendency towards batching - ultimately hurting the supply chain as a whole. Doing things in batches is less efficient, Crutcher notes. "What you want is to have truth at the point of consumption, all the way across the supply chain so everybody is aligned with the same rate of demand." Dr Jagjit Singh Srai, Research Director at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), says reconfigurations might harness ecommerce platforms to draw in thirdparty logistics providers from different resources, for example. "Those who are more modular in their products can flex their resources much more effectively - responding quickly, in a more agile way, to changes in demand," he adds. "The issue is that nobody wants to pay for an idle factory, waiting for a crisis. And the reality is that if the crisis hit, you wouldn't have any people to run that factory." What then is the answer?

Consider all pinchpoints and segments Srai suggests careful triage of pinchpoints where some slack can be introduced. Segmenting a supply chain into multiple tiers at a significant distance from the consumer introduces vulnerabilities. This means designing shorter supply chains where possible, Srai explains. "Understand the potential decoupling points where stock can be held that can be quickly used to serve a particular demand. And some of those need to have business in normal times for them to be able to respond and ramp up in extraordinary times," he says. Will prices rise? Not necessarily, Srai says, because people are already "paying through the nose" due to supply chain failures and slowdowns. Correcting failures is costly too, while supply chains are generally reconfiguring at some level all the time. Sometimes interventions can have unintended consequences - like when personal protective equipment (PPE) was being procured by different UK regions competing with each other, he says. Strategies to stabilise supply might include collaborative reduction of port bottlenecks for haulage. Sharing of fleets and warehouses among organisations may also help build resilience. Public-private partnerships could be looked at, and deeper infrastructure investments are crucial.

Take the employee lens and make sure you're pivoting as an employer of choice. That has to be an industryled effort Nitin Dsouza, Publicis Sapient

MANUFACTURERS RESPOND

ABOVE: IfM's Jag Srai: "The issue is that nobody wants to pay for an idle factory, waiting for a crisis. And the reality is that if the crisis hit, you wouldn't have any people to run that factory." Formulate predictions and take action, he urges. The fact that forecasts are often wrong doesn't mean you shouldn't make the attempt. "And you can't really wait for a crisis." Money, laws and licensing Tony Lock, Distinguished Analyst at Freeform Dynamics, notes that politics, differing restrictions and licensing regimes globally are also problematic. Less often considered: the role of financial services. If you don't have access to raw materials - an obvious example being rare-earth metals for batteries - you not only have to bring them in but convince accountants and financiers in Wall Street, the City of London, Singapore or wherever. "Not having stock should no longer be seen as a real positive," says Lock. "I'm worried about convincing financial markets of the need to rebalance away from just-in-time, from having nothing on the books until you're producing, and then getting it out the door as quickly as possible. The whole accounting side is a big issue that needs addressing." Governments could potentially implement some form of legislation that requires industries to have stocks onshore to buffer price spikes - helping avoid UK situations like being caught without enough gas. Legislation can shift industries towards recycling, looking at what they're making and how they're making them, increasing collaboration and more. "Sustainability and green footprint can be legislated for and there'll be more requirements on organisations to improve their supply chains from that side," says Lock. "I just hope that those financial people that really control everything can recognise those changes in the wind."

Alex Dalton, Managing Director of woodworking machinery supplier Daltons Wadkin, has found lead times of three or four weeks rising to four or six months on some items. Prior to COVID, issues were mostly accommodated. "I think before COVID there was a certain amount of blissful unawareness of how these things work behind the scenes; we are now acutely aware of everything that must fall into place at a certain time to make things happen," he says. Daltons Wadkin has already invested in management software that can bring multiple different data sets and spreadsheets in one central location, enabling instant progress updates, points-of-sale information, delivery updates, job data and more. "It's all about communication, really," he points out. "If everybody's talking to each other, you better understand needs that everybody has." Bulk-buying of capital industrial equipment can offset storage costs, so there are ways to gain as well as lose by adding slack to improve overall resilience. Government, industry groups and research organisations can work better together to develop better policies, frameworks and other superstructures. But getting individual companies collaborating might be tricky, he feels. "I suspect many might shy away." Tony Hague, CEO of PP Control & Automation, notes that OEM machine building has been hugely disrupted in recent years, and sees the long supply chains centred

abroad as the largest problem. "Start with a cross-party governmental manufacturing strategy. The problem is that each government comes and goes and tends to blame the previous government for not doing something," Hague says. "We need a long-term manufacturing investment strategy blueprint for the UK, regardless of who's in power. That's where it has to start so that it can cascade down from there." Manufacturers can encourage things "in a smaller way" within their own industry, and right now there's an appetite for it, he says. "What worries me is we won't do that for two or three years."

