News
RAEng - Growing capacity and shaping capability in digitalization transformation for regional SMES and supply chains
12 April 2019
The Royal Academy of Engineering have funded a new three year strategic project which aims to significantly add value across the regional SME supply-chain/industry base, by becoming the catalyst for their adoption of key digitalization technologies through cross-sector engagement, and by contributing to solving specific UK societal challenges in terms of contributing to essential future skills development.
Digitalization has the potential to transform the UK's manufacturing, service industries and associated infrastructure systems. This project seeks to work with aerospace SME, supply-chains and other organisations in the East Midlands to develop their digitalization capabilities by establishing a highly efficient integrated supply-chain ecosystem that is connected and smart. It aims to bring about urgent transformational changes and new approaches underpinning high-value engineering supply-chains needed by industry to survive and secure a competitive edge.
A crucial step is development of an end-to-end digital engineering data/information ecosystem (digitalthread) across a product’s entire lifecycle/supply-chain to create enhanced planning platforms and production programs by linking digital data. This will involve new transformative digitalization business models, to provide value-producing opportunities through intelligent integration of advanced systems, capable of communicating/data sharing for optimal workflows to more effectively manage inventory, ship and track movement of parts, including personnel management and manufacturing assets.
The project will include the following objectives::
Deliver high-profile programme of events, networking, workshops, dissemination and exploitation activities selectively geared to improving the understanding of digitalization within regional SMEs, local enterprise partnerships and others supporting local economic development, including promoting public awareness.
Demystify, digitalization technologies (such as analytics, artificial intelligence, block chain, digital-twin, machine learning, model-based engineering etc.) and improve understanding, with clarity the data-driven economy that involves digitally connected, large scale data that can be rapidly analysed by technology and innovation.
Provision of commercial neutral (vendor agnostic) consultation and impartial online resource of case study examples of digitalization strategies and adoption.
Further details available from:
Please email Prof Roy S. Kalawsky for further details
Email address: r.s.kalawsky@lboro.ac.uk
Telephone number: 01509 635678