According to Make UK, the required digitalisation and innovation boost needs a simple one-stop-shop focused on SMEs to deliver funding, training and innovation support, with the industry body highlighting how targeting dedicated programmes to SMEs has delivered a 25% increase in productivity in South Korean smart factories and a 27% drop in defects as an example.

British manufacturing companies have been lagging behind international competitors over the last two decades, with manufacturers falling dramatically down the global automation tables. The UK's use of robotics and AI systems is poor, with training of people in relevant digital skills to take advantage of the innovation tech, well below what is needed to catch up, finds the report.

Don’t get me wrong, many of the surveys and reports that cross my desk really do make interesting reading and offer a wide range of expertise and insight. Indeed, the report from Make UK and Sage mentioned doesn’t just look at how the UK has generally been slow to adopt technological advances compared to its international competitors; it then goes on to explore what can be learnt from the internationally leading countries in manufacturing digitalisation. If you fancy taking a look (which I wholeheartedly recommend) you can download the report via bit.ly/46cG9G9

However, despite the value to be found in reports and surveys, it does sometimes feel as if the authors/commsisioners/surveyors are (and I should probably include the industrial media in this as well) more often than not simply preaching to the choir: Adopting Automation increases productivity; AI could make the UK more competitive; the UK lags when it comes to digitalisation – these are all valid findlings, but honestly, if you’re not aware of these issues already, you really haven’t been paying attention.

I guess what I'm trying to get to in a roundabout way is that there's little point in all the reports and surveys if they don't result in some sort of potitive action. I'm not suggesting that businesses should go out and make radical changes on back of reading the latest industry observations and insights, but they could at least use any knowledge gained as catalyst for change. So read the reports, absorb the statistics, learn the lessons and, most importantly, take some action.

Charlotte Stonestreet

Editor

WILL KINGHORN, a technology advisor from Made Smarter, started things off looking at what a smart factory is, and the associated benefits, along with some examples of Made Smarter’s work and pointers on how to get started with digitalisation.

Made Smarter is a UK government-funded programme which was started in 2018 in response to a review that suggested the UK lags behind when it comes to adopting technology. Starting with a pilot on the Nroth West, as of this year, Made Smarter operates in all regions of England and plans to expand across the UK in the coming years.

“We’re not about turning up and putting a robot on the shop floor and saying, get on with it,” Kinghorn emphasised. “It’s very much around looking at the issues or the ambitions of each company and recommending appropriate technology that they can implement, and then helping them along the way.” Support includes roadmaps, grant funding of up to £20,000, workforce development programmes, access to funded training, and funding for interns.

Integration is key

At the heart of the smart factory concept lies data. For Kinghorn, it means “collecting data from all across the business, analysing that and then using it to make informed decisions and make it more efficient.” The challenge is that most SMEs have multiple, disconnected systems: job cards on paper, machine logs stored locally, finance data in Excel, or training records on separate platforms. Integration is key.

Kinghorn sees potential benefits in terms of increasing effieiency. “If you understand the detail of how often your machines run, or, more importantly, why they're stopped, you can start to put improvement projects in place to make those run more often,” he said. “Or if you put sensors on your machines to understand how much energy they're using, either when they're running, when they're idling, or when no one's in the factory, you can start to reduce the amount of energy you're using and money you're paying for that energy. You can also kind of improve your waste as well.”

He also pointed to improvements in quality, tracability, visibility for customers and staff safety and job satisfaction.

“I think we've all had that experience of having to copy different bits of information into three different spreadsheets or different software packages or write things out a number of times for different departments. If you remove those frustrations in a job by using technology and make things more efficient, the people doing that job will enjoy work more, and they'll produce more and they'll feel more rewarded as a result of that.”

Kinghorn went on to reference several case studies: Joshua Greaves, a manufacturer of mixing machines, replaced paper-based processes with barcoding and resource planning tools, cutting lead times from four weeks to just two days. Fashion brand Derek Rose digitised design and pattern cutting, reducing R&D cycles from months to minutes while maximising fabric yield. Meanwhile, Crystal Doors began with machine monitoring and energy optimisation, gradually building to a full factory-wide dashboard. Their phased approach culminated in achieving B Corp certification and carbon neutrality for scopes one and two.

