On the 13th of June, Ms. Nicole Ballantyne and Mr. Steven Barr of the Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), presented to the INSME Academy “An Overview of the Impact of Digitalisation on the UK Manufacturing Sector”. As with all INSME Academy events, this webinar offered insights from experts, in this case representing KTN, who addressed during this session the latest trends in the field of the Digitalization of Manufacturing, with a focus on the challenges and opportunities that this topic entails for SMEs
Nicole Ballantyne explained how the UK government is investing £147m through the Made Smarter Innovation (MSI) programme, boosting research and innovation across all manufacturing sectors. The speaker added that funding is also being channelled into regional support for skills development, key MSI themes including Smart Factory and Connected Supply Chain, focus on the Fusion of Digital technologies with Manufacturing through market challenges and opportunities, better and more competitive products and services, business resilience, and environmental sustainability.
Adding on this topics, Steven Barr called attention to the 2017 Made Smarter Review, and how it highlights the crucial role of business advisers when it comes to the many challenges of SMEs’ productivity and sustainability, to which the UK Knowledge Transfer Network for instance responded by developing and applying the 4Manufacturing® Diagnostic Toolkit for Accelerating Technology Adoption, which has aided over 300 manufacturers as of now. The current EU-funded project RCT4MANU, which in itself involves 90+ SMEs, has proven the effectiveness of 4Manufacturing® at reducing the time it takes for SMEs to invest in essential, digital, and other enablers of performance. Another distinctive aspect of 4Manufacturing® is the way it helps SMEs and manufacturing leaders quickly comprehend essential business and technical concepts so that they can focus on prioritizing activities and making expert solutions.
To conclude their presentation, the KTN representatives showed how now their organization is developing a network of leading UK and EU Agencies, with the aim to collaborate on training advisers and sharing knowledge to help improve future business support program delivery, in which the collaborating agencies within said network will be able to use the 4Manufacturing® toolbox for free.
If you are interested in learning more and in getting involved with UK KTN, please download more information here, or email viola.hay@ktn-uk.org.
Source: INSME Secretariat
