Blog and Articles

Articles Written for the Shop Floor, Not the Boardroom

Practical reads for people who run metal processing, distribution, and manufacturing operations. No generic thought-leadership. No consultancy waffle. Just articles written for people who care about what actually happens on the shop floor.

Our articles cover the decisions that actually matter for metals businesses:

How to cut scrap without replacing your equipment
How to stop chasing mill certificates before every delivery
How to get real inventory visibility without a six-figure ERP bill
How AI is changing the economics of metals manufacturing

You’ll also find articles on industry terminology, compliance standards, and the wider context of digitalisation for metals SMEs. Turns out knowing what’s broken is step one.

If you’re looking for a specific subject, browse by topic or category. The glossary is a good starting point if you’re new to the terminology your customers use on purchase orders.

Checklists make everything better - including responsible AI!

Steph Locke
Archive , Blog
May 10, 2021
Updated Mar 4, 2026

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.

Using AI to make your warehouse operations smarter

Steph Locke
Archive , Blog
May 7, 2021
Updated Mar 4, 2026

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.

Steph Locke
Archive , Blog
May 5, 2021
Updated Mar 4, 2026

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.

EU to recruit world-class AI researchers

Steph Locke
Archive , Blog
Mar 22, 2021
Updated Mar 4, 2026

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.

Building operational resilience in times of crisis

Steph Locke
Archive , Blog
Feb 5, 2021
Updated Mar 4, 2026

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.

Be The Change: Standing up for equality

Steph Organ
Archive , Learning , Blog
Dec 15, 2020
Updated Mar 4, 2026

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.

Creative Disruption - UK Digital Manufacturing Week 2020

Steph Organ
Archive , Blog
Nov 18, 2020
Updated Mar 4, 2026

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.

£147 million investment into manufacturing

Steph Organ
Archive , Blog
Nov 9, 2020
Updated Mar 4, 2026

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.

Manufacturing the future

Steph Organ
Archive , Blog
Oct 23, 2020
Updated Mar 4, 2026

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?

Bigger, better sales with AI

Ruth Kearney
Archive , Blog , Learning
Jul 28, 2020
Updated Mar 4, 2026

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.