Elastic Manufacturing systems - a platform for dynamic, resilient and cost-effective manufacturing services
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: Faculty of Engineering
Abstract
Society complexity and grand challenges, such as climate change, food security and aging population, grow faster than our capacity to engineer the next generation of manufacturing infrastructure, capable of delivering the products and services to address these challenges. The proposed programme aims to address this disparity by proposing a revolutionary new concept of 'Elastic Manufacturing Systems' which will allow future manufacturing operations to be delivered as a service based on dynamic resource requirements and provision, thus opening manufacturing to entirely different business and cost models.
The Elastic Manufacturing Systems concept draws on analogous notions of the elastic/plastic behaviour of materials to allow methods for determining the extent of reversible scaling of manufacturing systems and ways to develop systems with a high degree of elasticity. The approach builds upon methods recently used in elastic computing resource allocation and draws on the principles of collective decision making, cognitive systems intelligence and networks of context-aware equipment and instrumentation. The result will be manufacturing systems able to deliver high quality products with variable volumes and demand profiles in a cost effective and predictable manner. We focus this work on specific highly regulated UK industrial sectors - aerospace, automotive and food - as these industries traditionally are limited in their ability to scale output quickly and cost effectively because of regulatory constraints.
The research will follow a systematic approach outlined in to ensure an integrated programme of fundamental and transformative research supported by impact activities. The work will start with formulating application cases and scenarios to inform the core research developments. The generic models and methods developed will be instantiated, tested and verified using laboratory based testbeds and industrial pilots (S5). It is our intention that - within the framework of the work programme - the research is regularly reviewed, prioritised and and flexibly funded across the 4 years, guided by our Industrial Advisory Board.
The Elastic Manufacturing Systems concept draws on analogous notions of the elastic/plastic behaviour of materials to allow methods for determining the extent of reversible scaling of manufacturing systems and ways to develop systems with a high degree of elasticity. The approach builds upon methods recently used in elastic computing resource allocation and draws on the principles of collective decision making, cognitive systems intelligence and networks of context-aware equipment and instrumentation. The result will be manufacturing systems able to deliver high quality products with variable volumes and demand profiles in a cost effective and predictable manner. We focus this work on specific highly regulated UK industrial sectors - aerospace, automotive and food - as these industries traditionally are limited in their ability to scale output quickly and cost effectively because of regulatory constraints.
The research will follow a systematic approach outlined in to ensure an integrated programme of fundamental and transformative research supported by impact activities. The work will start with formulating application cases and scenarios to inform the core research developments. The generic models and methods developed will be instantiated, tested and verified using laboratory based testbeds and industrial pilots (S5). It is our intention that - within the framework of the work programme - the research is regularly reviewed, prioritised and and flexibly funded across the 4 years, guided by our Industrial Advisory Board.
Planned Impact
The proposed research is critically important to established and emerging UK industrial sectors and the wider society, and has been formulated following discussions with our industry partners with a focus on delivering specific outputs and clear benefits to key UK industries. The expected results of the project will have a significant long-term impact on strategic, highly regulated sectors including food, automotive and aerospace.
The food and drink industry is the UK's largest manufacturing sector, with a turnover of £104bn in 2018 including exports of £23bn. There is a growing consumer demand for higher quality, higher variety and environmentally friendly products, causing stress to an already fragile supply chain and introducing increasing levels of variability in ingredient supply. One of the key challenges identified by food manufacturers and addressed by this project is produce a consistent product in spite of variable ingredient supply quality and time, and variable demand.
The UK automotive sector has an annual turnover of £72bn including £34bn of exports, accounting for 12% of the UK's total export goods. Elastic manufacturing systems would enable automotive manufacturers to more rapidly adapt to changes in part supply and product demand, mitigating the risks of a just in time system. Constantly changing regulations and corporate requirements will also be more effectively addressed. Luxury manufacturers would be able to more readily offer lower volumes of a wider variety of product lines (including different power trains and specifications for different countries) with levels of customisation not currently cost effective.
