Fylde coast firms embracing digitalisation to boost productivity

My Fish Company of Fleetwood and The Protein Lab of Blackpool are in a group of 24 businesses along with Dewlay Cheesemakers of Garstang, using technology to gain a competitive edge with help from the Made Smarter programme.

They used funding through the Made Smarter North West Industry 4.0 adoption pilot and have embraced industrial digital technologies which connect their disparate systems and unify data residing in different sources.

Integrating a variety of systems and consolidating data sources allows business leaders to spot trends in production and labour, correct maintenance and quality issues, and minimise safety, business risk and operational downtime throughout their production.

As well as data and systems integration, SMEs from various manufacturing sectors have invested in other advanced technologies to solve their business challenges.

Almost 25 per cent of manufacturers are adopting Industrial Internet of Things using sensors to collect critical production data to gain valuable insights about the efficiency of operations. More than 20 per cent are adopting robotics and process control automation and 15 per cent are focussed on big data and analytics.

Meanwhile, other businesses are investing in 3D printing, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and cyber security.

Donna Edwards, programme director for the Made Smarter North West, said: “Data and analytics are central to the fourth Industrial Revolution, so I am extremely pleased that so many SME manufacturers are putting data at the heart of their own digitalisation journeys.

“Capturing the data from across their processes and bringing it all together in one place is a vital first step for many manufacturers looking to solve problems and recognise opportunities.

"“The next step, one which some forward-thinking SMEs are already taking, is to analyse the data using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

“It is encouraging that so many of this region's makers are recognising that using these tools can empower them to grow their business and increase efficiency."