The Shoestring Digital Manufacturing initiative has taken its first steps into commercialisation with a suite of starter solutions, helping more companies tackle the digital transformation.
“It’s like before swimming, you are always afraid to touch the water, but then you touch it and find it’s OK. That’s how we all feel now that we have some confidence that digitalisation is OK, we can do it,”
Hazem El Sawa, El Negma (Egypt)
Industrial digitalisation comes with a host of benefits, but the costs of adoption can seem prohibitive, especially for small and medium sized companies (SMEs). Knowing that great gains can be made with low-cost solutions, Professor Duncan McFarlane established the Shoestring Digital Manufacturing initiative in 2018 as a research project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Since its inception, Shoestring Digital Manufacturing has been all about pouring the manufacturing engineering expertise of the IfM into off-the-shelf digital tools, creating affordable and transformative solutions for SMEs. The tools are designed to help companies learn how to automate the monitoring of their manufacturing processes, from temperature control and process monitoring to waste management, and ultimately help them digitalise for profitability and sustainability.
So far, many SMEs in the UK and Western Australia, and soon also in Egypt, have benefited from the solutions developed by the Shoestring team. These collaborations have been enabled by central and local government initiatives, but demand is growing and changing.
“This is the most transformative programme that I have launched at PIL Membranes. A huge network – your network – is able to help me to accelerate the transition to sustainable membrane technologies. We’re delighted to be a member.”
Jerome Faissat, PIL Membranes
“Last year, companies said they did not want to wait for government funding,” says Kate Price Thomas, Marketing and Engagement Lead at Shoestring. “That spurred us on to make our package commercial.”
So when the four-year research trial came to an end last year, the team seized the opportunity to expand their reach. The initiative has become a central part of IfM Engage with its own dedicated full-time team, and companies can purchase directly a training package which incorporates a starter solution chosen from a range of ready-made starter solutions designed to meet their digitalisation needs. Enthusiasm for the programme sparked the early launch of the membership which gives member companies annual access to three training packages as well as all the starter solution guides and online support forum.
Asked whether he would recommend Shoestring to other SMEs seeking to digitalise, Tom Pounds, Technical Director at PhotoFab in Cambridge, expresses no doubt:
“I think that’s a bit of a no-brainer. It’s a very low-cost way to have a look at the technology, and the support is there to make it work.”
Interested in buying a starter solution package? Find out more about the starter solution training package, and choose a starter solution to deploy which will bring business benefits to your company:
- Job location tracking: to give visibility of where all jobs are at any time.
- Power monitoring(up to 50A): ideal for equipment monitoring as well as reducing energy waste.
- Scrap monitoring: to help you reduce waste, produce more good parts, improve stock planning accuracy.
- Downtime monitoring: to highlight utilisation of machines or operations and reasons for downtime across production.
- Air quality monitoring: helps keep track of the air quality in the factory or office space.
- Temperature monitoring: measure the ambient temperature of a space or process in your factory.