The UK is home to the world's second largest aerospace sector and has an annual turnover of £31bn with 90% to export markets. One of the key manufacturing challenges for the sector is the ability to cost effectively produce variable volume, high complexity products while maintaining full design and production capability. This sector will benefit from a new form of small, highly flexible, cognitive and elastic manufacturing facilities with specific emphasis on variable volume automated assembly of airframes and structures. This will enable the production of customised, small-batch, high-quality UK products that remain cost-effective despite fluctuations in demand and supply, and are automatically certified and regulation complaint to reduce overheads to manufacturers.
Though many of the sectors described are driven by large companies their supply chains often include SMEs and are just as affected by the challenges while simultaneously having less capital to invest to solve them. The elastic manufacturing systems concept enables UK SMEs to maximise the productivity of their existing equipment (including legacy and human resources) while also becoming more flexible to demand and product changes, enabling companies to respond to more potential jobs and being less vulnerable to periods of lower demand. Strategic elasticity also enables multiple SMEs to assist one another, forming local manufacturing networks more robust through cooperation.
In addition to the end-user manufacturing sectors listed above, technology providers will also be major beneficiaries of the research. Equipment providers and system integrators will gain standardised approaches to integrating their products with elastic cell design and control, integration, reconfiguration and behaviour adaption. Software and control systems vendors will gain valuable applications for some of their manufacturing control software products and development environments.
Finally, the wider public will benefit through the increased ability of companies to respond to consumer need and reduce product costs through the increased resilience and responsiveness of their manufacturing systems and improved product quality. This will help improve the UK manufacturing sector's global competitiveness, boosting the UK economy and securing jobs.
The food and drink industry is the UK's largest manufacturing sector, with a turnover of £104bn in 2018 including exports of £23bn. There is a growing consumer demand for higher quality, higher variety and environmentally friendly products, causing stress to an already fragile supply chain and introducing increasing levels of variability in ingredient supply. One of the key challenges identified by food manufacturers and addressed by this project is produce a consistent product in spite of variable ingredient supply quality and time, and variable demand.
The UK automotive sector has an annual turnover of £72bn including £34bn of exports, accounting for 12% of the UK's total export goods. Elastic manufacturing systems would enable automotive manufacturers to more rapidly adapt to changes in part supply and product demand, mitigating the risks of a just in time system. Constantly changing regulations and corporate requirements will also be more effectively addressed. Luxury manufacturers would be able to more readily offer lower volumes of a wider variety of product lines (including different power trains and specifications for different countries) with levels of customisation not currently cost effective.
The UK is home to the world's second largest aerospace sector and has an annual turnover of £31bn with 90% to export markets. One of the key manufacturing challenges for the sector is the ability to cost effectively produce variable volume, high complexity products while maintaining full design and production capability. This sector will benefit from a new form of small, highly flexible, cognitive and elastic manufacturing facilities with specific emphasis on variable volume automated assembly of airframes and structures. This will enable the production of customised, small-batch, high-quality UK products that remain cost-effective despite fluctuations in demand and supply, and are automatically certified and regulation complaint to reduce overheads to manufacturers.
Though many of the sectors described are driven by large companies their supply chains often include SMEs and are just as affected by the challenges while simultaneously having less capital to invest to solve them. The elastic manufacturing systems concept enables UK SMEs to maximise the productivity of their existing equipment (including legacy and human resources) while also becoming more flexible to demand and product changes, enabling companies to respond to more potential jobs and being less vulnerable to periods of lower demand. Strategic elasticity also enables multiple SMEs to assist one another, forming local manufacturing networks more robust through cooperation.
In addition to the end-user manufacturing sectors listed above, technology providers will also be major beneficiaries of the research. Equipment providers and system integrators will gain standardised approaches to integrating their products with elastic cell design and control, integration, reconfiguration and behaviour adaption. Software and control systems vendors will gain valuable applications for some of their manufacturing control software products and development environments.
