Metrology and Digital Manufacturing for Servitisation of Manufacturing Machines

Servitisation of machine tools is a proposed business model where a manufacturer purchases productive time available on a machine, rather than the capital asset. Servitisation has been implemented successfully in areas such as production lines, tooling supply and most notably Rolls-Royce aero engines who supply engines almost exclusively to their clients based on a servitisation model. This approach will improve productivity, raise technology levels and improve sustainability of manufacturing throughout the UK’s supply chain. SMEs will gain access to cutting edge CNC machines while the onerous responsibility for maintaining machine quality, performance and availability would reside with the experts in maintenance. The challenge is to mitigate service supplier’s considerable risk since the machine is being operated by their customer. This project will develop advanced monitoring technology and analytics for both the machine and manufacturing process, with metrology (the science of measurement) and digital manufacturing being the heart of the solution.