Innovation Themes

Harnessing technologies to optimise the design and execution of current and future factories.

• Manufacturing process and operations
  • Use of robotics or additive manufacturing to accelerate processes
  • Dynamic, real time production planning and scheduling
  • Digital twins of facilities & processes to optimise future designs or current state
  • Real time/in process quality monitoring and process optimisation
  • Digital track and trace systems
• Asset management optimisation
• Use of robotics and autonomous systems to improve productivity or worker safety
• Connected worker – augmented & virtual solutions for task assistance, training or safety.

Harnessing technologies to optimise the design and execution of current and future supply chains.

• Interoperability and understandability of data across value chains
• Supply chain design:
  • End to end supply chain visibility and effective risk management
  • Sustainable supply chains for increased flexibility
  • Warehouse and logistic optimisation
  • New business models such as distributed manufacturing.
• Supply chain execution:
  • Demand management, sensing and shaping
  • Improved decision-making through analytics and artificial intelligence (AI)
  • Production planning or scenario modelling
  • Track-and-trace technologies, traceability and provenance.

• Enabling customisation: adapting processes to smaller batch size production, rapidly configurable processes with reduction of design and production time.
• Flexible /distributed manufacturing using a flexible network of supply and skills to manage volatility/disruption effectively.
• Simulation and understanding of real work using data from people and industrial systems, efficient transfer of trial results to the workplace.

• Transforming product design through digital technologies
• Virtual product testing, verification and validation, quality monitoring and inspection.