Finally, the wider public will benefit through the increased ability of companies to respond to consumer need and reduce product costs through the increased resilience and responsiveness of their manufacturing systems and improved product quality. This will help improve the UK manufacturing sector's global competitiveness, boosting the UK economy and securing jobs.
Organisations
- University of Nottingham (Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM (Collaboration)
- IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON (Collaboration)
- University of Sheffield (Collaboration)
- BAE Systems (United Kingdom) (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- GKN (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Electroimpact UK Limited (UK) (Project Partner)
- Volkswagen Group (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Siemens plc (UK) (Project Partner)
- Loop Technology Limited (Project Partner)
- Real-Time Innovations (United States) (Project Partner)
- Spirit AeroSystems (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- ATS Applied Tech Systems Ltd (Project Partner)
- KUKA (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Nestlé (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Manufacturing Technology Centre (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
Publications
Alla A
(2023)
State-dependent Riccati equation feedback stabilization for nonlinear PDEs
in Advances in Computational Mathematics
Wannakrairoj W
(2021)
Productivity growth and business model innovation
in Economics Letters
Wang L
(2023)
Uncertainty-propagated Cartesian coordinated human-robot collaboration on Riemannian manifold with hidden state-space model
in Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence
Albi G
(2022)
Gradient-augmented Supervised Learning of Optimal Feedback Laws Using State-Dependent Riccati Equations
in IEEE Control Systems Letters
Edalatzadeh M
(2022)
Optimal Actuator Design for the Euler-Bernoulli Vibration Model Based on LQR Performance and Shape Calculus
in IEEE Control Systems Letters
Chen Y
(2024)
The Effect of Robot Adoption on Profit Margins
in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management
Dolgov S
(2022)
Optimizing semilinear representations for State-dependent Riccati Equation-based feedback control
in IFAC-PapersOnLine
Martínez-Arellano G
(2023)
Enabling Coordinated Elastic Responses of Manufacturing Systems through Semantic Modelling
in IFAC-PapersOnLine
Pattinson S
(2023)
Innovation ecosystems in B2B contexts: Owning the space
in Industrial Marketing Management
Rama Murthy S
(2024)
Elastic manufacturing: provisioning and deprovisioning production capacity to vary product volume and mix
in International Journal of Operations & Production Management
Description | The project has made significant progress towards meeting the stated objectives of the grant award. In particular: * These needs and drivers of the manufacturing industry to respond to changes in product volumes and mix have been uncovered through direct engagement industry to elicit existing practise and areas of limitation for the project to explore. Specific attention was paid to how companies were responding to the challenges of the COVID pandemic, as this severely tested companies' abilities to respond to dramatic shifts in product demand, and to complex supply chain limitations. * Business models and strategies for exploiting elasticity in manufacturing supply chains, including factory balancing and specialisation, communication and interaction in the supply chain, managing supplier change, and metrics. * Architectures, models, and control methods for elastic manufacturing systems on the shop floor, inside firm business processes, and in their supply chains have been investigated and defined in a way that is widely applicable to a range of scenarios. This is being demonstrated by implementations across the consortium of academic partners, and is currently being developed in an industrial pilot programme. * Semantic models and ontologies for the standardisation of data representation in elastic manufacturing systems, machine understandable data formats, and the automatic inference of new information to respond to change and challenge. The use of inference rules allows for the semantic models to discover new options and information and aid users in responding to new and unexpected events. * The approaches and technologies developed in the project have been prototyped, tested, and evaluated across the project partners in the context of emerging societal needs. These research facilities, including the Omnifactory® at the University of Nottingham, and VOOM at the University of Cambridge will continue to support research capability beyond the life of the project. * The outputs of the project are being validated and steered through the project industrial advisory board (IAB) and ongoing workshops and open days. The original project IAB has been leveraged to expand the networks of all project partners, and to develop promising new national and international partnerships. Academic publication of the project outcomes has resulted in new research connections, particularly supporting the early-stage researchers supported by the project. |
Exploitation Route | The project is delivering a holistic approach to maximising the flexibility and productivity of manufacturing systems in an increasingly uncertain and variable world. The elicitation of the needs and drivers of the project from real industrial companies has in itself proven useful for project partners to better understand the approach companies are taking in response to variable volume and mix - this is particularly useful for providers of software and manufacturing technologies. The project partners are working with industrial organisations on pilot projects of a number of aspects of the project, increasing the TRL and trialling the approaches in real systems. It is expected that the outcomes will be taken forward primarily through further research funding (either direct funding, or with the aid of a funding agency), although some are already being directly industrialised by the project partners and/or put into production by the industrial organisations. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Agriculture Food and Drink Construction Electronics Energy Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology |
Description | Annual UK PNT Leadership Seminar |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
Impact | The Royal Institute of Navigation is updating its workplan for PNT Advisory Group, based on the Leadership Seminar |
URL | https://rin.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1753405 |
Description | Beyond the Hype: Making AI Work for Business Productivity |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Impact | One of the participants reported that a new business idea based on using Artificial Intelligence in their LinkedIn Post attributing to one of my comments in the sessions. |
URL | https://media.bethebusiness.com/documents/BtB_NPW_EventSummary-V2.pdf |
Description | Business Model Innovation and National Quantum Computing Centre Testbeds |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Description | Executive Member of The Productivity Institute (TPI) |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Impact | The impact includes engaging with the East Anglia Regional Productivity Forum which consists of sharing and influencing the research findings with firms in East Anglia to help address productivity related initiatives. |
URL | https://www.productivity.ac.uk/people/chander-velu/ |
Description | Policy Day for Dowling Fellows at the Centre for Science and Policy (CSaP) event, Cambridge |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Impact | Shaping the discussion around economic and business considerations. |
URL | https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/network/policy-fellowship/1499-42125733471611382c105294f6c579a975710a65/ |
Description | Senior Fellow of The Conference Board advisory role to member companies of The Confernece Board on digital technology adoption and business model transformation |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Impact | The advice provides insights to senior management in the large multinational companies on adopting and transforming business models to improve efficiency and effectiveness and to ultimately contribute to productivity improvement at the economy level. |
Description | Elastic Manufacturing systems - a platform for dynamic, resilient and cost-effective manufacturing services |
Amount | £2,803,659 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/T024429/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2020 |
End | 09/2024 |
Description | ICASE Studentship |
Amount | £30,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Airbus Group |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | France |
Start | 09/2022 |
End | 09/2026 |
Description | Made Smarter Innovation - Research Centre for Connected Factories |
Amount | £5,091,836 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/V062123/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2021 |
End | 03/2025 |
Description | Project 1 |
Amount | £126,165 (GBP) |
Organisation | BAE Systems |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2022 |
End | 12/2023 |
Description | Project 2 |
Amount | £170,722 (GBP) |
Organisation | BAE Systems |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2023 |
End | 07/2025 |
Description | Project 3 |
Amount | £142,649 (GBP) |
Organisation | BAE Systems |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2023 |
End | 04/2024 |
Description | Project 4 |
Amount | £17,252 (GBP) |
Organisation | BAE Systems |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2023 |
End | 04/2024 |
Description | SPF |
Amount | £97,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 06/2023 |
End | 03/2025 |
Title | Variable Operation and Organisation Management (VOOM) Demonstrator |
Description | At the University of Cambridge, we have upgraded existing research facilities and labs (3D printing, workshops, robotic assembly lines) to act as independent factories. The demonstrator enables a coordinated flow of production across multiple connected locations, with the ability to change volume, mix, and reallocate production to different resources. MEasurments of quality delivery time and production information can be shared between sites, facilitating research into inter-factory operations. This is the first multi-site smart factory demonstrator available for research. |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | The demonstrator has: 1. Enabled us to test out new low-cost digital solutions and their impact on production before deploying them in SMEs. 2. Provided data for cost experiments on increasing and decreasing production volume. 3. Provided a test-bed to demonstrate technologies and new research to industry 4. A platform to test our Machine Learning and Augmented Reality research in a replicated industry production environment |
Description | Elastic Manufacturing and Connected Factories |
