About us
Our inventive approach helps smaller manufacturers modernise one step at a time using low-cost technologies, saving money as they go
How can we help?
Impact
Our vision, mission,
and values
Our story
How to get started
Shoestring gives companies a practical way to learn how to use low-cost technologies to create simple solutions that address their top business needs. These solutions automate data collection and present information in easy-to-read dashboards to facilitate decision-making that saves the company time and money. For example, collecting and using data from job tracking, power monitoring and scrap monitoring solutions can help staff improve company productivity and efficiency, as well as enhance in-house skills and confidence through first-hand experience.
Our impact
450
companies engaged
82
workshops run
81
industrial deployments
26
apprentices involved
5
hackathons run
2
international programmes
Our vision, mission, and values
OUR VISION
Our vision is to build an organisation that helps manufacturers across the world become more productive, resilient and able to meet more sustainable goals – one step at a time – by understanding and embracing digital technologies.
OUR VISION
Our vision is to build an organisation that helps manufacturers across the world become more productive, resilient and able to meet more sustainable goals – one step at a time – by understanding and embracing digital technologies.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to help thousands of UK companies to take advantage of low-cost technologies by 2025, to give their operational and management employees the confidence and skills to automate and digitalise more processes, making their company more productive and resilient.
Combined with our work with organisations globally we will set up regional deployment models so that companies across the world can use Shoestring to start exploring the benefits of low-cost technologies to accelerate their digitalisation journeys.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to help thousands of UK companies to take advantage of low-cost technologies by 2025, to give their operational and management employees the confidence and skills to automate and digitalise more processes, making their company more productive and resilient.
Combined with our work with organisations globally we will set up regional deployment models so that companies across the world can use Shoestring to start exploring the benefits of low-cost technologies to accelerate their digitalisation journeys.
OUR VALUES
We are collaborative
We always strive to listen and learn from all of our collaborators, which helps us to adapt our range of tools to meet different regional and sector needs, and most importantly, helps maximise the effectiveness of technology in every environment.
We are friendly
We love to talk to companies and organisations. We will endeavour to tackle your challenges based on how you have chosen to approach them.
We are experts
Backed by the University of Cambridge and supported by a growing community of educators, developers, trainers and users constantly sharing knowledge, our ability and expertise is growing every day.
We are inventive
Our unique and inventive approach of combining readily available, off-the-shelf components helps us deliver effective solutions within budgets. Our innovative team challenges the norm and comes up with the new.
We are practical
Our solutions are tailored to match a company’s situation, their processes and their budget. We deliver solutions that are practical to implement and don’t require more investment than is deemed necessary. You don’t need to have technical knowledge to start, just enthusiasm to learn.
Our story
Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring is a collaborative project that brings together a range of people working in the manufacturing industry with university researchers to adapt low-cost accessible technologies for companies to use.
2016
Idea was conceived by Duncan McFarlane, Professor Industrial Information Engineering at the University of Cambridge Engineering Department.
2017
Research project outline written in response to the UK Government’s 2017 Digital Strategy.
2018
Launch of the research project, Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring, initially funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), from 2018-2022, with further support from the Foundation of German Business and Impact Accelerator fund, and Research England’s Pitch-In project. The objective was to open up the benefits of digitalisation to small- and medium-sized companies who might be overwhelmed by the complexities and cost of commercial technology offerings.
2019
Several mini-Shoestring projects are launched over the coming years as part of Research England’s PITCH-In project, Promoting the Internet of Things through collaboration between higher education institutes and industry.
2020
First Shoestring pilots begin in companies that like the low-risk approach to incrementally adding digital solutions. Shoestring partners ask for plan to continue the programme beyond the research project.
2021
Shoestring has run pilots in 20 companies, helping them ‘dip a toe in the water’ in the digital space, giving them proof of concept and confidence to modernise further.
2023
Access to Shoestring’s framework to build low-cost digital solutions is given to University of Cambridge researchers working on the Smart Manufacturing Data Hub (SMDH).
Scoping studies launched in Scotland, funded by Scottish Enterprise, and Egypt, funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Western Australia's Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) launches a 4-year Shoestring programme to support SMEs under their Food and Beverage Innovation programme.
Shoestring’s first hospital pilot begins, in Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. The first apprentice builds and deploys a Shoestring in Norfolk-based manufacturer, Warren Services.
The first direct-to-consumer Early Adopter scheme launches in the UK, allowing UK companies to buy their own mentored self-start programme.
Shoestring launches in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, as part of the Cornwall Growth Programme, provided by Oxford Innovation.
2024 and beyond
Shoestring supports the Made Smarter Connected Factories Supply Chain Requirements workshop, to help companies identify data-sharing needs between suppliers and customers so that researchers can build low-cost digital solutions to meet these needs.
The Gatsby Foundation is supporting the setup of the core Shoestring Digital Unit, within IfM Engage, and has funded a further education scoping study.
Further regional programmes and studies, both in the UK and globally, are in the pipeline.
Shoestring continues to transition to a community programme open to all manufacturers in the UK and globally aiming to be sustainable by 2027.
Our partners
Our past and present collaborators have helped shape Shoestring.
Manufacturers
Organisations
Education-focused
initiatives
Manufacturers
How to get started
Businesses
Do you work in manufacturing, construction, logistics or healthcare and want to explore how low-cost technologies can help improve the processes within your company?
Choose a starter solution that addresses one of your business needs and sign up for our training programme to learn how to build and deploy it.
Regional organisations
Do you support business development and are passionate about upskilling the future and current workforce, enabling regional growth and helping to create a pathway towards a more sustainable future?
Contact us to find out how you can promote Shoestring to help your local companies use off-the-shelf technologies to improve their productivity and meet sustainability goals.
Education institutions
Are you a further education college that would like to link student projects with meaningful work placements? Do you have apprentices who want to demonstrate how they have impacted their businesses? Do local companies need your help to upskill their employees?
Contact us to find out how Shoestring can help you meet your goals, and also enable you to bring innovative digital solutions into local businesses.