The lesson, according to Kinghorn, is not to attempt a wholesale transformation overnight. “Start with one particular issue or one particular area… talk to the people in that area, explain what you want to do, and move from there.”

In practice, that might mean installing simple machine sensors, introducing a shared production dashboard, or digitising job cards. Each small improvement builds momentum and confidence for the next stage.

Kinghorn also highlighted the ecosystem of support available, from local growth hubs and enterprise partnerships to research institutions like the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and university robotics centres. For SMEs, this landscape of funded advice, training, and technology expertise lowers the barrier to entry.

Networking perspective

The second speaker of the day, James Stokes, solution consultant and manager of discrete automation at Belden looked at digitalisation from a networking perspective.

He began by stressing the untapped potential of existing assets: “Every day in plants, there are missed connections, or the potential to get more data from what it is that you’re already doing.”

With smarter devices and richer telemetry, insights can be drawn from metrics such as energy use, equipment temperature, and throughput at different points in production. This data, when captured and acted upon, can drive significant performance improvements.

Belden positions itself at the intersection of two historically separate domains: industrial automation and smart infrastructure. “They’re two pretty different worlds,” Stokes explained. “The demands are different, the types of products you see are different, and the approach is quite different in both of these areas.” However, market dynamics are driving convergence. As data volumes grow, plants increasingly require IT-style infrastructure; higher bandwidth, improved management capabilities, and remote access.

“We see the need for fewer industrialised devices and more IT-style devices with either processing power or I/O throughput. But for sure, there is still a place for real automation devices,” noted Stokes.

Layered approach

To address this convergence, Belden applies a layered, or stack-based, approach. From sensors, I/O blocks, and PLCs, through SCADA and MES systems, and ultimately into the cloud, Belden seeks to provide “a step at every part of the data journey.” This is necessary because traditional architectures, such as the Purdue or ISA-95 automation pyramid, while useful, have created limitations. They often result in isolated “islands of automation” where devices from different vendors cannot easily interoperate.

“That’s not necessarily a problem until you want to start getting data out and into a common format for analysis,” Stokes observed.

The company advocates moving toward a new “pillar-shaped model” of networking that better supports modern industrial data flows. This model emphasises reducing load on critical systems, harmonising protocols, and enabling dedicated data channels for analytics. By creating a common infrastructure, organisations can avoid bottlenecks, enable data lakes, and prepare for future demands.

When considering digitalisation projects, Stokes emphasised that networking is often not the trigger but is always an enabler. “Without the network, the information will not flow beyond the production cell, and it will not go from A to B,” he cautioned. 

The first step, therefore, is visibility: taking inventory of what exists today. Belden promotes a five-pillar assessment framework—facility, functionality, maintainability, modernity, and security—as a way to benchmark network readiness. Security, in particular, is becoming critical with regulations like NIS2 in Europe. Even simple measures, such as deploying VLANs, can represent significant cybersecurity progress for some operators.

Addressing network design, Stokes noted that many engineers instinctively start with topology; in contrast, Belden recommends beginning with applications and data paths. “Our starting point actually becomes the application level and the data paths,” he explained, ensuring that critical traffic such as PLC-to-PLC or safety communications are prioritised and segregated from non-critical data. Routing, subnetting, and managed switches then provide further layers of control, visibility, and resilience. Only then should the physical layer – ie. the cabling and plant topology – be finalised.

Stokes cautioned that while connecting a plant can be relatively straightforward, building a resilient, secure, and future-proof network is not. “To do it in the right way requires some expertise and experience,” he said, noting that networks in industrial environments must often serve lifecycles of a decade or more, and that success lies in incremental steps, guided by both current realities and long-term goals.

The digital thread

The third expert to speak on the day was Gavin Hill, Senior Theme Lead for Digital at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), who explored the concept of the digital thread, its challenges, and its implementation in manufacturing. The AMRC has a particular role in bridging “the middle ground, to transition things from academic ideas through to basically something that you can implement,” said Hill, noting that the Centre’s remit spans the entire product lifecycle, from design and prototyping through manufacture, validation, and in-service feedback. This full lifecycle perspective underpins the AMRC’s approach to the digital thread.