Organisation | Imperial College London |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This is a collaboration with University of Nottingham (EMS and Connected Factories), University of Sheffield (Connected Factories) and Imperial College London (EMS) to explore the challenges in business model design issues to cater for changing product volume and mix. The project also aims to explore the concept of connected factories to deliver the products and services in a cost effective manner. The issues are examined across the operational factory, firm, supply chain ad ecosystem levels. My research team works closely with research teams across domains including engineering and mathematics by bringing an economic and management perspective. We conducted a workshop to discuss the challenges and opportunities of managing the manufacturing system when there are major fluctuations in product volume and mix in January 2024. A set of summary notes were distributed to partner firms identifying the key issues in digital technology adoption and business model innovation. The workshop included 20 participants including executives from Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, GKN and Airbus among others. |
Collaborator Contribution | The research programme includes an advisory board members from various manufacturing firms. These firms including Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, GKN, Airbus, SMC have been involved in shaping the research study as well as providing insights and working collaboratively with the research team. In addition, research teams from engineering and maths work closely to develop prototype engineering solutions which provides the basis for my research team to engage on develop the business and economic implications. |
Impact | There is a journal publication based on the research: Rama Murthy, S., Sousa-Zomer, T.T., Minshall, T., Velu, C., Kazantsev, N. and McFarlane, D., (2024). Elastic manufacturing: provisioning and deprovisioning production capacity to vary product volume and mix. International Journal of Operations & Production Management., forthcoming |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Elastic Manufacturing and Connected Factories |
Organisation | University of Nottingham |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This is a collaboration with University of Nottingham (EMS and Connected Factories), University of Sheffield (Connected Factories) and Imperial College London (EMS) to explore the challenges in business model design issues to cater for changing product volume and mix. The project also aims to explore the concept of connected factories to deliver the products and services in a cost effective manner. The issues are examined across the operational factory, firm, supply chain ad ecosystem levels. My research team works closely with research teams across domains including engineering and mathematics by bringing an economic and management perspective. We conducted a workshop to discuss the challenges and opportunities of managing the manufacturing system when there are major fluctuations in product volume and mix in January 2024. A set of summary notes were distributed to partner firms identifying the key issues in digital technology adoption and business model innovation. The workshop included 20 participants including executives from Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, GKN and Airbus among others. |
Collaborator Contribution | The research programme includes an advisory board members from various manufacturing firms. These firms including Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, GKN, Airbus, SMC have been involved in shaping the research study as well as providing insights and working collaboratively with the research team. In addition, research teams from engineering and maths work closely to develop prototype engineering solutions which provides the basis for my research team to engage on develop the business and economic implications. |
Impact | There is a journal publication based on the research: Rama Murthy, S., Sousa-Zomer, T.T., Minshall, T., Velu, C., Kazantsev, N. and McFarlane, D., (2024). Elastic manufacturing: provisioning and deprovisioning production capacity to vary product volume and mix. International Journal of Operations & Production Management., forthcoming |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Elastic Manufacturing and Connected Factories |
Organisation | University of Sheffield |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This is a collaboration with University of Nottingham (EMS and Connected Factories), University of Sheffield (Connected Factories) and Imperial College London (EMS) to explore the challenges in business model design issues to cater for changing product volume and mix. The project also aims to explore the concept of connected factories to deliver the products and services in a cost effective manner. The issues are examined across the operational factory, firm, supply chain ad ecosystem levels. My research team works closely with research teams across domains including engineering and mathematics by bringing an economic and management perspective. We conducted a workshop to discuss the challenges and opportunities of managing the manufacturing system when there are major fluctuations in product volume and mix in January 2024. A set of summary notes were distributed to partner firms identifying the key issues in digital technology adoption and business model innovation. The workshop included 20 participants including executives from Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, GKN and Airbus among others. |
Collaborator Contribution | The research programme includes an advisory board members from various manufacturing firms. These firms including Rolls Royce, BAE Systems, GKN, Airbus, SMC have been involved in shaping the research study as well as providing insights and working collaboratively with the research team. In addition, research teams from engineering and maths work closely to develop prototype engineering solutions which provides the basis for my research team to engage on develop the business and economic implications. |
