IOT4Industry opened a second call for collaborative projects on April 19 for the Industrial Internet of Things. The call sought to bring together SMEs from manufacturing and from the technical IIoT suppliers to develop, deliver and showcase the art of the possible to trailblaze innovation and shine a light towards the future for Manufacturing SMEs.
Pym and Wildsmith (Metal Finishers) Ltd and TotalControlPro™ are collaborating to bid to fund their projects. The project will focus on delivering business and operational real-time management, enabling an environment where decision-making will be supported by real-time monitoring, and by building ‘Big Data’, move towards an ‘AI-enabled environment’. Through the use of AI algorithms, begin to anticipate and manage the customers’ ever-changing schedule – what? – a supplier knowing the customers’ demands before the customer knows themselves…? That’s the future.
Meeting at the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Dolores Sanders (Strategic Director – TotalControlPro™ ), Dorian Smellie (CEO – TotalControlPro™ ) and Rob Taylor (GM – Pym and Wildsmith (Metal Finishers) Ltd) are very aware of the important role manufacturing SMEs play in UK Manufacturing. Working through their final bid proposal, Rob commented, ‘there was great energy around our ambition for the project, and with the experience around the table and in the companies, there’s no reason why the objectives of this project cannot be fully met’.
It’s the customer-focused benefits which will also make the difference – reduced inventory holding, real-time updates of material in process – better supply chain visibility throughout.
Looking ahead, if successful, funding will be released on Sep 19 and the project will run for 12 months. The key point, even if not successful, it is clear that through collaboration rather than the traditional Business-to-Business sales model, the win-win is established by the journey that both supplier and customer undertake by moving forward through product development. This creates a different relationship in pursuit of shared success.
Updates will follow in due course – fingers-crossed.