Jason Webb, Operations Director at food thermometer maker Electronic Temperature Instruments (ETI), agrees that supply chain transparency should help. This means data driven insights via technologies such as data analytics. And he agrees on the need for longterm strategy and investment by government. "Delays at Dover at the end of 2020 and the more recent vaccine rollouts have demonstrated the challenges of keeping refrigeration temperatures steady during transit - where technologies such as wireless data loggers have helped ensure safe passage, transmitting temperature data to the internet," Webb explains.

SUPPLY CHAIN

HAVE YOURSELF

A STRESS-FREE

CHRISTMAS

Tim Lawrence, Director of Digital Supply Chains, Digital Catapult, explains how supply chain innovation could save the festive season

SUPPLY CHAIN

et’s be honest, last Christmas wasn’t exactly what everyone had in mind. A snap lockdown meant thousands had to spend the festive season away from their families, and the usual extravagance of festival celebrations was significantly scaled down. Since then, it’s been an eventful year for the manufacturing and logistics sectors. It’s no secret that for months, kinks in global supply chains have resulted in containers time and time getting stuck where they shouldn’t. A shortage of drivers to pick up containers, a backlog of cargo ships, overburdened warehouses and labour shortages have created the perfect storm. And in the run up to December, the murmurs of impending Christmas shortages have arrived. From the Christmas jumper to Christmas trees, and even a seasonal turkey, speculation has been rife that supply chains will buckle under the pressure of spikes in consumer demand. With the US National Retail Federation estimating that around two fifths of all sales are made in the final two months of the year, this situation isn’t beyond the realms of possibility. ‘Just-in-time’ manufacturing So, what’s brought about such high levels of supply stress? Crises, such as financial crashes – or in this case, the COVID-19 pandemic - often exacerbate supply and demand imbalances. These crises can significantly impact consumer buying decisions, which can be extremely difficult for businesses to manage. And with the rise of social media, consumers have so much more information with which to make these decisions, resulting in unexpected changes in demand. As the industry will understand, manufacturing has always been aimed at being lean and efficient. Manufacturers tend to only stock what they need to fulfil current orders. Adopting a ‘just-in-time’ approach means during the pandemic they’ve suffered by not getting the parts they need on time, as well as getting the right products out the door to consumers. Any small disruptions to supply chains, such as bad weather causing factory closures or capacity constraints, can impact the chain quickly. The World Trade Organisation has predicted that the issues with global supply could last several months. So now supply chains have begun to unravel, how can we ensure this isn’t a long-term issue?

Tim Lawrence, Director of Digital Supply Chains, Digital Catapult

Bringing business home Global supply chains are often highly fragmented with sub-optimal information flow. Collaboration between businesses across the supply chain is often patchy. In reality, while many manufacturers have visibility of their immediate suppliers, this rarely extends beyond that; a good example of where that has led to issues is the global chip shortage, which has pushed carmakers to reevaluate this way of working. One simple way manufacturers can look to address this problem is by shrinking their supply chains geographically. Opting for suppliers on the other side of the world, while sometimes unavoidable, inevitably extends the amount of time for transportation. This means you’ll be slower in responding to shocks. Having suppliers closer to your consumers means a faster response time. For example, in response to the semiconductor issue, the European Union and automotive companies are busy localising some capacity. Rich insight through blockchain Supply chain transparency is also a key thing to unpick here. Many manufacturing processes remain paperbased, without a streamlined flow of data – meaning valuable insights allowing you to react to shocks are being lost. Investing in technologies like blockchain will be a huge enabler to manufacturers understanding supply chains better, gleaning rich insights on provenance of components and materials. The electric battery supply chain is where viable use cases of blockchain are starting to emerge; manufacturers are successfully using it to trace batches of materials such as cobalt. Through a system of trust, blockchain allows for innovation across different parties and improves coordination between disparate stakeholders. Ultimately, this leads to a boost in trust, security, resilience and sustainability. However, as with any digital transformation, blockchain requires cross-organisational collaboration and buy-in from all parties. Predicting future shocks Elsewhere in the innovation space, we’re witnessing the emergence of digital twins as a step change in improving supply chain transparency. By creating a digital model of