Impact | There is a journal publication based on the research: Rama Murthy, S., Sousa-Zomer, T.T., Minshall, T., Velu, C., Kazantsev, N. and McFarlane, D., (2024). Elastic manufacturing: provisioning and deprovisioning production capacity to vary product volume and mix. International Journal of Operations & Production Management., forthcoming |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Strategic Partnership with BAE SYSTEMS |
Organisation | BAE Systems |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Knowledge |
Collaborator Contribution | Knowledge and setting of industrial challenges |
Impact | No outputs or outcomes to date. This formal partnership is still new. We are now identifying areas of common interest within both MSI Connected Factories and Elastic Manufacturing Systems projects to which BAE Systems can contribute. |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | 1-2-1 meetings around Omnifactory |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | 30+ unique business have engaged with Omnifactory in 1-2-1 meetings since the facility opened on 1st March 2023. These 1-2-1 meetings include describing the capabilities, research themes and expertise available at the University of Nottingham. Some of these businesses have attended Omnifactory Open Day and wanted to follow up with 1-2-1 meetings with the team to discuss collaboration opportunities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
Description | 2x School Visits (Bluecoats Aspley) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Visit from Bluecoats Aspley School, Year 8, circa 60 children. Interactive session on engineering, aerospace, manufacturing and technology, with a tour round the omnifactory facility. Children enjoyed the interactive session and seeing the robots in the facility, reporting that it made them more interested in engineering. Arranged via the widening participation team, with reports that the school would like to come back. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Advisory Board and Roundtable discussions with the Digital Transformation and Innovation Institute of The Conference Board |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | This activity included Advisory Board and Roundtable discussions with the Digital Transformation and Innovation Institute of The Conference Board to provide update on productivity and digital. This led to a follow on Study on Digital Technology Adoption and Business Model Innovation with selected number of firms reporting on major blockers for digital transformation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
Description | Artificial Intelligence Workshop |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | A workshop to present and identify different areas of AI across the university with the aim of fostering collaboration. The team presented the Omnifactory vision and machine learning and AI developments needed in such environment to support flexibility and reconfigurability. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Business Model Innovation and Platform Strategies |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Executive education to ATOS and Eviden executives on the challenges in adopting business model innovation and platform strategies |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Business Model Innovation: Changing the Game |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Executive education to executives studying the Executive MBA programme at NTNU, Norway on the challenges in adopting business model innovation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Digital Technologies, Innovation and the Productivity Paradox - Webinar for CATS College Cambridge |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | 20 students participated in the webinar, designed to encourage engagement in STEM activities |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Digital Transformation: How to Create Value - Webinar for Scottish Enterprise |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | The purpose of this presentation was to inform people about Digital Transformation with a particular focus concerning How to Create Value |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | EMS Industrial Advisory Board |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | In person meetings have been held approximately every six months to inform project partners and other industrial collaborators of progress within the EPSRC Elastic Manufacturing Systems project, and obtain feedback on progress to date and future directions. For the July 2023 and February 2024 meetings, we have delivered a joint IAB with the MSI Research Centre for Connected Factories, recognising the synergy and complementary activities between EMS and the MSI Research Centre, and the broadly common set of project partners. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021,2022,2023,2024 |
Description | Exhibited at East Midlands Manufacturing Summit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Exhibited at the East Midlands Manufacturing Summit and disseminated information on Made Smarter Innovation Research Centre for Connected Factories project and the Elastic Manufacturing Systems project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Exhibited at Innovate UK Reimaging Materials & Manufacturing Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Exhibited at the Innovate UK Reimaging Materials & Manufacturing Event and disseminated information on Made Smarter Innovation Research Centre for Connected Factories project and the Elastic Manufacturing Systems project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Exhibited at MTC Robotics & Automation Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | We exhibited at the MTC Robotics and Automation Event and disseminated information on Made Smarter Innovation Research Centre for Connected Factories project and the Elastic Manufacturing Systems project. David Sanderson also gave a talk at the