How can the Smart Industry Readiness Index deliver smart benefits for UK manufacturers?
Date: Thursday 6 March
Time: 2pm
Location: Livestream online
The Smart Industry Readiness Index – or SIRI – was introduced by the World Economic Forum and establishes the readiness of industries to adopt and implement smart manufacturing practices. Such readiness is measured against the four key dimensions of technology, organisation, people, and ecosystem. It has been described as a powerful resource to help companies separate the substance from the noise and synthesise the essence of Industry 4.0 into an easy-to-understand universal framework to start things off on the right foot. The Forum gathered a host of experts to explain this further.
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Our Host
Peter Williamson
Executive Chair, Automate UK
In his role as Executive Chair of leading trade body Automate UK, Peter is looking to use his 25 years of experience in robotics and automation to support end users in adopting the latest in automation technology and to help raise awareness of the benefits that automation can bring to UK manufacturing. His experience comes from RARUK Automation, a company he formed in 2016 that is now a world leading supplier of collaborative robots (or cobots), and for which he is also now a non-executive director.
Our Panellists
Alastair Crawford
Managing Director, LMAC
Alastair is passionate about helping manufacturing businesses to become more competitive and sustainable. LMAC’s unique offering guides companies on their journey to becoming High Performing, digitally enabled organisation. As a certified SIRI (Industry 4.0) assessor and change practitioner, he is heavily involved with businesses and helping to set strategic plans that strengthen their understanding and adoption of Industry 4.0 principles to deliver transformational change across manufacturing value chains. His common sense and down to earth approach enables businesses to see quick, sustainable results that are aligned with their current and future challenges. Through pragmatic and bespoke support, LMAC curates tailored solutions that deliver sustainable, tangible results across a range of industries.
Mike Wilson
Chair UK Automation Forum & Chief Automation Officer, Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC)
Mike has over 40 years of experience in the application of automation to manufacturing across a broad range of industry sectors and is widely recognised as one of the leading authorities on the application of industrial robot systems in the UK. At the MTC, he is leading the drive to increase the adoption of robotics and automation in the UK. He is also a Director of the Manufacturing Technologies Association, Council member and past Chairman of the British Automation and Robot Association and has previously been Chairman of the International Federation of Robotics.
Professor Rab Scott
Director of Industrial Digitalisation, AMRC
Rab works at the AMRC (the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre) based at the University of Sheffield that turns the latest world-leading research into huge practical improvements for industry.
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List of audience Q&As below
Is there an opportunity and recommendation to complete SIRI as a self-assessment using the questions and scoring matrix as a preliminary exercise prior to certified assessment?
There used to be a self assessment when SIRI was first launched but they removed it. As large part of the SIRI assessment is educating the Senior Leadership team on what each dimension is about and how this could impact their organisation. Through this interactive discussion, the team align on the principles and get a better understanding of Industry 4.0. There are a couple of white papers that has all of the definitions and bandings, together with how the calculation in the background work.
A targeted technology scan was mentioned as an outcome of the assessment. To what degree is this targeted without in-depth knowledge of the specific industry process and applicable technologies? Or does this rely on manual assessment by the assessor?
The purpose of the assessment is to filter all the potential options down into some logical priorities. SIRI will prioritise 4 out of the 16 dimensions to focus on. During the course of the assessment and time on site, we spend a lot of time looking at the the end to end business processes and understanding where the constraints / opportunities are to adopt technologies. The targeted technology scan will look into the prioritised dimension and suggest some suitable types of technology that would help them in that dimension. It is not designed to suggest a particular piece of hardware or software as we have not had enough time on site or done enough due diligence. The intention is to recommend some example solutions that could solve the issue within that dimension. For example, if a company is trying to speed up the quote to order process and increase sales, SIRI may have prioritised Enterprise Automation. We will go and look for some example solutions that could support with automating the quote process. This will be shared with the client to show them what is out there and get them to see the potential benefit. The next stage following a SIRI assessment is usually a detailed roadmap build will is a much more comprehensive, focussed on the priority areas and would include thorough scoping.
What consideration is given to organizational constraints on company strategy & standards (technologies/applications/infrastructure). This is to avoid generic recommendations which could not be applied in practice.
During our SIRI assessment, we get a good understanding of the business, it's capabilities and any specific requirements within that industry. The recommendations are made based on research into that sector and what is feasible / available. The outcome of the SIRI assessment isn't a fully developed, detailed roadmap showing systems architecture etc. It is a high-level roadmap that aligns the Senior Leadership Team on what they should be focussing on and why. The logical next step is to pull a working group together and develop the future state vision for the end-to-end value stream (incorporating the prioritised dimensions) and a detailed roadmap to get there.