SUPPLY CHAIN

From the Christmas jumper to Christmas trees, and even a seasonal turkey, speculation has been rife that supply chains will buckle under the pressure of spikes in consumer demand a physical system or process, it will allow manufacturers to identify shocks, predict the impact and even trial hypothetical situations – and work out how to best respond. For example, in pharmaceutical supply chains, connecting up each step in the process using IoT and providing real-time data to models - which can then learn and feedback demand and inventory level data enables the supply chain to learn and adapt to changing circumstances and anticipate shocks. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is opening the door for automating supply chains through demand sensing, removing the need for human intervention. AI-based supply management tools can help companies foresee delays, demand peaks and troughs and event mark when a process is about to come undone before it happens. Digital Catapult’s participation in research and development project AiEVO focuses on optimising data sharing in the supply chain - with trials showing cost savings of up to 30% for participant companies.

Re-modelling supply chains As the AiEVO project is proving, cross-organisation work to innovate within supply chains will be essential. Digital Catapult recently launched the Made Smarter Digital Supply Chain Innovation Hub, aimed at developing more resilient and sustainable supply chains through digitisation. Backed by £20m funding from Innovate UK and UK Research and Innovation, this programme hopes to lead the charge in tearing down barriers to supply chains running smoothly. If something positive has come out of the pandemic, it seems that at the very least, companies have witnessed first-hand the importance of improving data sharing, transparency and collaboration across supply chains. The way things have been done traditionally – i.e. the ‘just-intime’ approach – simply doesn’t work anymore. Looking ahead, supply chain innovation and digitisation needs to sit high on manufacturers’ priority lists. Otherwise - from business growth, to happy customers - they risk missing out on more than just a Christmas turkey.

More information www.digicatapult.org.uk

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INNOVATION & DESIGN

PREPARE FOR A SHOCK Innovating for resilience

Katherine Bennett CBE, CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, provides some top tips on how to ‘future-proof’ your business against an uncertain future

quarter of UK businesses temporarily closed down at the start of the pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics. The economy shrank by 9.8% last year, the most dramatic fall since consistent record keeping started in 1948. In October, the Institute of Directors warned that business confidence has “fallen off a cliff”. Combined with rising costs of wages, energy and materials, as well as tax rises, supply chain disruptions and images of queues twisting around petrol station forecourts, it’s little wonder that business owners are worried. Never before has the concept of ‘future-proofing’ - building resilience been so important for businesses. Only then can companies survive and even thrive when economically damaging events strike. There are at least five key areas that manufacturing leaders need to address to make sure that they are prepared for the next big crisis: innovation, the workforce, sustainability, supply chains and harnessing new technologies.

Below are some best-in-class examples from the manufacturing industry of how this can be achieved. Innovation This is crucial. Only by fostering creativity can we manufacture the products that can help us overcome traumatic events. An obvious example last year was how the industry collaborated to produce 14,000 ventilators, taking the strain off the NHS at the time of its greatest need. A more obscure, but nevertheless instructive, case study comes from our Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) in Yorkshire. The team worked with Fibreright, which has a mission to recycle the seemingly unrecyclable. Fibreright’s technology has the potential to transform the UK’s bioeconomy, releasing sugar from municipal solid waste. Over 12 months, the CPI scaled-up and improved Fibreright’s processes, helping to demonstrate the commercial viability of its plans. There is now the potential for 60-70% of all the UK’s municipal solid waste to be converted into a useful raw material. The company has since attracted the

MAIN PIC: Driverless pods became a feature on the pathways of Milton Keynes through transport technology group Aurrigo

investment it needs to become revenuegenerating and secure a solid footing for its future growth. Developing the workforce The pandemic was an important reminder that our greatest resource is people. The resilience of workers got businesses everywhere through the crisis. Now is the time to invest in the workforce, maximising

their skills so they can overcome whatever is thrown at them in the future. By 2030, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult intends to upskill or train 200,000 engineers and scientists a year, whether that be directly or indirectly. The workforce, of course, also includes senior executives – we often forget that they too need to constantly evolve and learn.

