Industry 4.0 Innovation

With an emphasis placed on digitalisation by the West Midlands Combined Authority, our region’s infrastructure, collaborative culture, skills and talent can instil the readiness for businesses to adopt Industry 4.0 capabilities.

Industry 4.0, or ‘smart manufacturing’, is paving a new roadmap to global digital transformation. Companies in the West Midlands are using disruptive technologies to drive changes in production and consumption; creating shifts to service-centric business models, customised products and redesigned product supply chains (integrating the local and global more strategically).

Our combined regional approach offers West Midlands-based businesses a competitive edge, accessing and utilising operational improvements – across technologies including 5G, Additive Manufacturing, Advanced Robotics, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Big Data, Digital Twins and Internet of Things (IoT) – to stimulate business growth.

Innovate UK, through funded research projects, is supporting manufacturing and engineering businesses trialling new technologies in the West Midlands. The projects help businesses develop and commercialise products, services, and processes while they improve operational efficiencies, productivity and resilience in emergent innovation clusters. Investment from Innovate UK into the region’s ecosystem has supported hundreds of businesses working with the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult’s centres.

To consolidate its position as a science and technology superpower, the UK Government is heavily investing in research and development. With the West Midlands’ innovative strengths in 5G, Artificial Intelligence, Quantum and Cybersecurity, the convergence of these technologies will not only be significant to the local economy, but also play a major role in contributing to the success of the UK’s manufacturing sector on the global stage.

• The UK has climbed to 8th place in the global manufacturing rankings
• The sector contributes £224bn GVA and employs 2.6m people
• The industry accounts for 49% of all UK exports and 16% of UK business investment

During the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced an advanced manufacturing-focused investment zone in the West Midlands. Boosted by the region’s six universities, collaboration with industry leaders will act as a catalyst to drive innovation in battery technology, green industries and digital technology, bringing 30,000 jobs to the West Midlands and leveraging £5.5bn of growth across the region.

Post-Brexit, Covid-19 and significant changes in UK policy, the transition to net zero and the rapid acceleration of technologies spinning out from the fourth industrial revolution are changing how people live and work, as well as how businesses operate using new technology. Building on existing and emerging sector strengths in the West Midlands, Industry 4.0 presents significant opportunities to drive economic and societal improvements across the region and the UK, creating a prosperous future for both the people and industry.

In AdvancedTech, CleanTech and MedTech, SMEs in the region are transitioning from traditional manufacturing to green and advanced manufacturing. In the process, they are scaling disruptive technologies to drive productivity, efficiency and waste reduction. While companies are euphorically adopting new technology, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has been working to make sure new tech sticks.

While purchasing new tech can be exciting, knowledge gaps in SMEs and the supply chains can make it difficult to utilise fully after the shine has worn off. Tackling this, WMCA has invested in education campaigns, giving workers the skills to fully onboard new tech while reducing the cybersecurity risks – ensuring workers are skilled enough to utilise tech in an efficient, safe way.

There are Skill Bootcamps available in the West Midlands on an individual or company-wide scale, bridging knowledge gaps that are a barrier to full, efficient, safe utilisation of new tech.

H1perChain addresses the need for a step change reduction in battery pack costs

Led by Hyperbat, in collaboration with partners Unipart Manufacturing, Williams Advanced Engineering, Coventry University and Direc-Tec, the H1perChain project is designed to scale up the UK’s battery pack manufacturing and supply chain industry. Developing UK component and sub-system supply chain capabilities, it has established robust and high-speed laser welding processes while innovating design and manufacturing solutions for higher-volume battery packs. This is underpinned by a novel Industry 4.0 digitalisation strategy that enables reduced lead times with optimised productivity and overall competitiveness.

The supplier portal provides an IoT platform that the wider supply chain can use to engage with Hyperbat on future activities. It creates a ‘single source of truth’ of key manufacturing process data, bills of material and quality accreditation requirements, making it easy for companies to supply components for battery packs.

AE Aerospace landmark 5G trials

AE Aerospace, who operate a high-precision engineering facility producing aerospace components, were the first UK SME to deploy a 5G private network to transform manufacturing productivity. Working together with WM5G, Worcestershire 5G (W5G) and technology partner BT, AE Aerospace conducted three trials.

• ‘Machine Time Servitization’, seeing high-quality wireless 5G and a range of sensors installed across the factory floor to enable wireless connectivity between machines, enabling high-volume data capture.
• ‘Mobile Asset Location and Calibration Tracking’, allowing AE Aerospace to provide 100% assurance that its parts have been machined and measured to specification by tagging all gauges, ensuring their location can be tracked and identified in real time over 5G.
• ‘Product Quality Assurance’, utilising real-time ultra-high-definition image comparison, eliminating the need to rework or replace damaged components prior to shipping products to customers.

Aquaspira optimise the performance of digital twin

Aquaspira, a specialist manufacturer of large diameter drainage pipes, conducted full-scale trials of 100% recycled composite steel and HDPE “SmartSense” pipes.

