Digitalisation sectors
The Shoestring programme can be used by companies in a range of sectors, from manufacturing to construction.
Developed by researchers at the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, the Shoestring programme initially focussed on the manufacturing sector.
However, it quickly became clear that companies in other sectors would benefit from the programme, and the research teams explored how to adapt it for more sectors, construction, logistics and healthcare.
Whilst the programme is most advanced for manufacturing, other sectors can join and help us develop materials to benefit them.
Manufacturing
Construction
Logistics
Healthcare
Digital Manufacturing
The original research project, Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring, developed the foundations for the Shoestring programme between 2018-2022, talking to over 450 companies and organisations working in the manufacturing sector.
The initial list of low-cost digital solution areas was drawn up in response to this audience’s business needs. Today, the main focus of the project is still on the manufacturing sector, encompassing the food and drink and agricultural sectors, and low-cost digital solutions are primarily developed first for this audience.
Digital Construction
The past 10 years have seen a drive for digitalisation in construction with government, industry and industry bodies working together to support change.
Led by the Construction Innovation Hub (The Hub), Shoestring brings the opportunity for small-to-medium-sized enterprises and other construction organisations to work with academic experts from the Institute for Manufacturing’s (at the University of Cambridge) Centres for Digital Built Britain and Smart Infrastructure and Construction to identify specific low-cost digital solution priorities.
Organisations are empowered to identify practical pathways for developing and deploying simple, low-cost digital solutions.
Digital Logistics
The advent of Brexit and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with a significant rise in consumer demand for ‘next-day’ deliveries, has greatly increased the pressure on logistics companies.
Shoestring’s low-cost, incremental approach to digitalisation is ideal for this sector, which is inundated with small-to-medium-sized companies who need affordable solutions they can implement quickly to realise efficiencies immediately.
Digital Healthcare
Since the Summer of 2020, a team of researchers and students from the Institute for Manufacturing have been working with healthcare professionals at Cambridge University Hospitals, and in particular at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
By listening to practitioners’ needs, they realised that many non-critical support tools from the Shoestring project could be adapted to help collect and digitalise information scattered across the hospital and make life easier for members of staff.
