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Factories saw a sixth consecutive month of falling new orders in October 2019 as ongoing uncertainty surrounding Brexit slashed domestic demand.
Manufacturers across a wide range of major industries reported cutting production in the previous six months as the threat of a no-deal exit from the European Union loomed large.
As the year drew to a close, major questions still lingered regarding the terms of the UK’s departure from the bloc. There’s little doubt that a no-deal outcome, which leads to new tariffs and customs checks, would be a major bone of contention for manufacturers, who have long depended on frictionless trade to export products and source parts.
Sensing an opportunity
Amid this turbulent sea of possibilities, manufacturers’ investment intentions have also worsened. At the end of 2019, plans to spend on buildings, machinery and training were at their most negative since the financial crisis, according to figures from the CBI.
Concerns about the sector’s international competitiveness are growing. But industry innovators will not sit idly by while big firms plot to move their manufacturing activities abroad. For the team at Factory 2050, the flagship R&D facility at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), part of the UK’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult, the unstable political climate has presented an opportunity to expand its digital offering. With the help of virtual and augmented reality, Factory 2050’s engineers can give their corporate partners a look inside a new manufacturing facility before it’s even built.
“With the political situation over the past few years, people are not more reluctant to invest, but they’re more wary of their investments,” said Chris Greaves, head of AMRC’s Integrated Manufacturing Group and Factory 2050. “If you can simulate and plan a facility – and optimise it before the customer puts a hand in their pocket – investment is a lot easier.”
For instance, an aerospace firm looking to set up a factory could consult mathematical models to get a sense of its potential output and efficiency. However, Greaves argued, the design experience is enhanced if customers view a facility in virtual reality (VR). The combination of discrete event simulation and VR allows factory operators to plan for critical ‘what if?’ scenarios. “If one machine breaks down, we can assess the impact on the entire assembly line,” Greaves added. “Essentially, we can simulate a plan B.”
Opened in late 2015, Factory 2050’s initial projects included a programme to take aerospace manufacturing technology into the construction sector, as well as an exploration of the potential uses for digital technologies in building aircraft. At the time, the facility’s project partners were largely seeking to maximise the potential of automation. The team has now expanded from 19 staff to almost 70 – and there are plans to recruit more. These new hires will increasingly come from digital disciplines rather than a more traditional mechanical engineering background.
“We’ve still got our core robotics and automation activities, but we’ve also got digital engineers who trained as software or app developers,” Greaves said. “I also take people straight out of university who have done games development. They think they’re off to make the next Grand Theft Auto or FIFA, and they end up creating augmented-reality and VR solutions for companies like Rolls-Royce.”
Learning on track
Factory 2050 is also working with another of the decade’s much-hyped disruptive technologies: machine learning. Engineers are making use of artificial intelligence and associated vision systems to simplify the maintenance process for Network Rail. In doing so, they’re removing the need for hands-on inspections of railway infrastructure, including tunnels, tracks and embankments. According to Greaves, solutions like these are applicable across multiple industries with only a few tweaks.
“We’ve got some great cases where a technology that has been developed for aerospace is now being used in the construction sector, for example,” said Greaves. “What I want to say to industrial leaders is: although your problems and sectors are different, there is actually a lot of commonality. You can work together to share the risk.”
In the face of prolonged political uncertainty, industry can collaborate to move forward. And institutions like AMRC’s Factory 2050 are there to ensure that both products and progress continue to be made in Britain.
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