INDUSTRY NEWS
Digital literacy unlocks the power of data
Digital literacy and data engineers will be key to manufacturers unlocking the potential of data for their businesses , said the director for industrial digitalisation at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre ( AMRC ) in the UK .
Professor Rab Scott delivered the message at ‘ Power of Data and Digital in Industry ’, an event held at Barnsley Digital Media Centre in the UK to explore initial outcomes and learnings from NextGen . This project will embed low-cost digital technologies in manufacturing companies across South Yorkshire and Wales to drive productivity into regional manufacturers through digital technology adoption and skills development .
FourJaw ’ s Chris Iveson and Connexin ’ s Rikki Coles also spoke at the event and , with Professor Scott , made a powerful case for how adopting a digitally focused culture ( and unlocking the power of data ) can help productivity , save energy and reduce waste .
True data insights
Professor Scott pronounced ‘ digital literacy ’ as a crucial first step for manufacturers who want to start their digital transformation journey .
“ An awful lot of companies are still confused about whether they need a data scientist or a business analyst ; it ’ s about digital literacy as the first step ,” he told delegates . “ Digital literacy is more about understanding what digital skills you need to go and get , rather than having those skills yourself . There is a desire and demand for this sort of training and introduction , which we ’ re offering through NextGen .”
Professor Scott , who is also chief engineer for digital manufacturing for the High Value Manufacturing Catapult network which covers the whole of the UK , warned that as analytics tools continue to become more commoditised , data engineers with domain knowledge will be absolutely critical for examining , and understanding , a company ’ s data .
“ Companies need to start not with data science , but with data engineers . There is a subtle difference . With data science , you take a prepared data set and try and analyse that . But the challenge there is what if you have captured the wrong data , what if it is structured in the wrong way , what if the data has got holes in it , what if it hasn ’ t been cleaned , what if it is biased ? You can analyse all you like but if you haven ’ t got
The FourJaw kit in action on the shopfloor at Sterling Machining .
the right data , in the right format , you still won ’ t get any answers of value . The true skills are in data engineering i . e . knowing which data to capture and knowing how to capture , cleanse and then actually analyse it ,” explained Scott .
The idea behind NextGen , which is funded by Innovate UK and run by the AMRC , is to enable businesses to leverage a competitive advantage by extracting meaningful insights from data , moving them from a reactive to a predictive business model and helping them to use digital innovation to boost productivity and push towards Net Zero . It also seeks to lower the barrier to data science and develop ‘ digital champions ’ in those businesses .
Ten companies took part in the first cohort and each received a package of support centred around four key areas : FourJaw ’ s IoT hardware and analytics software to monitor machine utilisation and productivity ; skills support through a six-week data science course provided by EyUp Skills Academy ; tailored business support with digital tech company Razor and networking support through a ‘ hackathon ’ event .
FourJaw co-founder and CEO , Chris Iveson , confirmed that eight of the ten companies who signed up to NextGen were new to the company . One of those taking part was precision machining company , Sterling Machining , which specialises in the extrusion tooling and subcontract machining industries and cites the shaft which closes Wembley Stadium ’ s roof as one of the products that it manufactured .
Sterling Machining was already using FourJaw ’ s machine monitoring platform on six of its CNC machines , supporting and informing its continuous improvement strategy by driving efficiencies across its factory floor . Through NextGen , it added the FourJaw kit onto another four machines and has since applied it to two more .
Key takeaways
In a report by Sheffield tech company Razor , early findings from NextGen show that every company interviewed was experiencing difficulties around utilising different data sets , with 80 per cent having direct challenges beginning to utilise data . Almost two-thirds also said they were struggling to collect the ‘ right ’ data or identifying the right data .
From the first cohort , 80 per cent said that they saw significant opportunity in developing or acquiring new software and systems for their businesses that could solve pain points around specific areas of manufacturing such as scheduling , process monitoring and tooling and breakdown .
The report also showed that 60 per cent of the companies interviewed saw a significant benefit in having specialised dashboards to provide KPIs ; while another 60 per cent saw a significant opportunity and benefit in having a central data warehouse that receives and stores a plethora of different accurate data sets .
Early learnings for the NextGen delivery team included being realistic with timescales and not doing too much too quickly ; understanding that companies do not always value support which is ‘ free ’ and that there is still nervousness about Industry-4.0 technologies especially with respect to cyber and data security . These learnings will be used to change and flex the delivery style of the support for future cohorts .
A second cohort of the data science course will take place in the summer , funded by the NextGen project and delivered by EyUp Skills Academy . n
www
. amrc . co . uk
ISMR July / August 2023 | ismr . net | 13