Made Smarter - Innovation Network: Flexible Manufacturing
Production efficiency often centres around a consistent product and process, optimised to run with minimal downtime. But what happens when customers demand more product variation, where you need to switch a process from one product to another, or where batch sizes are small? This event will explore how digital technology can help manufacturers maintain efficiency and asset utilisation whilst offering the customer what they want.
Our series of Made Smarter | Innovation Network webinars – delivered as part of the ISCF Manufacturing Made Smarter programme – showcases the journeys of manufacturers innovating with digital technologies to improve the performance of their business, alongside digital technology providers creating innovative solutions to aid the manufacturers journey.
Webinar recording is now available
You can register for one or more of the webinars based on your specific areas of interest.
Manufacturing Made Smarter (MMS) is one of the Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund programmes, investing £147m into creating a fully connected, dynamic manufacturing ecosystem inspiring innovation across academia, technology providers and manufacturers.
Deploying technologies and processes can make manufacturing more flexible. By adopting flexible manufacturing processes, manufacturers can adapt to changes in the type and quantity of the product being manufactured. Machines and systems can be changed to manufacture a variety of parts and deal with changing levels of production.
This webinar will look into the deployment of technologies and processes that can make manufacturing more flexible to improve efficiencies and reduce costs.
Who should attend?
If you are a manufacturer aspiring to be more productive, efficient, competitive, resilient through the use of digital technologies, an integrator or a digital technology solution provider or developer who wants to reach a manufacturing audience, then this event series will be of interest to you.
Digital technology solution providers and developers engaged in the series will have early access to express their interest in taking a stand at Innovation Alley, within The Manufacturers inaugural exhibition Smart Factory Expo at Digital Manufacturing Week.
Agenda
- 10:10 | The Manufacturer – WE DID IT! – GSK
Emily Kerle is a chemical engineer working in the Technology translation group at GSK, a global healthcare company. They look at innovative manufacturing technologies and try to translate them into their business. Emily will introduce their vision on modular manufacturing and provide a recent example from their manufacturing.
- 10:20 | The Tech Provider – WE MAKE IT POSSIBLE! – Zeton
Rob van Dongen is a Senior Basic Design engineer at Zeton, a leading designer and builder of pilot plants. Zeton have been working closely with the pharmaceutical sector on developing modular manufacturing concepts and improving technologies to a state that satisfies the customer. Rob will talk about how they translate the requirements from the customers to develop a solution and discuss issues with the modular concept.
- 10:30 | The UK Tech Founder – WE’RE INNOVATING IT – Perceptive Engineering Nicola
Jones is a chemist and the marketing manager at Perceptive Engineering, a provider of software tools and expertise. Perceptive Engineering provides integrated process monitoring and control for various sectors, including the pharmaceutical sector. Nicola will give an overview of their journey as they were acquired by Applied Materials last year. David Lovett is the Chief Strategy Officer at Perspective Engineering. He is looking at how they can apply their knowledge on process monitoring in a wider area of applications. David will provide an overview of their modular manufacturing projects.
- 10:35 | The supply chain partner – WE SUPPORTED IT! – CPI
Harvey Branton is the Head Of Technology (Biologics) at Centre for Process Innovation Limited (CPI), a UK-based technology innovation centre and part of the HVM Catapult Centres. CPI helps companies adopt and prosper from new technologies and knowledge and have worked on numerous continuous manufacturing projects. Harvey will give an overview of the background into how the area of biologics can benefit from flexible manufacturing.
Abby Clark is a degree level apprentice in biotechnology at CPI. She has been involved in a flexible manufacturing project and therefore has hands-on experience in the field. Abby will provide an insight into the benefits of continuous manufacturing.
- 10:50 | Q&A
- 11:00 | Networking
The webinar themes and dates include
- 13th April | Industrial Energy Efficiency
- 20th April | Web Based Customer Order Tracking
- 27th April | Continuous Improvement
- 4th May | Factory Floor and Production Systems
- 11th May | Predictive Maintenance
- 18th May | New Product Development
- 25th May | Quality Management
- 1st June | Mass Customisation
- 8th June | Circular Economy
- 15th June | Design for Manufacture
- 22nd June | Servitisation
- 29th June | Flexible Manufacturing
Related programme
Made Smarter Innovation Network
From 2020 to 2025, Innovate UK Business Connect will be working on behalf of UKRI to join communities together to transform UK manufacturing. Join the Made Smarter Innovation Network and help us drive positive change.