This was done in partnership with the University of Birmingham and the UKCRIC National Buried Infrastructure Facility. Ground and performance data was used to understand how the whole pipeline installation performs when ground loading conditions change around the pipe to develop and optimise the performance of the digital twin co-product.

The work between Aquaspira and the university is just part of this digital infrastructure revolution with BIM (Building Information Modelling) to evaluate entire building life-cycle performance and carbon budgets from inception and design through to demolition and materials reuse.

4t2 Sensors reduce energy intensive Clean-In-Places (CIP) processes

4t2 Sensors, an innovative fluid sensing start-up in the food and beverage industry, worked closely with Aston University’s Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute (EBRI), Together, they designed an inline, flow­through sensor that can detect concentrations, contaminations and mixtures of fluids.

The ‘Diemetric Sensor’ was installed and trialled in partnership with Diageo for their CIP operations on site, while also measuring the amount of water used in the rinsing stages of process pipes that clean and prevent cross-contamination.

Compared to its complex and maintenance-heavy predecessors, the sensor analyses liquids’ electrical properties, uses algorithms to detect contaminants in real time and offers a reliable and simplified design that saves time and money.

4D Biomaterials optimises applications for treatment and surgery

Spun out of the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick following £1.6m in seed investment, 4D Biomaterials leading product 4Degra™ is pioneering the commercialisation of Bioresorbable photopolymer resins suitable for 3D printing, casting and coating for diverse medical applications.

These innovative, body-safe resin-inks enable medical implants to be 3D printed, meaning they can be precisely made to the size and shape needed for each patient. This not only streamlines the manufacturing process but can optimise patient outcomes in reconstructive surgeries and cancer treatments.

High-growth start-ups with limited access to capital and funding, can experience an increase in perceived risks when it comes to investment. Digital infrastructure alone, like 5G, cannot guarantee business growth. However, the adoption of digitalisation in the West Midlands’ public and private sectors is helping to close the gap, identifying the challenges and the potential of new technologies with innovative-led research projects.

Effective collaboration between academia and industry is leading to greater tech convergence in the region, helping to bring different stakeholders together to champion digitalisation, with a diverse community and emerging talent demographic at its core unique to the West Midlands.

Boosting manufacturing excellence with engineering and tech centres

The MTC and the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering will support industrial and education growth with a new collaboration. These pioneering engineering and technology centres will enable closer work streams for local businesses in transferring and adopting knowledge to boost manufacturing productivity and sustainability.

West Midlands manufacturing firms launch manifesto

In restoring the UK’s position as a manufacturing powerhouse in the 21st century, The MAN Group recently launched its MANifesto in response to the lack of a coherent industrial strategy for the UK.

Between its members, covering more than 15 sectors, the manifesto deploys the guiding principles of people, international trade, investment, and sustainability and net-zero for individual businesses inside the collective.

MAN provides businesses with a single-source engineering solution for any project involving one or more manufacturing disciplines. By combining world-class expertise in manufacturing service, MAN has a proven track record of helping businesses reduce costs, bring new products to market and offer security of supply.

Technical Academy opens to future proof West Midlands manufacturing

In-Comm’s specialist training facility provides hands-on skills development across the advanced manufacturing sector, bridging the ‘competency gap’. The 24,000 sq. ft training centre is open to any business that wants to advance, test and trial innovation, benefitting from the academy’s skills and technology to make them globally competitive. Businesses have access to application engineers and state-of-the-art technology, enabling them to develop products and map processes prior to installing manufacturing cells in their factories.

Industry and academia Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP)

Businesses without the necessary expertise or confidence in the latest field of research can utilise KTP projects to exploit the latest technological advancements in manufacturing. Through academic institutes, businesses can collaborate with experts across a range of skill sets and disciplines and realise the full potential of their innovation projects.

For example, West Midlands-based Instinct Hardware is working with Aston University on using real-time data to allow more accurate planning and decision making.

Institute for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering (AME)

The UK’s first ‘Faculty on the Factory Floor’, a collaboration between Unipart and Coventry University, is supporting UK industry growth by providing a pipeline of skilled engineering graduates ready for employment.

AME’s three step strategy: Challenge – Technology – Research, identifies how research can tackle challenges in key areas such as automotive, aerospace and rail amongst others, and provides businesses with access to some of the best academic minds leading the development of manufacturing skills and technological change in the region.

Medical Devices Testing and Evaluation Centre (MD-TEC)

Businesses in the MedTech and Life Sciences space can gain access to the latest state-of-the-art simulation and usability facilities alongside medical device expertise from the academic and clinical environment.

Supporting the acceleration of products from ‘bench to bedside’, at less cost and with reduced risk, businesses can ensure their products match market needs to avoid the re-engineering and re-evaluation often caused by regulatory restrictions and lack of initial user testing. Boasting near-replicas of operating theatres, intensive care areas and wards, MD-TEC is adjacent to the second-largest teaching hospital in the UK.