One less than ideal aspect of digitalisation that Hill acknowledged is the widespread confusion around terminology, emphasising his point with a ‘buzzword bingo card’. He noted that the field is saturated with terms such as ‘model-based systems engineering’,  ‘digital tapestry,’ and ‘model-based maintenance’, which can all have different meanings depending on who you are talking to! As Hill explained: “When I say model-based systems engineering to Charlotte, she’s got one interpretation of it. When I say it to James, he’s going to have a different interpretation… it makes the problem worse and worse.”

To cut through this, AMRC deliberately frames its work around the digital thread, offering a consistent reference point without dismissing alternative perspectives. 
Defining the concept, Hill explained: “The digital thread is all of the data that relates to a product as it goes through that entire life cycle.”

This can encompass everything from CAD requirements and machine programs to sensor feedback, robotic work instructions, and in-service maintenance records. The scope can be broad or deliberately constrained depending on the business case, but the essence is the continuity of data. For the UK’s High Value Manufacturing centres, Hill noted, a shared formal definition has been adopted to maintain clarity.

Implementation strategies, he stressed, depend heavily on organisational scale, risk appetite, and return on investment priorities. Some firms may pursue an end-to-end approach, integrating data across all lifecycle stages. Others may have a more narrow focus, for instance, on ensuring coherence between requirements and design.

Benefits of the digital thread identified by Hill include traceability, regulatory compliance, consistency of information (“a single source of truth”), and the ability to apply AI and machine learning for predictive maintenance and process optimisation. Hill pointed that these advantages can translate directly into speed and efficiency: “Fundamentally, the overarching piece here is that everything can be done faster.”

Core elements

On the technical side, Hill outlined five core elements of a robust digital thread architecture: reliable data acquisition (often from sensors and legacy machine retrofits); shop-floor connectivity; manufacturing execution systems (MES); product lifecycle management (PLM); and enterprise resource planning (ERP). For SMEs, two or three of these may suffice, but data is always foundational.

Drawing on experience of AMRC’s own implementation of MES and PMS Siemens, Hill reflected candidly: “Walking in, we knew it was going to be hard, we knew it was going to be expensive… What we saw in reality, though, was that everything was just harder and slower.”

Timescales stretched from six months to over eighteen, costing upwards of £600,000, with challenges in configuration, vendor alignment, and change management.

Hill described AMRC’s UAV demonstrator, a complex aerospace assembly chosen to showcase digital thread integration. By linking requirements through CAD, simulation, and configuration management, AMRC demonstrated how design variations – such as doubling range or halving payload – could automatically propagate through models, analyses, and design iterations. This project highlighted the potential of the digital thread to deliver rapid, data-driven design agility in practice.

Watch on-demand

This review provides just a taste of what was covered in the webinar, which also included an informative and wide-ranging roundtable discussion, including questions submitted by the audience on the day. If you would like to find out more, you can watch the webinar on-demand for free via the following link:

wbmwebinars.com/smarter-futures-driving-efficiency-with-industrial-digitalisation/live

Described as a 10-year plan to promote business investment and growth and make it quicker, easier and cheaper to do business in the UK, it focuses on eight sectors where the UK is already strong and there’s potential for faster growth: advanced manufacturing; clean energy industries; creative industries; defence, digital and technologies; financial services; life sciences; and professional and business services.

One of the most eye-catching policies in the strategy is the reduction of energy costs for major electricity users. According to the Government, More than 7000 businesses in manufacturing sectors such as automotive, aerospace and chemicals are set to see their electricity bills slashed by up to 25% – but not until 2027. These firms, which support over 300,000 skilled jobs, will be exempt from paying levies such as the renewables obligation, feed-in tariffs and the capacity market. The intention is to help level the playing field and make them more internationally competitive. 

There will also be increased support for the most energy-intensive businesses – for example steel, chemicals, and glass – by covering more of the electricity network charges they normally have to pay through the British Industry Supercharger. These businesses currently get a 60% discount on those charges, but from 2026, that will increase to 90%.