Architectural Louvre Products and Services (ALPS) found that it was not completing an acceptable number of projects on time and in full. Our Manufacturing Technology Centre, which is based near Coventry, embedded a best working practice approach in the management team. They identified how to ‘batch’ suppliers of logistics, engineering and paint finishing, which

created cost savings and an efficient materials handling process. This smoothed delivery and reduced stress on suppliers, while there has been increased customer satisfaction and an improvement to the bottom line. If there is a crisis, ALPS now knows it has the management skills needed to work out how it can still deliver its services on time.

Katherine Bennett CBE, CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult

Reducing emissions and improving sustainability No business will flourish in the coming years without a commitment to net zero emissions. The political pressure is now too intense, and the risks to the planet too stark. For example, more than 100 world leaders signed-up to halt deforestation at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, in Glasgow during November. Our National Composites Centre (NCC) in Bristol worked with Magway, which aims to reduce air pollution by providing delivery services through subterranean pipes. This plan would support the online shopping boom, but traditional materials can harm the environment. Composite experts showed that using renewable, bio-based flax fibres could produce a more sustainable alternative, while also reducing materials and manufacturing costs by 50% and 70% respectively. That’s a remarkable achievement and shows how a commitment to sustainability can boost profitability. Strengthening supply chains Once a term confined to the business pages, supply chains now dominate the mainstream news. But not for positive reasons - rather that disruptions and demand spikes have resulted in empty supermarket shelves and delayed deliveries. No small and growing business can afford such disruption, it’s the

“

certain way of damaging sales and the probable route to collapse. The Advanced Forming Research Centre at the University of Strathclyde, a part of the National Manufacturing Institute for Scotland, our Scottish member, approached technology start-up SICCAR with an idea about how to use its cyber secure platform in the oil and gas sector. That industry requires a high level of confidence that any new technology can be reliably delivered and maintained. To instil the trust needed to make headway in the market, the centre put together a formidable consortium of partners, including Lloyd’s Register as an inspections and certifications body and a leading oil and gas equipment manufacturer. Key funding has now been secured and SICCAR is accessing high-value markets. Harnessing new technologies The digital revolution is well and truly upon us. The economy could not have survived as well as it did through the pandemic without Zoom or Teams. They have quickly become features of our everyday lives, yet were so rarely used only 24 months ago. The pace of change will only accelerate, and the result will be much more efficient businesses. What is great is that these digital products and services can also be fun. Take driverless pods. These had become a feature on the pathways of Milton Keynes

Never before has the concept of ‘futureproofing’ - building resilience - been so important for businesses. Only then can companies survive and even thrive when economically damaging events strike

ABOVE: Magway aims to reduce air pollution by providing delivery services through subterranean pipes

through transport technology group Aurrigo, but the group also knew that to grow they had to stay ahead of a crowded field and prove the pods were safe. It is expensive and potentially dangerous to test the pods in the real world, so they used the 3XD simulator for intelligent vehicles at WMG, University of Warwick. The simulator has virtual representations of real roads, using laser scans of an environment. The pod navigated its way through these virtual worlds, using its sensors to detect objects and control the vehicle. As a result, the pods reached the market two years earlier than would otherwise have been possible, keeping Aurrigo ahead of its competitors. In the wider world, such technology will help keep the economy moving in times of crisis.

