General
CBAM Explained: The Financial Case for Cutting Scrap
The steel industry faces increasing pressure to decarbonise, with the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) set to become a decisive factor by 2026. Scrap is no longer just a production inefficiency it directly increases reported emissions and carbon costs. For Finance and Sustainability Managers, reducing scrap is now central to meeting carbon targets and protecting margins.
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Smart Cuts, Less Scrap: A 1D Cutting Stock Problem
In rebar manufacturing, scrap directly impacts profitability and sustainability, making efficient production essential. Mathematical optimisation, particularly the 1D Cutting Stock Problem, helps minimise waste by determining the most efficient way to cut raw steel bars into required lengths while reducing leftover material.
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Northern Ireland Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference hightlights
It was great to contribute to the Northern Ireland Manufacturing & Supply Chain Conference & Exhibition Titanic Exhibition Centre last week. I was there to talk about our approach to greener software, to promote Strada and to network with the wider manufacturing community.
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South West Manufacturing Digitalisation Series
South West Manufacturing Digitalisation Series from RDI Hub in the South West of Ireland.
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Manufacturing excellence with Astellas Ireland
Learning from manufacturing best practice with Astellas Ireland.
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Change is hard but equipping your teams with the right tools makes it easier
As we see the back of 2021, another year of disruption and change, I reflect on organisational practices and share some thoughts on how to implement more effective change. Change is hard, so best to start with small doses of change.
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Industry 4.0 in a post-Covid world
Mckinsey’s report on manufacturing operations after Covid-19 takes an interesting look into the potential adoption pathways companies will take on the way to Industry 4.0 and some of the ways technology is changing the sector. It also identifies what ’lighthouses’, organisations successfully transforming at scale, are doing to make them succeed.
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6 board-level agenda items and how AI can help
Persistent COVID-19 uncertainty, disruptive technologies, and supply chain challenges are some of the big concerns facing manufacturing CEOs and corporate leaders right now. However, despite uncertainty, we are seeing some promising trends around automation and transforming processes from the back office to the factory floor. Here are the top six board-level agenda items and a look into how AI can help.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!).
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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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Design, manufacture, and ship products more sustainably with AI
AI can help manufacturers design, make, and ship products more sustainably. From lowering waste through defect detection, to generative design to reduce prototype waste, to smart energy management and predictive maintenance, manufacturers can use AI to make a big impact.
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What does NatWest's Future Fit report say about digital transformation for manufacturers
The latest Future Fit report focuses on “trailblazers” and what makes them different to other organisations. It covers the importance of innovation and of current developments in the industry such as digital transformation.
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Software-as-a-Service to help you digitise
Software as a Service or SaaS, as it’s more commonly known, makes digital easy. Find out how it can help to streamline your processes and run a more efficient business.
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Manufacturers - you need DataOps
DataOps also helps you build a more agile digital supply chain by enabling analytic teams to automate their processes, which in turn reduces cycle time on data analytics. Getting this data infrastructure right is critical for helping Operational Technology (OT) get the most out of real-time data to optimise processes. DataOps is part of your ability to move quickly in the digital space. It should be part of your overall approach to your developer velocity and can help staff to discover the data they need to drive insightful improvements in your organisation.
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Investing in tools scales staff productivity
Businesses with the highest productivity experience more stable and consistent revenue growth, as well as being able to adapt more quickly. With less waste and more staff power focussed on growth, manufacturers with an investment in tooling are more operationally resilient.
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How to move your operations to the cloud - what you need to know
You’ve probably heard of the cloud but what is it and how can it help your business? Learn how moving to the cloud can help you innovate and stay ahead of the curve when it comes to tech.
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Tools matter for Developer Velocity
Businesses with the highest developer velocity experience the highest revenue growth, according to new research by Microsoft and McKinsey. Read on to understand how tools impact developer velocity and what the business case is for investing in them.
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Digital Twins and AI for manufacturers
Digital Twins are virtual replicas of real-world systems enabling low-cost modelling of the factory floor to help optimise processes. Combined with AI the Digital Twin can support improved forecasting, dynamic optimisation, and more.
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Smart Manufacturing is all about Real-Time Data Analytics
Manufacturers are spending far too much time on data entry or looking at stale data which is hindering growth. Here are seven ways real-time data can turn things around.
Read MoreData Champions are critical to your success in digitally transforming
Manufacturers need Data Champions to help them succeed in today’s digital world. To learn more about how you can find your Data Champion for your team or company, read on!
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Checklists make everything better - including responsible AI!
Building a checklist to cover the six key areas of responsible AI can drive better outcomes and returns for your business. Start with the list of areas as a discussion aid and grow your checklist with use.
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Using AI to make your warehouse operations smarter
You can benefit from lower overheads by using AI to manage stock levels, whilst building a more scalable warehouse operation that is safer for employees, using AI.
Read MoreDetecting defects with AI - a computer vision challenge
With the pace of output on machines ever increasing, quality control becomes a lot tougher. Using AI to detect defective products sooner can help scale your quality processes and avoid significant stops.
