Manufacturing leaders stepped away from the day job for an invite-only workshop at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre’s Factory 2050, hosted by TJ Digital Systems and CONTACT Software, to tackle one question: where do you start?
Sometimes the most productive thing a business leader can do is walk away from their desk and look at the bigger picture, alongside people facing the same challenges.
That was the idea behind the Digital Manufacturing Workshop: Unlocking Business Value. It was held at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) on Wednesday 14th October.
Sheffield-based TJ Digital Systems, a delivery-led manufacturing consultancy and the official UK partner of CONTACT Software, co-hosted the five-hour session. CONTACT Software is a large manufacturing software company based in Bremen, Germany, with customers including Mercedes-Benz and Thyssenkrupp.
Fifteen managing directors and senior operations, engineering and IT leaders from UK manufacturers attended. Many arrived with the same problem, summed up by one guest: ‘We do want to get better at digital manufacturing, but we don’t know where to start. We don’t have an approach.’ Some mentioned the problem of mindset, and the common refrain in teams of, ‘But this is how we’ve always done it.’
Start with people, not technology
A theme that came up repeatedly was that digital transformation isn’t really a technology project. To succeed, it has to address strategy, processes, people and technology together, not one after another.
That starts with getting the right people in the same room. ‘It’s never been easy for an operator to go to a director and say, “These are our challenges”,’ said Tim Shelley, Managing Director of TJ Digital Systems. ‘But put those viewpoints around the same table and you gain real insights, whether they’re hard truths or nice-to-knows.’
‘There is little point in talking or thinking about what technology to choose until you have a business case and a roadmap,’ added Frank Vandenberg, Head of Business Development at TJ Digital Systems. ‘First you need a realistic assessment of where you are. Then you identify and agree where you want to be in, say, three years’ time.’
The day
The workshop opened with Gavin Hill, who leads the digital team in the AMRC’s Integrated Manufacturing Group, in the week the AMRC marked its 25th anniversary. He explained that the AMRC was founded in 2001 out of the aerospace industry to bridge the gap between academic research and the factory floor, so that good ideas developed in the UK are put to work here.
A guided tour of Factory 2050 followed, looking at real industrial projects in progress. The visit came in the AMRC’s 25th anniversary week. It was founded in 2001 on the former Orgreave Colliery and coking works, a site best known for the 1984 miners’ strike and now at the heart of a thriving advanced manufacturing cluster.
Tim Shelley then led a session on assessing digital readiness and building a business case and roadmap. Guests compared where their businesses stood, from how well their ERP and PLM systems connect to the difficulty of planning inventory when demand swings sharply from month to month.
James Wright, Senior Account Manager, International Sales, and Maximilian Abenthum, Senior Solution Consultant, of CONTACT Software made the case for a ‘digital product backbone’. This is a single connected platform that links data across the whole product lifecycle, from design through manufacturing to service, instead of a patchwork of standalone systems. ‘The value is not in the record,’ said James. ‘It’s in the life cycle and the relationship between them.’
They shared the example of manufacturers that now let customers configure a product online and receive a complete, manufacturing-ready bill of materials, with a price, within five minutes. They were also clear that this kind of automation comes last. ‘First of all, let’s walk before we start to run, before we do the marathon,’ said James.
The day closed with a panel Q&A.
A roadmap in manageable steps
Rather than a single big-bang project, TJ Digital Systems recommends splitting a roadmap into chunks of three to six months, each with a detailed plan for people, process and technology. It often makes sense to invest in data management up front, so that later steps have a solid foundation to connect to. The three-year end state is a target, not a finish line, because transformation is an ongoing process.
AI needs good data first
AI was a hot topic across both of TJ Digital Systems’ events that week. At Digital Manufacturing 2Day at the MTC in Coventry the day before, where Tim Shelley gave a keynote, the AI breakout session was so popular that people had to be turned away.
The message at the AMRC was practical: AI is only as useful as the data underneath it. That makes a coherent data structure across the business the first priority. Security and hosting matter too. Many ERP, PLM and MES platforms, including CONTACT’s, now build AI into their packages with regular updates, which makes the question of which AI to use and where to host it much less daunting.
‘This was a great day to be a part of, for me there were a lot of amazing people asking the right questions and sharing their experiences in the space of ‘digital’ in manufacturing,’ commented Gavin Hill.
‘It was an insightful day for both us and guests, and we’re looking forward to our next events where we’ll continue the conversation around the challenges and opportunities in digitalisation today,’ said Tim.
About TJ Digital Systems
TJ Digital Systems is a Sheffield-based, delivery-led manufacturing consultancy helping manufacturers plan and deliver digital transformation, from business case and roadmap to implementation and support. It is CONTACT Software’s UK Competence Centre and an authorised reseller. tjdigitalsystems.com
About CONTACT Software
CONTACT Software is a German developer of digital platform, PLM and IoT software for manufacturing and engineering companies. contact-software.com
About the AMRC
The University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) is a world-leading centre for research and innovation in high-value manufacturing, founded in 2001.