While these measures are undoubtedly welcome, they do seem to be somewhat in conflict with any sustainability ambitions. While I appreciate that making electricity cheaper is vital for growth and competition, I can’t help thinking that it will also have a detrimental impact on the drive for efficiency. Then there’s the fact that these price cutting measures are not due to come in for another couple of years, plus the fragile geopolitical situation that continues to push global energy prices higher. So however positive the measures are, they do not provide an instant cure-all.

Commenting, on the strategy and its promised cuts in electricty costs, Barbara Frei, executive VP, industrial automation at Schneider Electric, said: "As global energy prices remain volatile, industrial firms face mounting pressure to protect margins. But the solution isn’t simply to wait for prices to fall. The real opportunity lies in redefining cost competitiveness through smarter resource management and automation.

"To stay globally competitive, the UK’s industrial companies must go beyond traditional cost-cutting. They need to embrace open software-defined automation and industrial AI. Not as future investments, but as immediate strategic imperatives. These technologies are already delivering measurable gains in productivity, efficiency and emissions reduction across global markets."

And that is a message that is well worth listening to.

It's no secret that one way to achieve this is through increased levels of automation – something that was highlighted by Mike Wilson, chief automation officer at the MTC, at a recent industry event. As Wilson pointed out, if the UK were to increase its adoption of automation to that of some of its major competitors, productivity would be improved by 20%; and is this something, asserted Wilson, that is increasingly being recognised within government. In fact, it is estimated in some quarters that if the productivity of the lowest achieving SMEs could be improved to levels similar to the top 25, it could be worth around £270 billion to the UK economy.

In order to help achieve these goals, the MTC and The University of Birmingham founded the West Midlands RAS Cluster, a collaborative group comprising industry, suppliers, academic institutions, and local authorities to accelerate the adoption of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS). The organisation has carried out extensive research, part of which identified barriers to automation. Overall, the biggest factor putting businesses off automation tended to be the high initial investment costs involved. Other challenges highlighted included integrating new equipment with legacy systems and a lack of skilled personnel, along with a myriad of factors such as concerns about reliability, return on investment, impact on workforce and compliance issues.

In addition to raising awareness of the benefits of RAS technology and addressing barriers to its adoption, the Cluster aims to ensure that the supply side is developed to deliver what UK industry needs, something which, said Wilson, could hopefully be developed to see such UK technologies exported overseas.

If you are interested in finding out more about any of these issues, the MTC is hosting Robotics and Automation 2025: Powering Your Future in June, which will feature insights from the West Midlands RAS Cluster on best practices, innovation opportunities and collaborations. The event will include a keynote address from Dr Bernd Liepert, president of euRobotics AISBL – the European Robotics Association, about the opportunities for UK to forge a bigger robotics market with Europe. The Rt Hon Greg Clark - Chair of the Warwick Manufacturing Group and a member of the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, which contributes to the development and long-term delivery of HM Government’s industrial strategy, will also be delivering a talk to attendees. To find out more visit : www.the-mtc.org/robotics-and-automation-2025

Against this backdrop, I was somewhat perturbed to see that a recent report from Siemens has found that in the UK, a lack of planned investment in digitalisation is potentially putting infrastructure modernisation and decarbonisation at risk.

Titled Digital Transformation, Sustainable Returns: The New Pathway of Infrastructure, the study looked at how 650 senior executives from 13 countries believe digitalisation can be harnessed to accelerate decarbonisation and transform the world’s infrastructure.

The survey revealed that just 38% of UK businesses plan to increase investment in digital technologies over the next year, significantly trailing the global average of 58%. This puts the UK behind countries including Canada (72%), China (70%), Italy (64%), and Germany (54%), in terms of expected digitalisation investment. Siemens warns that limited adoption of digital technologies in infrastructure could further widen the UK’s productivity gap.

Despite slower investment rates, UK businesses recognise the benefits of digitalisation. Respondents highlighted productivity (68%), workforce health and safety (66%), and decarbonisation (64%) as key advantages for their organisations.

Regarding decarbonisation, UK firms identified energy storage technologies (44%), electric vehicle charging networks (34%), and remote sensing and monitoring (34%) as the most impactful innovations for the next three years.