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EU to recruit world-class AI researchers
While Europe is a global leader in academic research of human-centric artificial intelligence we lag behind when it comes to putting research into practice.
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Building operational resilience in times of crisis
Operational resilience has always been a key factor in business success, but not enough businesses consider their ability to take stress in turbulent times until it is too late. Covid-19 has been a huge wake-up call for many, presenting uncertainty and disruption.
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Be The Change: Standing up for equality
Be The Change is an event series run by Tramshed Tech that aims to highlight partners who are advocating change, support collaboration for change-making action, and ensure the equality agenda across all protected characteristic groups remains current and in the spotlight. The idea is to raise awareness for underrepresented groups and create individual connections.
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Creative Disruption - UK Digital Manufacturing Week 2020
Major crises cause economic and social damage but they also inspire innovation. This was a major theme Digital Manufacturing Week, who themselves had to disrupt by holding the 6,000 plus attendee event completely online. For our startup based in Wales, the opportunity to tune in to an amazing line-up of speakers from across British manufacturing and connect with the community from the comfort of our own homes was bliss. It was our first time at the event and here are some of our highlights as to who is pushing the boundaries in manufacturing right now.
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£147 million investment into manufacturing
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been heating up for several years, and the recent challenges imposed by COVID-19 have accelerated efforts to get this tech in the hands of businesses to drive innovation and build agility and resilience. AI has been receiving lots of attention from the UK government and is one of the four Grand Challenge areas in the Industry Strategy.
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Manufacturing the future
Industry 4.0 has been budding over the last decade and has a long way yet to mature, however, the onset of the Covid-19 global pandemic has presented a suite of challenges and accelerated the need for solutions. The manufacturing industry has not had the flexibility of remote work to fall back on due to its dependency on onsite workers. Manufacturers will have had to make big changes to ensure the health of workers as they return to workplaces. At the same time, they’ve had to contend with the unpredictability of supply and demand, which could remain unstable for a prolonged recovery period. So how has this impacted manufacturing and what does this mean for the future?
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Bigger, better sales with AI
Automation and Artificial Intelligence can support the sales team to make bigger, better sales. AI in sales and marketing can be particularly valuable. In this #GoSmarter webinar Steph Locke, CEO of Nightingale HQ takes a look at automation tools in a B2B context and how easy they are to adopt.
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Understanding the techniques behind AI in manufacturing
It’s no secret that the disruption of Industry 4.0 and the challenges presented by Covid-19 have been a push for manufacturers to evaluate digital transformation and consider going smart with AI in their factories. This article, adapted from the webinar shared below, is aimed at manufacturers who are interested in the techniques, data infrastructure and processes needed to support building internal data science & AI intellectual property.
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The Historian and AI Webinar (AIFightsBack)
AI for manufacturing has huge potential. As well as clear AI use cases like robotics and automation, the wealth of data being consolidated into industrial time series via historian appliances presents an opportunity for further AI applications. Using the data being consolidated, we can build early warning systems for critical issues, optimise maintenance programs, and improve processes.
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Low ROI from AI is a people problem, not a tech problem
The top blockers to effective AI use in businesses aren't technical issues. They're people problems.
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AI Winters and hype
This is not the first time AI has been all the rage in the business world. In particular, AI was big in the eighties with solutions called expert systems. Will AI be a passing fad now?
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The AI Hierarchy of Needs meets the Minimum Viable Product
Two of my favourite pyramids are the Data Science Hierarchy of Needs and the Minimum Viable Product. Combining them helps us build effective artificial intelligence (AI) proof of concepts in businesses. It also supports building AI competency at the same time as demonstrating Return on Investment (ROI).
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Mastering AI in manufacturing: the three levels of competency
Manufacturers have been facing continual pressure to improve their technology base, reduce costs, and improve quality since the Industrial Revolution. Manufacturers are used to change but not every manufacturer can or will embrace it at the same rate. Also, no manufacturer jumps straight to being an expert at the new thing they're needing to adopt. The same goes for Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an emerging change in manufacturing.
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Industry IoT, smart factories and AI in manufacturing
The world of manufacturing is on the brink of another revolution due to the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from clear use cases like robotics and automation, big data applications are coming into play, thanks to industrial time series data collected by data historians. Thriving on all this data, AI systems can be built to send early warnings, optimise processes, predict maintenance and enforce quality control. By collecting the right data, manufacturers can get really creative with their AI solutions, and it can set them apart from the competition.
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7 tips for building a data culture that will strengthen your business
Data analytics has taken off but not everyone is on the same page. While some companies are already making waves with data science, others are still struggling with the basics. Curating a healthy data culture is ever more important now to prevent the gap from growing between those who are embracing analytics and those who are lagging behind.
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Project management: Are you backing the right AI projects?
As an executive with an influence over whether your company implements AI and which projects it embarks on, there’s a lot of pressure on you to be successful. The future of AI within your company could rest on you on how your chosen projects perform.
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