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GoSmarter AI Blog

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.

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

  • Ruth Kearney
  • Archive
  • Oct 29, 2021
  • Updated

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.

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.

Microsoft Emissions Impact Dashboard - what you need to know

  • Will Harris
  • Archive
  • Oct 25, 2021
  • Updated

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

  • Steph Locke
  • Archive
  • Sep 30, 2021
  • Updated

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.

UK Government supports AI approaches to manufacturing sustainability

The UK government released its AI strategy on 22nd September 2021. We’ve looked at the report and broken down how this will affect the manufacturing industry going forward. We outline some key areas such as skills shortages, addressing net-zero challenges, and new product development as well as the next steps manufacturers can take.

Digitalising your business processes to be more sustainable

Digitalising your business processes might help you run a more sustainable, environmentally friendly manufacturing operation. Simply digitising your records and reducing physical resource usage is an excellent place to begin. Taking it a step further and re-engineering the way you work to be smoother, more integrated, and less data entry dependent while digitalising can save you even more compute power (and therefore energy!).

Cloud Migration: important for a green future

Cloud providers like Microsoft are making their data centres greener and carbon neutral, whereas your in-house servers and associated resources are burning energy. As well as potentially lowering your compute costs, revitalising your IT infrastructure, reducing risk, the green advantages make a cloud move a must for any manufacturer with sights on a net zero goal.

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