Event categories: Events

‘Counting Backwards’ Co-Design Workshop

The purpose of this workshop is to bring manufacturing firms, policymakers, digital technology providers and academics together with the InterAct 'Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems' team to co-design the digital roadmaps that enable the UK manufacturing industry to achieve improved productivity, sustainability, resilience, and wellbeing by 2040.

The InterAct team, in collaboration with Make UK and Midlands Engine, recently launched a joint research programme - ‘Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems’. The project aims to identify the 'Vision 2040' for the UK manufacturing industry and develop digital roadmaps to support the transition.

Building on the current literature and 25+ expert interviews with industrialists, policymakers, digital technology providers and academic colleagues, 4 future scenarios and 12 visions have been identified that illustrates the desired futures for the UK manufacturing industry. This interactive workshop is designed to stimulate creative thinking and co-development of ideas. By the end of this workshop we will gain a much better understanding of how the digital technologies could support UK manufacturing moving towards the following scenarios:

• Scenario 1 – Productivity Powerhouse
• Scenario 2 – Flexibility as the Standard
• Scenario 3 – Sustainability Champion
• Scenario 4 – Happy and Sustainable Workforce

Agenda

Please arrive at the lobby/reception of the Premier Inn, Albert Dock by 9am to register.

09:00 - 09:15 Arrival and coffee

09:15 - 09:45 Welcome and an overview of the ‘Future of Digital Manufacturing Ecosystems Project’

09:45 - 12:15 Main workshop – Group activities

12:15 - 12:30 Final presentations

12:30 - 13:00 Concluding remarks

This workshop is free to attend and is principally targeted at manufacturing and digital technology industry representatives.

Although women represent almost half of the labour force in the United Kingdom, they account for only 26% of all workers in the manufacturing sector.  Gender norms and stereotypes still segregate women and men into different occupations and economic activities. Women are also underrepresented in leadership positions and this lack of diversity influences decision making and firm performance.

Digital technologies have the potential to contribute to narrowing gender inequalities but gender norms often hinder women from taking full advantage of these technologies.  Women are less likely to participate in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields; they are also less likely to own a business; and their start-ups receive less funding. The exclusion of women in the design and deployment of digital technologies also risks deepening gender gaps and reinforcing gender norms.

To raise awareness of gender inequalities in digital manufacturing, a discussion panel and networking reception, funded by InterAct, will take place on Wednesday 16^th November during Digital Manufacturing Week 2022.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides organisations with an immeasurable number of opportunities. While the benefits of AI are widely known, the risks are only just coming into focus. When not designed in a thoughtful and responsible manner, AI systems can be biased, insecure, and not compliant with existing laws, even going so far as to violate human rights. AI presents a significant risk of financial and reputational harm for companies that haven't thought through their strategies and roadmaps. Those who are able to manage the risks to use AI responsibly and effectively will win.

Join us on 23 November at 1pm GMT to hear from four speakers addressing the following topics surrounding AI:

1. Developing human efficiency through better collaboration with AI – Dr. Viktor Dörfler, University of Strathclyde.

2. The use of AI in product design: an automotive perspective – Professor Gary Page, Loughborough University.

3. AI and procurement – Joel Walker, COO of The Knowledge Group.

4. Responsible AI considerations in manufacturing, operations and supply chains – Sue Williams, Managing Director of Hexagon.

These talks will be followed by a Q&A session featuring all our speakers.

Join one of our InterAct funded systematic review teams at Aston University on November 8th to explore the question of how history can pave the way to the next industrial revolution.

Industrial Digital Technologies hold the key to achieving productivity, sustainability and resilience in challenging times. While digital technologies are new, the difficulties that digital technology adoption brings manufacturing firms are not. In each previous industrial transition – mechanisation, electrification, computerisation – some of the biggest difficulties have been human, or commercial, not technical. This hybrid event will present perspectives from industry, policy and academia on the current industrial challenges. It is an opportunity to reflect and learn how historical cases can help achieve success with digital transformation.