However, depite seemingly understanding concerns over implementation costs (46%) and integration complexity (38%) remain significant barriers to adopting digital business platforms.

The Climate Change Committee has stressed the need for faster progress in decarbonising infrastructure and industry to stay on track for the UK’s 2050 Net Zero targets. With the Government’s industrial strategy forthcoming, Siemens is urging stronger initiatives to drive digital investment and enhance the UK’s global competitiveness.

If the UK fails to invest in digitalisation, its industries risk falling behind global competitors, widening the productivity gap, and struggling with higher operational costs. Without modern technologies, businesses will become less efficient, making the UK a less attractive place for investment; thus potetnially could slowing economic growth, limiting job creation, and hindering innovation.

Outdated infrastructure and legacy systems will also lead to inefficiencies and rising costs, making it harder for UK firms to compete internationally. Addtionally, without digital advancements, the UK may struggle to meet its 2050 Net Zero targets, missing key sustainability goals and facing regulatory challenges.

As is so often the case, it's not a question of whether businesses can afford to invest, it's whether they can afford not to.

Charlotte Stonestreet

Editor

In contrast to most other developed economies, in recent years the UK has failed to acknowledge the role that such a strategy has in ensuring long-term economic stability, growth, and global competitiveness.  Now, outlining its vision for a modern Industrial Strategy, the Government has published a comprehensive green paper titled "Invest 2035:The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy". The intention is to foster long-term economic growth by targeting eight key sectors: advanced manufacturing, clean energy, creative industries, defence, digital technologies, financial services, life sciences, and professional and business services. The strategy aims to tackle barriers to growth and create more supportive environments for these sectors, working closely with businesses, regional governments, and industry experts to develop sector-specific plans. These plans are expected to be finalised in the spring of 2024 alongside a multi-year spending review.

Unsurprisingly given the "Invest 2035" moniker, one of the key focuses of the new strategy is to attract significant private sector investment. Recently, the government announced it had secured £63 billion of private funding for a range of projects including airport expansions, data centres, and green infrastructure. And maintaining this level of investment is crucial.

An essential aspect of the strategy is to make the UK more competitive in emerging industries such as clean energy and digital technology. For instance, supporting the clean energy sector aligns with the country's broader push towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions, while advancements in digital and technology are pivotal for modernising infrastructure and ensuring global competitiveness.

Overseeing the strategy will be the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council, chaired by Clare Barclay, CEO of Microsoft UK, which will inform the development of the Industrial Strategy through its expertise and latest evidence, working with business, trade unions, devolved governments, local leaders, academia and stakeholders.

Reactions have been widely positive:

Make UK CEO Stephen Phipson said: "We live in a world which is massively different to a decade ago and simply leaving the economy and, industrial strategy, to the free market is an ideology which is long past its sell by date. This is a welcome first step in addressing the achilles heel of the economy which has left the UK an outlier among advanced countries. It sets out a clarity of vision for how the resources of Government and, in particular, each department can be convened towards a single objective of long term growth across all regions."

President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Dr Clive Hickman OBE, said: “The Government’s plan for a new Industrial Strategy is a positive step towards fostering innovation and growth across the UK. However, to truly realise the strategy's potential, it is essential to invest in the development of engineers who will drive the scale-up and deployment of these initiatives nationwide. Aligning skills programs with industry needs will be critical to ensuring we have the right talent to meet future demands.

"The Green Paper rightly states that a successful industrial strategy can only be delivered by working in partnership with all sectors of our economy. Taking a long-term view, with a stable regulatory environment and funding mechanisms, is also essential."

Charlotte Stonestreet

Editor

According to the International Federation of Robotics figures released in September 2023, in 2022 the UK had 2534 industrial robots, and while this marked a 3% increase, it was still less than a tenth of those in Germany. At the time of writing 2023 figures have not been published, and while I live in hope of great or even moderate improvement, something tells me that once again the UK figures will be lacklustre.