event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Exhibited at Midlands Energy Summit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Exhibited at the Midlands Energy Summit and disseminated information on Made Smarter Innovation Research Centre for Connected Factories project and the Elastic Manufacturing Systems project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Exhibited at Nottingham City Council UKSPF Launch Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Exhibited at the Nottingham City Council UKSPF Launch Event and disseminated information on Made Smarter Innovation Research Centre for Connected Factories project and the Elastic Manufacturing Systems project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Exhibited at UoN Power of Partnerships Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Exhibited at the UoN Power of Partnerships Event and disseminated information on Made Smarter Innovation Research Centre for Connected Factories project and the Elastic Manufacturing Systems project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
Description | Exhibited at the ATI Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Exhibited at the ATI Conference and disseminated information on Made Smarter Innovation Research Centre for Connected Factories project and the Elastic Manufacturing Systems project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Farnborough Airshow 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | We participated in both the University of Nottingham Institute for Aerospace Technology and BAE Systems stands, promoting a selected sample of our research activities. Opportunity to present key research findings and capabilities developed to businesses and other research organisations within an Aerospace context, with a view to developing future partnerships. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.farnboroughairshow.com/ |
Description | Huntingdonshire Manufacturing Summit |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | 50+ local manufacturers attended a regional manufacturing event detailing innovation facilities and capabilities in the Midlands and East of England. University of Nottingham provided a presentation and exhibited at the event. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | IfAM Breakfast Event (Digitalisation) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Hosted a workshop for local Manufacturing business leaders about the benefits of digitalisation. Presented current capabilities and projects and how these could apply in (mostly) SME settings including quick wins and implementation as well as long term vision for companies on their digitalisation journey. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Manufacturing & Engineering Week Expo 22 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | We had a stand at Manufacturing and Engineering week, June22. During the event we were able to engage with business about our projects with the aim of demonstrating our capabilities, disseminating our research to wider number of businesses, discuss how businesses to engage with us on current and future programmes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.mandeweek.co.uk/ |
Description | Manufacturing Leaders Summit - Are you ready for a paradigm shift? - Panel Discussion |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | The Manufacturing Leaders Summit is part of Digital Manufacturing week. The panel discussion is designed to spark questions and discussion afterwards. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.digital-manufacturing-week.com/ |
Description | Manufacturing Technical Masterclass |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Hosted a series of events over the year to engage industry in some technical aspects of automation and digitalisation. The aims of the series was to explore a specific topic and demonstrate the capabilities developed within the projects. Participants reported feeling that they had learnt about topics previously they hadn't known that much about and would be more confident in implementing some of the techniques in their own businesses. • 27th April 2022 - Manufacturing Technical Masterclass - A quality improvement focus on digital solutions implementation - 9 attendees • 11th May 2022 - Measurement assisted determinate assembly of an aircraft wingbox - 8 attendees • 18th May 2022 - Affordable, auto-reconfigurable, multi-product manufacturing cells - 25 attendees • 25th May 2022 - Designing products & reconfigurable facilities for variable rate production - 10 attendees • 1st June 2022 - Cost estimation framework using MATLAB/Simulink - 28 attendees • 8th June 2022 - Automatic Assembly Work Instructions - 20 attendees. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Master of Studies workshop, Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Sudhir Rama Murthy presented to industry managers at a workshop for Executive Education. The session focussed on sustainable business models in the context of a changing world, with examples from manufacturing companies. There were follow-up discussions and resulted in an invited-talk at a major investment bank to their C-suite executives to orient their thinking on sustainability investments. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/education/graduate-study/master-of-studies-in-sustainability-leadership |
