Join the Shoestring community
Our community is committed to demystifying
low-cost tech in industry to help businesses
improve productivity, reduce waste and
save money.
We are building a regional, national and global community that supports businesses to access affordable technologies and create digital solutions that help improve productivity, reduce waste, save energy and money. If you are in a business, or support a business network, join our community and discover how Shoestring could help you and your audience.
Our community of collaborators
Whatever your role, if you contribute to, or are studying to join, the manufacturing, construction, logistics and healthcare sectors, discover how Shoestring could help you, your studies and continuous improvement plan, as well as the company and sector that you support.
manufacturing employees involved in solution deployment
companies deployed a solution, involving operators, production and management staff
university students attended a hackathon
apprentices on mentoring self-build programme
apprentices attended a hackathon
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Try out a low-cost solution, see the impact, learn as you go
Businesses
Our business community comprises people in all sorts of positions, from apprentices and operators to production and senior management staff working across manufacturing and other related sectors. All have a role to play as it takes a team with different skills and responsibilities to introduce new approaches using low-cost tech to impact the bottom line in a company. A company’s Shoestring team is typically diverse, with each person taking on a responsibility as explained below:
Solution implementers
Solution implementers learn how to build digital solutions using low-cost tech. They are often apprentices, operators or production employees (but sometimes a senior manager).
Harry
Support Technician
PIL Membranes
Paydon Blow
Apprentice
Trox, West Suffolk College
Adrian Fell
Software Engineer
Denchi
David Jessop
Production Manager
Viking Signs
Solution champions
Solution champions use the data to inform decisions to improve productivity, save money and reduce waste.
Roger Trueman
Maintenance Manager
TROX
Leon Rawson
Production Manager
Photofab
Chris Barley
Process Support Manager
PIL Membranes
John Niven
Operations Director
Othogonal Engineering
Shoestring champions
Shoestring champions could be budget holders who see the financial benefit of spending time on the programme, saving cash while the project has business impact and employees learn new skills and start to realise how technology innovation improves their jobs. Sometimes the solution implementer and champion are the same person, for example John Niven, Operations Director at Orthogonal.
Jerome Faissat
Managing Director
PIL Membranes
Tom Pounds
Technical Director
Photofab
Nigel Scott
Chief Executive
Denchi
Simon Wadsworth
Operations Director
David Smith
Darren Joint
Managing Director
Viking Signs
Will Bridgman
Meet some Shoestring ambassadors
Shoestring ambassadors are companies that use Shoestring regularly to improve their bottom line, engage their staff and often prototype and experiment to modernise their business. They are advocates for Shoestring and share their findings and experiences with their peers, sometimes hosting and demonstrating their solutions.
Kings Lynn
East of England
PIL Membranes Ltd
St Neots
East of England
Photofab
Explore the mentored self-start programme and choose a solution that meets your business’s needs
Regional and sector organisations
Sustainability, business and skills development teams across regional and sector organisations such as local authorities, local enterprise partnerships, manufacturing groups, chambers of commerce and government departments all come together to promote Shoestring to their audience of SMEs. Whether it is net-zero, digital skills, improved productivity or economic growth that fires an organisation’s agenda, Shoestring can help them work with SMEs to facilitate change, have impact and contribute to economic growth and net zero targets.
Solution champions
promote the easy approach to digitalisation across their networks, through webinars, events and direct and indirect mailings. They can support existing events and host their own.
Matt Giles
Cornwall Growth Programme
Oxford Innovation Advice
James Williamson
Manufacturing & Engineering Cluster Manager
NAAME Norfolk County council
Huntingdonshire
Charlotte Horobin
Chief Executive
Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce
Jerome Finlayson
Head of High Value Manufacturing
Scottish Enterprise
Kim Antonio
Agribusiness Food and Trade Manager
Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development WA
Solution facilitators
run Shoestring workshops, enabling local companies to identify their business needs and match these to low-cost digital solution areas, in some cases pinpointing starter solutions to help them get started quickly.
NAME
Cornwall Growth Programme
Oxford Innovation Advice
Felipe Barria Reyes
Shoestring Digital Project Officer
DPIRD
Margaret
Highlands & Islands
Alistair
Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS)
Shoestring champions
Shoestring champions could be budget holders who see the financial benefit of spending time on the programme, saving cash while the project has business impact and employees learn new skills and start to realise how technology innovation improves their jobs. Sometimes the solution implementer and champion are the same person, for example John Niven, Operations Director at Orthogonal.