While I am of course aware of the facts, writing for CDA and lreaning about all the exciting innovation that is out there, i do find it all too easy to forget about the somewhat sorry reality of industrial automation in the UK. Walking around any of the numerous trade shows that serve the sector, I get caught up in the knowledge and enthusiasm of the exhibitors, not to mention the benefits that the equipment being showcased can bring. However, the reality that many businesses continue to rely on human labour when some level of automation could be of huge benefit was recently brought home to me in real life, rather than through the lens of industrial sector publishing.

Home from university for the summer, my son recently picked up some temp work at a local business, which specialises in packaging and packing fast moving consumer goods. It’s an apparently successful company, working with a plethora of household names, the type of business that surely must be investing in automation to increase productivity? Suffice to say, I was somewhat taken aback when I discovered that the job had entailed manually unpacking Freddo frogs (other chocolate bars are avaialable) from a box, counting out five, and then putting them into a smaller boxes, which were then manually counted into a larger box. On another day they were tasked with unboxing packaging sleeves, placing them on a conveyor that fed them through an automated labeller, and then counting the sleeves back into a box at the other end of the conveyor.

I simply cannot figure out why this type of task is still being carried out manually. Are funds for investment not available? Are the people in charge not aware of the automated solutions that could be used? Or are they just so used to the current business model that changing it seems like a huge task?

I was half joking when I told my son that he should take copies of CDA into work and leave them lying around in the hope that the business could see what it was missing. He was so horrified by this suggestion that he found a job elsewhere. To be fair, he also found the work so monotonous and boring that even the pretty good wage - well above most temporary jobs - wasn't enough to keep him there either, which makes me think that in this case, automation would defintely be a good option.

So what is Industry 5.0 and what does it mean for the industrial sector? Well, much like its predecessor Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0 will mean different things to different people and enterprises.

At the most basic level Industry 5.0 can be defined as representing the next evolutionary step in the industrial sector, building upon the foundations of Industry 4.0. However, while Industry 4.0 focuses on automation, digitisation, and the integration of cyber-physical systems, Industry 5.0 can be seen as having an altogether more human-centric ethos, shifting the focus towards a harmonious collaboration between humans and machines, emphasising the personalisation of products and protecting the element of human creativity in the manufacturing process.

Industry 5.0 has been described as seeking to enhance human skills by leveraging advanced technologies, allowing workers to focus on creative and complex tasks while machines handle repetitive and mundane activities. This is intended to improve job satisfaction, reduce errors, and foster innovation.

Another hallmark of Industry 5.0 is the ability to produce highly customised and personalised products using advanced manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing, AI, and machine learning.

Fitting nicely into the overall movement towards sustainability, Industry 5.0 prioritises environmentally friendly practices, aiming to reduce waste and energy consumption through more efficient production processes and the use of sustainable materials.

Industry 5.0 leverages cutting-edge technologies to create intelligent and adaptive manufacturing systems. These technologies enable real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and autonomous decision-making, leading to increased efficiency and reduced downtime.

Quoted as a defining feature of Industry 5.0 is collaboration between humans and robots. At a basic level, this can be achieved by choosing from the plethora of cobots (collaborative-robots) designed to work alongside human operators, enhancing their capabilities and assisting with tasks that require precision, strength, or endurance. This collaboration improves productivity and can help create a safer and more ergonomic working environment.

Positive as all the defining features of Industry 5.0 are, I can't help looking at the concept and wondering whether it is offering anything really different to Industry 4.0. I'm sure that regular readers of CDA will be already more than familiar with batch-size one, cobots, AI, sustainability –  indeed any and all of the touted elements of Industry 5.0.

Automation in general has long been viewed as a tool to take on the 'three Ds' - dirty, dull and dangerous tasks - freeing-up people to do more meaningful and fulfilling roles. And while it is undoubtedly more nuanced than I have indicated here, to me Industry 5.0 seems to be the natural evolution of this – albeit with a more natty label!

Charlotte Stonestreet

Editor

So why is the UK so reluctant to invest? Of course, there is a myriad of reasons – from short term-ism to a traditional attitude of if-it-aint-broke-don’t-fix it – but what many of them boil down to is a lack of knowledge, not just about the technology and potential benefits, but also about the available finance opportunities. This has been highlighted in a recent report from Make UK, NatWest and Lombard, which found that investment levels amongst the UK’s manufacturers could be boosted by up to £10 billion in the next year if they were to take advantage of the range of public and private finance options available to them.

Such a boost would, asserts Make UK, raise the investment potential of the sector overall by up to a fifth and help address the UK’s long-term productivity weakness. Furthermore, the report shows that more than a quarter of companies (26%) would increase their investment by up to a fifth if access to finance was improved, while more than one in ten (12%) would increase their investment by up to half. However, the report also showed that more than half of companies (54%) are unaware of the range of public sources of finance and government schemes tailored towards manufacturers.

Boosting investment is critical to the sectors’ efforts to improve productivity and innovation performance given the top priorities for investment are capital equipment (62%) while access to finance will be required for investment in automation and energy efficiency by a third of companies (32% and 31% respectively). Furthermore, the report also shows almost three quarters of companies (70%) said that investment would not take place without access to finance, while just under a third (30%) said their investment would have taken place without any access to finance.

The report shows that, as well as improved awareness of private financial options available to manufacturers, there needs to be far greater awareness of the public sources of finance and Government schemes. More than two thirds of companies (67%) have not heard of the Horizon Europe programme, while a lack of awareness of domestic schemes such as the Government’s flagship management Help to Grow scheme (61%) and British Business Bank (58%) is also alarmingly high. By contrast, just 2% of companies have successfully accessed the Horizon programme, 14% accessed the Help to Grow scheme  and 12% accessed the British Business Bank. According to Make UK, this means Government must be cautious before scrapping schemes that companies are unaware of.

To improve manufacturers’ awareness of the range of public and private finance available Make UK is calling for a centralised database which would signpost both public and private provision. Could this be the magic bullet that will get UK industry investing? Probably not, but there's no doubt that it would make a positive contribution.

Charlotte Stonestreet

Editor

FOLLOWING INTRODUCTIONS and some general scene-setting, the webinar kicked into action with Mike Wilson who pointed out that here in the UK we are not really great users of robots and automation, and generally lag behind most competitors throughout the world. To put this into context, Wilson pointed to robot destiny figures, which give an indication of the number of robots in use per 10,000 workers and enable comparisons with other countries. At present the UK lies 25th in the world, despite being the eighth largest manufacturer.

“So if we were using robots at the same kind of level as other countries we should be somewhere more around the eighth to tenth sort of range,” said Wilson. “We (the UK) historically have not been very good at cap-ex investment throughout our manufacturing centre, but things are changing and it’s being driven by issues around sustainability in particular.”

Effective and efficient

Wilson asserted that using the latest automation technology is beneficial in terms of ensuring operations are as effective and efficient as they can be. Automation results in less waste, produces more consistent quality and helps achieve optimal energy use, as well as making sure that a piece of machinery is used as efficiently as possible

“A typical machine tool might be loaded and unloaded manually, and you will typically get 60-70% utilisation out of that tool, whereas if you can automate the load and unload you can increase that to about 90%,” said Wilson. “So you get a significant improvement in the efficiency of all the resources that you are putting into that process.

Wilson pointed to another global issue that the UK is well positioned to take advantage of, that of the trend for reshoring, which can also contribute to sustainability. It is important to consider not just the carbon emissions from the UK, but also the overseas emissions produced during the manufacture and transport of goods which are imported to the UK. Growing demand for mass customisation is also driving the desire to produce closer to the end consumer.

“That gives us an opportunity to bring things back to the UK,” said Wilson. “And to do that we need to be competitive, we need to do it without significantly increasing the amount of labour that we are using, so, therefore, we need to consider automation.”

As Wilson pointed out, automation and robotics give the potential to expand the UK’s manufacturing capability and ensure that it’s as sustainable as possible.

Different business model

Touching on servitisation, Wilson said: “Really, it’s just a different business model in terms of how people sell the equipment, and rather than purchasing the equipment, you are buying the ability to produce a certain number of parts an hour, or whatever it might be. Fundamentally, that makes it easier to invest in that equipment because it’s not necessarily coming out of cap-ex.”

Given that the UK has been historically poor at cap-ex, this gives the opportunity to take advantage of the latest technologies going forward.