KEY TAKEAWAYS > H arness creativity through innovation > Invest in your workforce > C ommit to sustainability and boost profitability > S trengthen your supply chain > H arness new technologies to increase business efficiency

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SUSTAINABILITY

PAVING THE WAY TO NET ZERO At Digital Manufacturing Week, Steve Evans, Director of Research in Industrial Sustainability, Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge, spoke to Tom St John about how companies are using industrial digitalisation to drive carbon reduction alongside labour and capital productivity.

ddressing the Manufacturing Leaders’ Summit on the journey towards net zero, he joked that, first and foremost, he is someone more interested in hugging people than trees. And that if we don’t solve the problem of sustainability, it will be our children and grandchildren who are going to suffer. Entering his first factory as an apprentice in the 1970s, he has been trying to understand what sustainability means for factories for 30 years. The debate around whether sustainability is something we ‘should’ be doing has long since ended and now focuses around the ‘how’. However, he highlighted that it is this ‘how’ question that governments are currently dodging. Many are speaking towards what will happen by 2050, yet are ignoring the question of what they are going to change when they go back into work on Monday morning? Evans added that he is seeing leadership in this area coming from the people in manufacturing, because it is those individuals who, when spotting problems, know how to get on with fixing them. Are manufacturers beginning to turn their focus towards sustainability? There is a very significant shift happening. All of the exhibitors at Digital Manufacturing Week are showing their competence in driving manufacturing productivity in a very classical way. When I talk to them however, they’re all interested in how they can make that slight turn, so that they can use their tools and technology to deliver sustainability goals. That was not a conversation that occurred when we gathered together last time. So, there’s a lot of noise around sustainability, and that’s a good thing. And the conversations we are having today will turn into real examples when we come back next year. I’ve been in the sustainability in factories business for decades, and it sounds great to say that enthusiasm for sustainability has doubled every two years. However, that doesn’t mean much when that enthusiasm was 0.0001% to begin with.

What we’re seeing now though is that sustainability is becoming a conversation that pretty much everyone in the room wants to have. Some of them are ahead of the game and know what questions they want to ask. While others are just intrigued and are wondering whether sustainability is going to disrupt their business plan or if it represents a real business opportunity. Most people are in one of those two camps - there is only a small bunch of laggards that are disinterested, and that’s a very big step forward. How can industrial digitalisation be used as an accelerator to drive carbon reduction? The two biggest trends in manufacturing? Digitalisation and sustainability. So, the idea that we’re not going to try and understand how those two trends interact is stupid. It’s obvious - the two biggest trends must come together in some way. What everyone is asking is who’s been studying this? Who are the leading technology players? Who are the leading factories who are using digital towards sustainability? And it’s those people who are being asked the question of how digitalisation will drive sustainability. What’s the evidence? I’ve been talking with some of the Made Smarter innovation researchers who’ve been working with different car factories. One is a very well-known British factory which has been using digital tools to identify energy waste and opportunities for energy savings. They made some changes to their practices, and this one factory saved £25,000 pounds over the course of a single weekend. That’s a lot of money even before you scale that up, and it comes from the fact that the digital analysis could spot a pattern in the energy data which would have been difficult for a human, because there are millions of data items. That’s the power of digital. It’s very clear in our research, and the work we do with companies, that the first thing digital can

SUSTAINABILITY

Time is running out. By 2030 we must reduce the amount of CO2 that’s emitted into the atmosphere from today’s levels by about 45%. However, we’re not on that pathway right now.

Watch the full video interview here help people do is to see things. We’re manufacturers - if we know something is wrong, we find a way to fix it. But knowing it’s wrong in the first place, and knowing we’re being wasteful, is the thing that digital can help with. Is the clock ticking for digitalisation and sustainability? They are different issues - digitalisation is a classic competitive race. It doesn’t matter how slow we are, so long as we’re faster than the competition. So, if everyone is slow, but we’re slightly less slow than everyone else, we’re still going to be the pioneers. It’s not the same with sustainability and net zero. There’s an external clock that’s ticking. And that means that we can’t wait two decades and still be the leaders of the pack, because we will effectively be destroying the planet which delivers the raw materials, the workers, the healthy environment and the healthy air that allows us to be effective businesses. Time is running out. By 2030 we must reduce the amount of CO2 that’s emitted into the atmosphere from today’s levels by about 45%. However, we’re not on that pathway right now. So, the time for urgency is now, in this decade. We often hear people talking about net zero in 2050. Therefore, the feeling is that we’ve got two decades to work out what to do, and one decade to

