Major milestone for Factory 2050

Factory 2050 will be a totally reconfigurable, digital factory, built to respond to an increasing requirement for advanced manufacturers to be able to make rapid changes to product design, as a result of ever-changing customer demands. It is designed so that machines and manufacturing modules can easily be moved around the shop floor.

AMRC executive dean, Professor Keith Ridgway CBE, said: "We want Factory 2050 to be the most advanced factory in the world and part of our long-term development of high value manufacturing.

"The development will ensure that the UK’s advanced manufacturing supply chain can tap into the expertise it needs to make the most of those trends. Factory 2050 has also been designed to make young people enthusiastic about following a career in advanced manufacturing.”

The University of Sheffield's vice chancellor, professor Sir Keith Burnett said: "Factory 2050 will be world-leading in advanced manufacturing and build on our powerful partnerships with global companies and the high-tech supply chains which work with them. We are proud of the role we are playing in the UK economy. We believe that the UK has the talent and determination to build and export major high-value products to the world. Factory 2050 and the Innovation District will allow this to happen."