In the context of sustainability, Wilson also talked about the recycling and refreshment of automation equipment, pointing out that in the past businesses might have simply discarded a piece of equipment once it had reached the end of its life. However, there is a second hand market for industrial robots and some of the bigger companies are starting to take robots back for refurbishment and resale back into the market.

“Those opportunities make it potentially less expensive for some of the smaller businesses to get into this technology.” said Wilson “So we start to develop a circular process that;’s beneficial for the whole of UK industry.

“We are just at the start of this journey, but there is a big opportunity for the UK to take leadership in this kind of approach, and then that will give us the chance to catch up, or even leapfrog our main competitors.”

Scoping out the complexities

The conversation then turned to the reasons behind the need for OEMs, and the wider market, to compete specifically on sustainability - a subject addressed by Mike Teller, global strategy and sustainability leader, OEM industry business, at Schneider.

“We do things for two reasons, I guess, at a basic level, either because we see a reason to do it and want to do it or because we have to,” said Teller. He pointed to regulatory requirements from both the UK and the EU (to where the UK exports) which mean companies have to comply in terms of sustainability, as well as the voluntary side where businesses see the growing awareness amongst both their customers and their competition.

“There are areas that we hear about from the greenhouse gas protocol, where we talk about scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3. A scope 1 emission is something we generate ourselves; so I have a gas boiler where I am which is heating the radiators which keep me warm so that’s my scope 1 emission. Scope 2 is an emission made on my behalf, so I’m running my computer at the moment on electricity which is made by the power station down the road, and that is an emission made on my behalf so I can purchase their electricity.” says Teller.

“Scope 1 and scope 2 are more or less within my control; scope 3 is far more complex. It’s everything upstream - so everything that we buy into Schneider Electric to put into a product – and everything downstream that goes to our customer. And scope 3 is by far the largest area. This is where – selling products and solutions to our machine builder partners who then sell them on to end users – we can have the biggest effect. So this is also where the biggest opportunity is.

Teller highlighted that 80% of a product's sustainability is determined at the design stage. As he pointed out, it is not possible to build a machine and then expect to fine tune it three years later; this is where Schneider uses digital twin technology to design in partnership with the machine builder.

The digital twin

Miklosh Bakos OEM offer manager UK&I at Schneider also talked about the importance of designing in sustainability right from the onset. He referenced a 2022 study from Gartner which analysed the whole machine building process; this determined that roughly 60% of the commission time is wasted with fault fixing.

“That’s a big number, 60%,” said Bakos. “To address this and to make it faster for the OEM to get through the whole process, the digital twin can be one pillar of success, speeding up commissions and making it more efficient.”

Bakos explained how the digital twin brings value beyond just the design, easing collaboration amongst the various parties working on a project, providing a detailed sales tool to showcase the machine itself, and enabling remote maintenance.

Responding, Chris Haines, marketing director, industry at Schneider talked about the huge potential for enhancing sustainability through predictive maintenance. This can, he said save end users’ time, energy, and resource by being more intelligent about what is maintained and how and it is maintained, based on the condition of the condition of the equipment rather than relying on manufacturer recommended maintenance intervals.

“If you are monitoring the actual condition of your assets, you can tell where and when they need maintaining and you can extent the maintenance intervals if it’s not being worked particularly hard, or if it’s in a clean environment, and you can save an awful lot of time, energy, resource, materials – and as a result carbon – by doing that,“ said Haines.

He also pointed out that if a piece of machinery is being worked particularly hard or is in a harsh environment, monitoring the condition can identify that maintenance is needed before the recommenced interval comes up, potentially averting catastrophic failure. “It’s another way of saving time, money and energy,” he said.

When it comes to repair and remanufacture, Haines feels that this is another aspect that can contribute to sustainability as a whole.

“There’s no silver bullet for sustainability, there’s no one big ticket item that you can go for, it’s really about aggregating marginal gains,“ said Haines. “It’s lot of little things that add up on your journey to net zero.”

Gain further insight

This article gives just a taster of what was covered in the webinar, so if you want to find out more details visit the website below and view the event on-demand at a time to suit you.

www.controlsdrivesautomation.com/webinars