Phil Stittle
Business Development Director
West Suffolk College
Nykki Rogers
Economic Development Manager
Huntingdonshire District Council
Join our community to find out how Shoestring could help you in your job
FE Colleges
Apprentices, apprentice tutors, principals, business development staff and curriculum leads have joined Shoestring to explore how the resources and tools can support their student projects, work placements, create more meaningful apprentice experiences and reports, and add extra value to employee upskilling programmes.
In some cases colleges and companies have seen first-hand how apprentices have provided and proved their impact on the business via the company’s Shoestring mentored self-start programme.
Join our community of FE Colleges to explore how the Shoestring resources could directly benefit your college with increased business and curriculum support. Help us to develop resources to help you maximise the benefit of Shoestring, and bring digital innovation into companies, via work placements, apprenticeships and employee training programmes.
Researchers
Our community of researchers are focussed on finding solutions for SMEs using affordable tech. Shoestring helps them quickly prototype and trial innovative ways to collect, share, analyse data, including in the creation of digital twins.
Currently Shoestring’s approach is incorporated in four research projects at the University of Cambridge, Made Smarter Connected Factories – in which low-cost digital solutions to share data across multiple sites, Elastic Manufacturing, Smart Manufacturing Data Hub and Digital Hospitals in association with Cambridge University Hospitals. We are also working closely with sustainability teams at the Centre for Industrial Sustainability team and Politecnico Di Milano School of Management.
If you are a researcher interested in using low-cost technologies in industry, contact us to explore how a collaboration with Shoestring could help you develop new solutions and approaches for industrial use. Join your research peers at the 2nd academic workshop, Low-cost Digital Solutions for Industrial Automation (LoDiSA). 1-2 October 2024 at the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge.
Our community of regional and sector organisations
Sustainability, business and skills development teams across regional and sector organisations such as local authorities, local enterprise partnerships, manufacturing groups, chambers of commerce and government departments all come together to promote Shoestring to their audience of SMEs. Whether it is net-zero, digital skills, improved productivity or economic growth that fires an organisation’s agenda, Shoestring can help them work with SMEs to facilitate change, have impact and contribute to economic growth and net zero targets.
Shoestring champions
Shoestring champions promote the easy approach to digitalisation across their networks, through webinars, events and direct and indirect mailings. They can support existing events and host their own.
Matt Giles
Cornwall Growth Programme
Oxford Innovation Advice
James Williamson
Manufacturing & Engineering Cluster Manager
NAAME Norfolk County council
Huntingdonshire
Charlotte Horobin
Chief Executive
Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce
Jerome Finlayson
Head of High Value Manufacturing
Scottish Enterprise
Shoestring facilitators
Shoestring facilitators run Shoestring workshops, enabling local companies to identify their business needs and match these to low-cost digital solution areas, in some cases pinpointing starter solutions to help them getstarted quickly.
XXXX
Oxford Innovation Advice
Cornwall Growth Programme
Felipe Barria Reyes
Shoestring Digital Project Officer
DPIRD
Margaret
Highlands & Islands
Liz Salter
Industrial Associate
IfM Engage
Join our community, discover how Shoestring could help you in your job
Our community of FE Colleges
Apprentices, apprentice tutors, principals, business development staff and curriculum leads have joined Shoestring to explore how the resources and tools can support their student projects, work placements, create more meaningful apprentice experiences and reports, and add extra value to employee upskilling programmes.
In some cases colleges and companies have seen first-hand how apprentices have provided and proved their impact on
the business via the company’s Shoestring mentored self-start programme.
Join our community of FE Colleges to explore how the Shoestring resources could directly benefit your college with increased business and curriculum support. Help us to develop resources to help you maximise the benefit of Shoestring, and bring digital innovation into companies, via work placements, apprenticeships and employee training programmes.
Our community of Researchers
Our community of researchers are focussed on finding solutions for SMEs using affordable tech. Shoestring helps them quickly prototype and trial innovative ways to collect, share, analyse data, including in the creation of digital twins.
Currently Shoestring’s approach is incorporated in four research projects at the University of Cambridge, Made Smarter Connected Factories – in which low-cost digital solutions to share data across multiple sites, Elastic Manufacturing, Smart Manufacturing Data Hub and Digital Hospitals in association with Cambridge University Hospitals. We are also working closely with sustainability teams at the Centre for Industrial Sustainability team and Politecnico Di Milano School of Management.
If you are a researcher interested in using low-cost technologies in industry, contact us to explore how a collaboration with Shoestring could help you develop new solutions and approaches for industrial use. Join your research peers at the 2nd academic workshop, Low-cost Digital Solutions for Industrial Automation (LoDiSA). 1-2 October 2024 at the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge.
If you are interested in getting your company or organisation involved in the Shoestring project, or would like to know more, we would love to hear from you!