Description | Mitigating Conduct Risk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Chander Velu delivered a talk for Executive education to Eviden executives and Barclays executives on how the design of business models affects conduct risk. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | National Manufacturing Day 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Approx 150 school children visited the Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, touring various research labs. The purpose was to promote STEM. Many of the teachers specifically asked for future invites if we repeat the activity. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | OMNIFACTORY Launch Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | The event was the official launch of the OMNIFACTORY, a 2 day event which showcased the new facility, the current projects which were using the new facility, and previous projects which have informed the development of the facility. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/world-first-multi-million-manufacturing-facility-opens-at-the-univ... |
Description | Presenter at SGAI International Conference on AI |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Dr Giovanna Martinez provided a presentation about the use of AI in Omnifactory at this conference. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | Quantum computers 'to hit GDP before uplift' |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Quoted in The Times Article on 'Quantum computers 'to hit GDP before uplift'' dated 24 July 2023 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | School Visit (Alderman White) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Alderman White School brought 64 Year 9 pupils to visit the Advanced Manufacturing building. They had a tour of the Omnifactory and were introduced to ideas from the Connected Factories and Elastic Manufacturing Systems projects. The objective was to inspire them to get them interested in Engineering, and also give them a little bit of guidance that if they wanted a career in Engineering. For example we presented which GCSC subjects would help them achieve that. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | School Visit (Huntingdon Academy) for School Science Week |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Visit from Huntingdon Academy Year 5 (circa 30 children), interactive session on engineering, aerospace, manufacturing and technology with a tour around the Omnifactory facility. There were questions during the day and children were more interested in STEM subjects. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Sunday Times Newspaper Interview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Prof Chander Velu was quoted in The Sunday Times Article on 'Destroy, then build, for true business transformation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://res.cloudinary.com/yumyoshojin/image/upload/v1670597912/pdf/DT_AW_singles.pdf |
Description | Systems Integration Forum Workshop in Quantum Computing |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Chander Velu participated in a roundtable discussion forum to explore the key issues from a systems integrator's perspective on the development and adoption of quantum computing to enable productivity improvements and economic growth (including application to various industries from manufacturing to services). The attendees were executives from various Systems Integration firms involved with quantum technologies. The attendees developed a deeper understanding of the issues for system integrations to help in the adoption and scaling up of quantum computing. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | Systems Integration Forum in Quantum Computing |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Chander Velu participated in a roundtable discussion to explore the key issues from a systems integrator's perspective on the development and adoption of quantum computing to enable productivity improvements and economic growth (including application to various industries from manufacturing to services). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Talk at Advanced Engineering Expo |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Prof. Svetan Ratchev gave a presentation on UoN manufacturing research activity including disseminating information on the Made Smarter Innovation Research Centre for Connected Factories project and Elastic Manufacturing Systems project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Talk at FANUC Open House Event |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Prof. Svetan Ratchev gave a presentation on UoN manufacturing research activity including disseminating information on the Made Smarter Innovation Research Centre for Connected Factories project and Elastic Manufacturing Systems project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | The Business of Economics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | This is a letter in The Economist on 20 April 2023 in response to an article titled 'Why economics does not understand business' (April 8th) highlighting the reasons economist typically do not focus their attention to studying innovation and firms. The letter calls for economist to work with cognate disciplines such approaches are well developed in cognate disciplines such as management, sociology and politics, among others to do so. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.economist.com/letters/2023/04/20/letters-to-the-editor |
Description | Women in Engineering Day STEM Tours of Omnifactory |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | As part of Women in Engineering Day, the University of Nottingham welcomed 90 x Year 9 and Year 10 women from local schools and gave them a tour of the Omnifactory facility to inspire future careers in the manufacturing sector. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
Description | Workshop on Elastic Manufacturing and Connected Factories: Digital Technologeis and Business Strategy |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Workshop to discuss the challenges and opportunities of managing the manufacturing system when there are major fluctuations in product volume and mix |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |