Ten years ago, UK manufacturing was grappling with a question: what is stopping makers in the sector from achieving greater productivity, performance and potential?
At the heart of the answer was the UK’s failure to take advantage of the digital technologies which had emerged from the shift from analogue to digital. As stated in 2017’s Made Smarter Review, the ambitious industry-led report into industrial digitalisation, we had left those opportunities to other nations. As a result, we had fallen behind in our readiness to fully embrace the next great technological leap, where technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), robotics and additive manufacturing offer a myriad of benefits.
The Review laid out a bold and ambitious plan with four priorities: innovation, adoption, leadership, and skills. And at the centre of each of these was a focus on SMEs, the lifeblood of the UK economy.
In 2018, a new model of business support for SME manufacturers was launched as a £20m pilot in the North West, a region of rich enduring heritage with high numbers of manufacturers, and below average productivity.
The Made Smarter Adoption Programme offered access to a package of intensive support including: impartial technology advice, digital transformation workshops, access to digital skills through leadership programmes, internships and other training opportunities, and grant funding for technology projects.
The impact of the three-year pilot inspired the UK government to expand the programme to other regions including the North East, Yorkshire and Humber, the West Midlands and East Midlands.
Five years on, the numbers are breathtaking. In the North West, more than 2,500 manufacturers have engaged with our specialised support. More than 150 have embedded new digital skills into their operations. And we have funded 334 technology projects with SMEs.
What is more, we're starting to see the economic benefit with the North West forecast to see an increase of £242m in GVA in the coming years, creating 1,300 new jobs and upskilling 2,500 existing roles.
The impact of Made Smarter is now being felt across the other regional adoption programmes where technology investment is helping boost growth, productivity, efficiency, decarbonise and create high value, well-paid jobs of the future.
Technology in action
Among those reaping the benefits are dozens of bakery firms who have invested in new equipment thanks to grant and match funding.
Studio Bakery, based in Lancashire, is a family-run artisan bakery which is rapidly expanding.
Managing Director Allison Metcalf engaged with Made Smarter to create a digital roadmap and look at ways new equipment could improve productivity through grant funding.
Our support led to the bakery investing in a new cutting machine making production more efficient and creating a better finished product. It also streamlined the production run to create a better workflow in the factory.
Bells of Lazonby, in Cumbria, has produced baked goods for the retail and food service for over 75 years. The business accessed match-funding to adopt two programmable ultrasonic cutting robots.
The robots are capable of slicing cake in several shapes and sizes, which means operators won’t have to change the cut pattern between products and can be moved to other areas of the bakery. This saves a considerable amount of time. The robots also link to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system which is programmable to take into account customer orders, resources, and the fluctuation of the price of the ingredients.
By speeding up the process using robotics, Bells of Lazonby estimates that it can increase capacity by 25%.
Planet Doughnut, a bakery in Shropshire, worked with Made Smarter to invest in a Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) system to ensure every site the business operated was communicating digitally with each other, and to amalgamate all its administrative processes.
The software also has extra features such as recipe management which allows the business to order ingredients more precisely to produce less waste.
Handmade Speciality Products, based in Coventry, manufactures millions of single and multi-pack muffins, cookies, flapjacks, gingerbread, traybakes and cakes each year, for customers ranging from schools and universities to retailers and wholesalers across the UK.
The business worked with Made Smarter to create a digital roadmap to determine its key challenges and how technology could help to improve its processes.
Automating its gingerbread/biscuit production process increased capacity by over 50 per cent. The machine runs conjunction with a robotic cutting machine, which has significantly improved consistency and productivity.
Compliance and traceability
While digital tools help bakeries drive efficiencies, they also boost staff morale and bolster brand reputation due to added compliance and traceability – something that has become even more important since 2021 with the introduction of Natasha’s Law, requiring food businesses to include full ingredients labelling on pre-packaged foods.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are a configurable engineering solution, meaning they’re developed to fit each unique company. An ERP platform has various modules which relate to each business area (such as finance/accounting, supply chain management, human resources, manufacturing and logistics, and customer relationship management) and are rolled out in stages as the database is being built. This paves the way for more accurate data tracking and management, making compliance easier to prove. They can also ensure precise specifications - such as the recipes - are met with each batch, helping to regulate batches and maintain high standards.
ERP systems can also improve accuracy and reduce waste, helping to cut down on inventory inefficiencies by enabling a business to order components when needed, and produce and ship in good time – rather than keep items waiting around. And this works well whether a business mass-produce batch items or manufacture-to-order products.
Process control technologies go hand in hand with ERP systems and can ensure compliance as well as better team communication and collaboration. Once integrated within an organisation, process control technology can monitor and control manufacturing processes. Sensors measure and adjust the conditions that a product is made under, and the technology sends that data to other systems to analyse performance, plan more efficient workflows, and audit activity. These records can be stored in the form of batch and shift reports, or also create personalised reports and used to capture employee knowledge.
Process control technology can therefore help food manufacturers pinpoint exactly where each ingredient has come from to easily validate that it meets quality specifications and can be certified as, say, vegan or gluten-free. Additionally, these tools can be used to identify which stock needs to be used first, like short shelf-life ingredients, reducing waste and costs.
This level of oversight often results in the likes of high speed and productivity too. Plus, it can hit the brakes when the process is about to go wrong, giving teams the opportunity to proactively make amends.
Robotics and automation can support compliance through accuracy. They can be used to precisely weigh and dispense ingredients and cut the finished product to size. ‘Brownies in a box’ products are a great example of this in action – and show how staff can benefit too. These postal treats have skyrocketed in popularity, but the cutting of dense products can trigger repetitive strain injury as well as sore muscles and joints.
An automated cutter takes the task off their hands, reducing the likelihood of human error and potential injury. Plus, staff can then be relocated to higher value business areas, where their roles are more varied and satisfying. These technologies are also equipped with data collection systems. So, at the same time as they’re helping drive the manufacturing process itself and removing onerous or heavy tasks away from people, they’re also feeding an organisation with operational data. Once again, the analysis of this data can provide business intelligence which can be turned into process improvements as well as better compliance practices.
Digital Adoption is not just about replacing the old with the new. Maintaining and improving existing equipment can prevent breakdowns by identifying potential issues before they escalate into major incidents. It will extend the lifespan of equipment, delaying the need for replacements. It can also maximise efficiency, reduce downtime and preserve quality.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a network of smart devices like sensors which monitor, collect, analyse, and exchange data. Applied within manufacturing and factory environments it can help predict equipment failure, saving maintenance costs and time, but also making sure to reduce business downtime and avoid failures or accidents.
IIoT also helps tackle issues of obsolescence, especially for those SMEs with older machinery and processes.
Strong foundations
Over the last five years, the Made Smarter programme has developed expertise in the potential application of those industrial digitalisation technologies and communicated their transformative potential to SME manufacturers.
We’ve recognised that businesses need stronger foundations to start their journey towards the aspirational smart factory of the future. This has meant half of grant funded projects have focused on data and systems integration technology, as well as sensors to enable factory connectivity.
As a result, business leaders have achieved real-time visualisation of their processes, been able to spot trends in production and labour, correct maintenance, and quality issues, and minimise safety, business risk and operational downtime throughout their production.
With the infrastructure now in place, some manufacturers are ready for more sophisticated, boundary-pushing technologies such as analytics, machine learning and AI, which are evolving at unprecedented speed.
The future
Made Smarter’s success - which started in the North West and expanded to the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, the West Midlands and East Midlands - is now poised to be felt UK-wide.
By 2027 all SME manufacturers in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will have access to the support. This means thousands more manufacturers, including bakeries, starting or accelerating their digital transformation journeys, realising the benefits for their people, their business, industry, society and the planet.