Watch Taking a Sledgehammer to Bottlenecks 🎥 as Ruth & Steph show how AI actually fixes margins.

GoSmarter AI Blog

Categories

Back

Tags

Tags
Back

About this Section

About this Section

The GoSmarter blog covers AI and digital transformation from a metals manufacturing perspective. Practical use cases, implementation guides, industry strategy, and plain-English takes on the tech that actually matters on the shop floor.

No fluff. No thought-leadership waffle dressed up as insight. Just practical articles written for people who run metal cutting, distribution, and processing operations.

Topics covered include mill certificate automation, rebar cutting optimisation, scrap rate reduction, EN 10204 compliance, inventory management for steel stockholders, and the practical realities of replacing spreadsheets with AI-powered workflows. The blog also covers industry news relevant to UK and European metals manufacturers — tariffs, standards changes, and technology developments that affect your margins.

Articles are written for production managers, quality managers, operations directors, and business owners in metals manufacturing. Each post focuses on a specific, solvable problem: how to reduce scrap on a saw line, how to stop losing mill certificates, how to automate the cert-to-stock link without an IT project.

For deeper, structured guides on specific topics, see the GoSmarter hub pages — pillar content covering cutting optimisation, mill cert automation, yield tracking, and more.

Digitising your factory floor is hard

Digitising your factory floor is hard, that’s why we try to accelerate digital transformation in other operational areas. Focusing on helping workers, modernising core functions like Finance, and supporting your growth, gives you the opportunity to demonstrate value whilst gaining digital technology maturity. It’s hard to rapidly change, acquire expertise, and digitise the factory floor at the same time. By working in areas that are easier to change you can free up vital staff time to dedicate to the harder challenges.

Read More: Digitising your factory floor is hard

Upskilling for the green revolution

92% of manufacturers believe net zero will be achievable for their business by 2050. To make this reality, the government and industry need to put strategies in place that map out how they are going to unlock the skills needed for the green revolution. Make UK and Sage recently teamed up to release a report that investigates the subject and makes some recommendations for success.

Read More: Upskilling for the green revolution

The State of AI and learning from Transformers

Deloitte’s State of AI in the Enterprise report is an enlightening read. This edition focuses on becoming an ‘AI fueled’ organisation. The results come from a survey conducted on 2,875 executives from across the Americas, Europe and Asia. They separated companies into four groups based on their success with AI implementation and identified what was driving the success of the highest performers.

Read More: The State of AI and learning from Transformers

How you can turn an extra £100 per month IT spend into more than £4,000 of staff time savings monthly

Pressure to be more efficient has never been greater. The good news is there are so many helpful time-saving software as a service tools out there! We’ve made a list of some of the best.

Read More: How you can turn an extra £100 per month IT spend into more than £4,000 of staff time savings monthly

Procurement best practice – what manufacturers can learn

The National Audit Office (NAO) report on ‘Managing the Commercial Lifecycle’ is a great guide to improving your own procurement processes. Here we share some interesting findings and the key areas to make changes in.

Read More: Procurement best practice – what manufacturers can learn

Microsoft Emissions Impact Dashboard - what you need to know

The Emissions Impact Dashboard is a great way to track and reduce cloud carbon emissions. The tool has an accessible visual interface that gives users high quality data and key insights into their cloud carbon footprint. If you’re aiming for net zero this dashboard can be a step in the right direction.

Read More: Microsoft Emissions Impact Dashboard - what you need to know

Why you should upskill your team with Azure AI fundamentals

As digital transformation and AI adoption become the norm in manufacturing it’s vital that management are all on the same page. A lack of understanding of AI and a fear of the unknown are some of the key barriers to successful implementation in most organisations. Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals could be your solution.

Read More: Why you should upskill your team with Azure AI fundamentals

Investing in digital technology lowers future operating costs for manufacturers

There are so many benefits to going digital with your business including cutting your future operating costs and becoming more sustainable. We’ve taken a look at the UKRI’s report on productivity opportunities and risks in a transformative, low-carbon and digital age which looks at this in more detail.

Read More: Investing in digital technology lowers future operating costs for manufacturers

What is a citizen developer?

Citizen developers are not developers by trade but still make useful tools and applications with no-code tools. The concept is relatively new and has gained momentum in the last few years. Citizen Development has the potential to be of great benefit to the manufacturing industry by empowering ordinary staff to improve the processes they work with every day. Their unique perspectives can be transformative in identifying key areas to work on and improve.

Read More: What is a citizen developer?

What manufacturing SME's need to know about IIoT and cyber-security

IIoT can have benefits for manufacturing businesses of all types and sizes. It can be particularly useful in providing transparency and tracking along the supply chain but that’s just the start. To stay safe, it is vital you develop strong cyber security practices around IIoT. Here we offer some best practices and how to approach them.

Read More: What manufacturing SME's need to know about IIoT and cyber-security

Join the Resistance

Get the latest tips on how to stop running your factory like it’s 1985. We promise not to spam you with boring whitepapers.

How to adopt AI one step at a time