The launch event brought together industry thought-leaders, academia and the MTC's Smart Manufacturing Accelerator team, which delivers integrated manufacturing and supply chain improvements based on industrial digital technologies. Delegates saw the Factory in a Box demonstrator working on complex pipework manufacture and assembly for the thermal energy industry, but the principles are applicable to a range of manufacturing sectors. The Smart Manufacturing Accelerator process helps companies design, develop and operate a remote Factory in a Box, and provides tools to adopt advanced manufacturing technology in a traditional manufacturing facility.
MTC’s Factory in a Box demonstrator, which is part of the £60m Innovate UK-funded Energy Research Accelerator (ERA) programme, was formally launched at its Coventry facility in front of an audience comprising close to 300 manufacturing leaders. Presentations demonstrated how their businesses could benefit from the adoption of a smarter, more digital approach. The Factory in a Box demonstrates a number of industrial digital technologies in an autonomous, rapidly deployable, remote controlled, modular unit.
Dr Hannah Edmonds, technology specialist at the MTC, says: "Factory in a Box can provide a rapid route to market for manufacturing innovations, while quality, product variation and maintenance can be controlled remotely. Our Smart Manufacturing Accelerator team can assess manufacturing businesses and their supply chains to plan, design and implement innovative manufacturing solutions, either in the Factory in a Box scenario or a more traditional factory setting."
Professor Martin Freer, director of the Energy Research Accelerator says that after several years of research and development, the MTC had delivered the manufacturing dimensions of the project to optimise a manufacturing supply chain: "This is a great opportunity for British manufacturers to grow their businesses by using technology across the spectrum.”
