Digital Catapult and Innovate UK are inviting SMEs to help combat some of the UK’s biggest manufacturing challenges.
The joint event Industry 4.0 Hack & Pitch aims to enhance collaboration between the sector and innovative technology, to create new solutions to improve productivity across the UK.
Manufacturing currently contributes over £6.7tn to the global economy, but low levels of labour productivity in the UK are a key challenge.
The process of design, the production procedure and the life cycle of products have been identified by Digital Catapult as the main areas that could benefit from digital transformation and help towards combatting productivity issues.
Dr Jeremy Silver, CEO of Digital Catapul, said: “We are thrilled to bring together companies from many sectors of the Manufacturing industries – from some of the leading players to some of the most innovative SMEs just starting to break through.
“This competition will, we hope, help companies to address opportunities and issues in a collaborative way and to offer up some new, exciting and unexpected solutions.”
Working with corporate sponsors to address specific challenges in the industry, SMEs will be working with experts in the field to address particular areas of focus, which include Digital Twins and remote condition monitoring.
The Digital Engineering and Test Centre will look to challenge participating SMEs to focus on what can be done to better exploit the potential of Digital Twins.
Tata Steel will encourage SMEs to come up with solutions to better utilise test results to inform the manufacturing process for high-value steel products, while Siemens will challenge participants to explore how manufacturers can monitor the condition of hard-to-reach and hard-to-sense parts of their machines, to improve productivity.
As well as access to industry leaders, Industry 4.0, Hack & Pitch will provide SMEs with access to technologists and challenge specialists from within the international manufacturing industry.
Selected participants that make the final will have the opportunity to raise their profile at a prominent industry event by taking to the stage at the Industry 4.0 Summit in Manchester, which hosts 2,000 or more industry professionals with the chance of being crowned Summit Champions.
The open call for SMEs and manufacturers to sign up for the Industry 4.0 Hack & Pitch is now live. The deadline for applications closes on Monday 20 March at 12 noon.