implement it. In reality however, the exact opposite is true. We have one decade to get halfway there, because we will need the other two decades to do the hard, last 50%. I cannot over emphasise the urgency. If we’re going to do something by the end of the 2020s, we’ve got to do something in 2022 – not: ‘let’s get a working group together at some point over the next 18 months’. What’s the full potential of digitalisation in terms of sustainability? It comes down to push and pull. If we are pushing the technology out there, then we have to wait for customers to agree to have that technology thrust upon them. But I’m afraid if we do that, the rate of adoption will not be enough to maintain temperatures at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and that’s dangerous. However, what we’re seeing is the technologists pushing new technologies and ideas in parallel with manufacturers pulling them and saying: ‘we want that technology’. So, to me, the most important thing is the strength of the pull. If manufacturers want those new digital technologies to help them get to net zero, then the digital technologists will supply it in time - but you need to ask for it.

INNOVATION & DESIGN | PARTNER CONTENT

FAST, ON-DEMAND PROTOTYPING Clinton Perry, Marketing Manager at Autodesk, explains how Conturo Prototyping is delivering complex prototypes faster with the Fusion 360 Machining Extension

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t won’t come as a surprise to learn that in a place known as ‘Steel City’ there is high demand for prototypes and machined parts. The city of Pittsburgh’s rich industrial heritage has enabled the region to rise from the deindustrialisation of the mid-20th century, transforming into what is today a thriving hub for engineering and technological advancement with a growing need for rapid, high-quality production. Formed to satisfy the rapid growth in technological demand, Conturo Prototyping started life in 2016 as a 1,000 square foot shop. Despite being small it had a big vision – to become a world-class provider of fast on-demand prototypes and components of superior quality. Conturo Prototyping quickly grew to a 17,000 square foot facility complete with ten multi-axis CNC mills and three CNC lathes, thanks predominantly to its agile manufacturing workflow and engineering customer support.

ABOVE: The Machining Extension offers a number of time saving features such as Steep and Shallow Machining complex parts can be challenging, expensive and time consuming, however, Conturo Prototyping is changing that with the advanced 5-axis CNC machining capabilities provided by the Autodesk Fusion 360 Machining Extension. Specialising in small batch production runs for aerospace, automotive, and medical

OEMs, to help shorten product development times and bring products to market faster, Fusion 360 helps the Conturo Prototyping engineers to simplify design for manufacture, collaborate seamlessly, automate part setup, and program multiple parts per day on their 5-axis CNC machines. “We work with engineers that have very complex goals and make very advanced mechanical assemblies and components,” says Andy Lawniczak, Chief Operating Officer. “But they’re used to the old-school ways of manufacturing and machining. So, when we get back to them within a day with a design for manufacture analysis, they say, ‘Wow, that was fast!’” Staying abreast of the latest software developments plays a significant part in setting Conturo Prototyping aside from traditional competitors. After deploying Fusion 360, the company was able to take advantage of simulation and automation functions that allowed the company to digitise many manual steps, leading to a rapid decrease in product development time. “As soon as the customer comes to us with a problem, we load it in Fusion 360,” Lawniczak adds. “Right away, we can start looking at geometries, measuring different aspects, making slight changes, and putting it in our machines to see how it will fit and how feasible the job is. What’s really important about these advanced tools is we can be so much more agile than we used to be.” A traditional job shop with a few CNC programmers and a large crew of operators might be able to program a handful of parts in a week. Conturo Prototyping, on the other hand, can program that many parts in a single day. From Lawniczak’s perspective, the versatility of Fusion 360

Clinton Perry Marketing Manager, Autodesk

contributes directly to the shop’s ability to solve customer problems more rapidly. “We had a client on a very short timeline making robots, and they wanted to cast a lot of the parts. However, making a casting mould is really expensive and really slow,” he says. “They asked us if we could CNC the geometry so they could get to market sooner.” Conturo Prototyping ended up programming the entire part in Fusion 360. The level of complex, intricate geometry meant it would have been almost impossible to produce using 3-axis machining. Instead, the Conturo engineering team decided to purchase the new Fusion 360 Machining Extension, which unlocked 5-axis functionality inside their existing Fusion 360 software, meaning they could quickly produce the NC code they needed to run their 5-axis mills. “We were able to get the prototype back to our customer in a few weeks as opposed to six months or more from a casting vendor,” he continued. “This is how we end up solving so many client problems.” The Fusion 360 Machining Extension is a

cost option that unlocks an array of advanced tools for CNC machining. In addition to 5-axis functions, including automatic collision avoidance, the extension unlocks access to machining strategies like Steep and Shallow that simplify the machining of complex, feature-rich parts. The extension also includes dedicated toolpaths and workflows that can be used with spindle-mounted probes to measure components throughout the machining process to help speed up set-up and improve overall part quality. The extension is considered as being extremely powerful, according to shop supervisor Patrick Fee: “The Fusion 360 Machining Extension can do some really advanced stuff on the CNCs,” Fee comments. “We recently used the part alignment capabilities within the Machining Extension to machine some parts out of aluminium that we cut to size from 1"x5" bar. “The saw cut all the pieces way out of square and we didn’t notice until the job was already setup to run on one of our Haas VF2 machining centres. We initially tried to machine the parts using a simple vice stop to locate the stock, but the first few parts weren’t cleaning up fully and had to be scrapped. We were on the verge of having to scrap and reorder well over $200 in material and have our machine sitting idle the rest of the day. “By using Fusion 360’s part alignment tools, we were able to use a spindle mounted probe on our Haas VF2 machine to measure each piece of stock and automatically adjust

The Fusion 360 Machining Extension can do some really advanced stuff on the CNCs the machining orientation so that every part fit in a less than ideal stock envelope.” Fee continues. “All the parts came out perfectly. The Fusion 360 Machining Extension costs $1,600 per year – we paid for at least half of that in this example alone. Considering all the other time saving features the Machining Extension offers such as Steep and Shallow, Toolpath Trimming and Probe Geometry, a feature we’ve recently just started using to avoid in-machine measurement errors, it’s clear the extension pays for itself in a few weeks.” Tight schedules and complex parts are just a normal, everyday expectation for shops like Conturo Prototyping. However, with help from Fusion 360, the shop can do more work in less time. “We know everyone’s on a tight timeline, so we make sure we’re using the most cutting-edge tools we can, and that’s why we’re using Fusion 360.” Lawniczak adds, “It really embodies the whole agile movement in engineering.”

More info www.autodesk.com

On the frontline in the war for talent PEOPLE & SKILLS | PARTNER CONTENT

Dan Kirkpatrick, Director of JAM Performance Solutions, talks about the UK employment market – how it’s been in 2021 and how it’s going to be in 2022

PEOPLE & SKILLS PARTNER CONTENT

Dan Kirkpatrick is Head of Customer Success at JAM Performance Solutions, The Manufacturer’s Official Talent Partner

o, 12 months ago in this very publication, I wrote that: “I think it’s fair to say 2020 has not gone according to anybody’s plan” – 12 months on I think it’s fair to say 2021 has not gone according to anybody’s ideal plan. I stress the word ideal in the previous sentence as, while nobody would have wanted 2021 to go as it has, the chaos and unknown of 2020 has been replaced (at least to some extent) in 2021, by planning and structure – the immediate macro example that comes to mind is the success of the vaccination programme that has enabled the return to some semblance of normality across much of the world. Given everything that has happened in 2021 I thought it would be interesting to put together a short review of the UK recruitment market during 2021, which has faced a number of challenges throughout the year including Brexit, COVID-19, IR35 and talent shortages (often known as the war for talent). Many people more qualified than me have written about the effects of Brexit and COVID on the economy so I’ll focus more on IR35 and the war for talent IR35 Early in 2021, and after a delay of a year, IR35 (off-payroll working rules for clients, workers (contractors) and their intermediaries), was introduced to the private sector. There were doomsday predictions as to the effects the introduction would have (such as wiping out the contract market) and while it has certainly presented challenges to many companies, the doomsday scenarios that were initially foretold, have not come to fruition – recent research has shown that approximately two-thirds of contractors have been placed inside and one-third outside, so outside IR35 contracts do still exist.

...any engineer that you are looking to recruit is likely to be interviewing at multiple other companies, so it’s so important that you have a great interview process War for talent I predicted last year that there would be a war for talent during 2021 across a number of skillsets, especially within engineering and manufacturing. However, I can’t claim to be Nostradamus, as this was a very safe prediction, as there has been an ongoing war for talent for many years although I note this year that it has moved into new sectors such as driving and hospitality. The war for talent has appeared even mores serious in 2021, when compared to 2020, due to the significant increase in volume of companies recruiting. I recently spoke to a software engineer who had nine interviews to attend (and turned down three others). Whilst most engineers don’t get this many interview requests when looking for work, it’s rare that they only have one interview. This means that any engineer that you are looking to recruit is likely to be interviewing at multiple other companies, so it’s so important that you have a great interview process. Remember that an interview is a twoway process and it’s not just about the interviewee proving to you that they’re right for you – you need to promote your business as the employer of choice for each interviewee. Find out what’s important to them in a career and then advise how you can help them achieve what is important to them – remember that motivators are different for each person. Other ways of positioning your business to win this war include promoting your benefits and employer brand, offering competitive salaries and, where possible, hybrid working. Most importantly though (in my opinion) you should focus on keeping and developing the staff you have. Please get in touch if you’d like a copy of our ‘How to win the War for Talent’ one pager.

Next year So on to 2022 and what that will bring for the UK employment market – alongside an ongoing and worsening war for talent I believe hybrid working/work from home may prove both a challenge and an opportunity for businesses during 2022. I’ve spoken to a number of employers in the last few months who are having challenges getting their employees to return to the office/site, even if only for a couple of days per week. A compromise will need to be found and it is likely that both sides will need to give a little. One important factor for employers to note is that three of the top five results from a LinkedIn survey around what is important to employees, can be solved by allowing some level of work from home. Of those surveyed, 71% cited work/life balance as being important to them, 49% a convenient commute and 38% flexible work arrangements. Could your work from home policy be a way that your company could stand out from the crowd when seeking new talent. To end on a positive note, it must be said that there have been many huge successes/votes of confidence within UK manufacturing during 2021 including, but most definitely not limited to, significant investments from multinational automotive and defence businesses, ever increasing green investment, and being at the forefront of robotic and battery technology. All these successes are down to the businesses and technologies that we have in the UK - the most important element to all businesses is their employees. Therefore, to reiterate a point I made earlier, the best way of winning the war for talent is keeping and developing the employees you already have in your business.

THE

Len Palmer MD of Lander Automotive

In the first in our new series of HEAD2HEAD interviews, Joe Bush, Editor of The Manufacturer, catches up with Len Palmer, MD of Lander Automotive, which was recently named Manufacturer of the Year at the 2021 TMMX Awards How did it feel to win a TMMX award? At Lander we are very proud of all the TMMX Awards we have won, but to win Manufacturer of the Year 2021 has been the award we are most proud of. This one means a lot to us as it's measured against the best that British manufacturing can offer. It is great recognition for the brilliant people we have at Lander. What’s the one piece of advice you’d give someone starting out in the industry? It doesn’t matter where you start, the manufacturing industry is a great sector where people can grow and progress based on merit and personal drive - dream big, be brave and have fun along the way.

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Joe Bush Editor, The Manufacturer

What first inspired you to get into the automotive industry? A mentor. After spending the first nine years of my working life on the shop floor in manufacturing (outside of automotive), I was encouraged into a Team Leader role at 25. Then manufacturing really became a passion. I chose to work within the automotive sector as I felt I could learn the most in that arena - the rest, as they say, is history. Also, a big shout out must go to Steve Leahey for lighting that first spark and acting as a mentor in my early years. What’s your dream car? 1980 first generation Audi UR Quattro What’s the coolest piece of tech you’ve seen in a car? I am old enough to still be amazed at SatNav – but I would have to say the self-driving capability of Tesla is the stuff of boyhood dreams. If you weren’t working in manufacturing, what would you be doing? All I ever really wanted to be was a motorcycle mechanic.

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The Manufacturer December 2021

Articles inside

Paving the way to net zero

Have yourself a stress free Christmas Supply chain

COP26 marks a historic moment for humankind

Breaking down some data walls on the manufacturing floor

Fast, on-demand