The event is part of an interdisciplinary research project funded by ESRC under the Made Smarter InterAct Network. The research team consisting of Ahmad Beltagui (Aston Business School), Brian Sudlow (Aston School of Social Science & Humanities) and Miying Yang (Cranfield School of Management) is researching historical industrial transitions to uncover actionable insights for industry concerned with the human side of digital technology.

There is a growing need for more intelligent and holistic planning tools that ensure feasible and profitable Supply Chain plans.

Supply Chain leaders are being required to ensure the profitability of their supply chains while remaining resilient to disruption. A challenging balancing act at the best of times.

Register for this webinar, where you will hear from InterAct Co-director Janet Godsell, Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Strategy at Loughborough University, and John Burdett, previously Supply Chain Director at Tata Global Beverages, to find out how:

• Supply Chains can flex their supply without adding costs by increasing insight into supply capability
• Businesses can leverage flexibility through suppliers and partners
• Better use of data can create more adaptive Supply Chain Planning through more Intelligent Planning decisions.

If you can't make the webinar at this time, please register anyway and a recording will be shared with you after.

We often hear about how new technological advancements will transform jobs in the manufacturing sector, but what does this mean for the future of work on an individual and collective level? Part of the challenge facing UK manufacturers is understanding how today’s jobs and skills will lend themselves to new opportunities created by the implementation of these new advanced technologies.

The pace of technological change raises many interesting questions for academics, policy makers and employers:

• How can the sector prepare people to work alongside new technologies, robots, and co-bots?
• What are the essential skills for future manufacturing workplaces and how can we enable these through training and education?
• How can advanced technologies help generate and embed new ways of working by opening up career opportunities for otherwise hard-to-reach groups such as women, minorities, older workers and disabled people?

The InterAct Team at Strathclyde University Business School is hosting an online session for those interested in these issues to share their views in an open discussion of these issues. We welcome you to join us at 2pm, 10 October to find out more and join the debate.

The Innovation Caucus is delighted to be holding its first in-person members’ event in two years. We invite you to reconnect, share ideas and gain insights into the current policy planning through discussions with our UKRI research council partners. Join us at the Royal Geographical Society on 13 September to network with policy makers and academic colleagues and discuss current challenges to sustaining the future of innovation and enterprise.

The future of manufacturing is dependent on successful digitalization, but UK manufacturers struggle with their investments in digitalization. This threatens lost business opportunities and missed innovation cycles. What can we learn about digital technology adoption from history? As part of the InterAct network, an interdisciplinary team from Aston and Cranfield Universities is reviewing historical cases of industrial transitions. By identifying cases related to mechanisation, electrification and computerisation, we aim to support the successful adoption of industrial digital technology for the digitalisation of manufacturing.

Simultaneously, another team from Aston University is using a systematic literature review method to identify the range of technological, organisational, and social barriers that inhibit effective digital investments and how manufacturers should overcome these. The webinar will present the findings of the research and outline how future research could support UK manufacturers with their digital investment challenges, as well as showcase the work being undertaken to bring historical technology adoption stories to life, to help address the human side of digitalisation.

As we embark on the next stage of our industrial evolution, digitalisation will shape the future of our economy, manufacturing ecosystem, and workplace. Digital technologies can enable us to create the future we want and move beyond consumption driven economic growth.

Our challenge is to create a future digital manufacturing ecosystem that meets our net-zero ambitions, whilst being resilient and productive. Thus, ensuring that everyone has the things that they need, at a price that they can afford, without damaging the environment or society.

To create the future digital manufacturing ecosystem we want, we need to work together. To combine our expertise from the broadest range of perspectives around this common goal. We need to InterAct.

By joining the inaugural InterAct conference, you are becoming part of the movement for change. Actionable insights from 12 leading experts will provide the building blocks for change. Participants will further shape these through a storytelling workshop and co-creation of a series of ‘critical questions’, which will be posed to our expert panel.