In a recent webinar, held by The Institute of Engineering and Technology, we spoke to other industry leaders about the recent shift of digital technologies from ‘nice to have’ to essential. We discussed the re-emergence of IT as a business enabler. Additionally, we talked about how manufacturers can use it to build resilience.

Digital technology as an enabler of resilience

From what we’ve seen in our work in the sector, it’s not about implementing digital technology for the sake of it. It’s about ensuring the technology is aligned to business use cases and outcomes, both for today and for the future.

For manufacturers, data is an asset and they can leverage IoT or Industrial IoT, data analytics, AI and digital twins for resiliency. However, where the sector has been lacking is developing the right data strategy across the business, as well as standardising and sharing open data. Also, there needs to be more understanding of the business models that data and digital technology can enable.

The organisations who are successful in this take an agile approach to digital modernisation. They adapt quickly not just to the changing needs of the sector, but also to external circumstances and the expectations of an increasingly digital native workforce. To do this, we’ve seen many manufacturers approach digital modernisation through smaller projects instead of taking a wider waterfall approach. This can help build champions and leadership support, as they see the positive effects quicker.

Sustainable operations

Manufacturers need to continue to operate their assets as reliably and efficiently as possible. Additionally, as we head to a net zero future, manufacturers need to look at more sustainable ways to operate. This is where digital technology can help. Using a secure cloud platform, manufacturers can connect data across offices, factory floors, and more to create holistic views of their business.

Manufacturer Ricoh uses Azure Machine Learning and AI across all areas of its factory to manage costs, and access greater insights to optimise operations and reduce costs. Ricoh uses AI to adjust machines in real-time to respond to changing demand, and to predict maintenance. And by connecting this data to HR and financial systems, they can manage labour needs, track costs and more.

Create an agile supply chain

Data helps embed visibility and intelligence into supply chains. A connected supply chain will predict disruptions, enhance visibility, improve planning, and maximise asset productivity. This, in turn will reduce waste and can deliver data that will help build a sustainable circular supply chain.

Bel Fuse manufactures electronic circuits products globally. As part of a larger supply chain, they rely on small parts from suppliers before passing their components onto other manufacturers that create the finished products. Therefore, they need to ensure that they do not become a bottleneck in the process. By using Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Bel Fuse now has a deeper, more precise view into its supply chain.

“Our system quickly shows us when parts haven’t arrived on time, and we can pivot to load our production with parts that are available,” says Stefan Naude, General Manager. “With Dynamics 365, we streamlined our planning and have flexibility to adapt to our vendors and adjust our inventory—all while remaining a reliable supplier.”

Personalise customer relationships

To be resilient you need to ensure you’re meeting your customers’ expectations in new ways. You need to engage with them throughout the relationship lifecycle. By connecting data silos, manufacturers can gain new insights into customer behaviours. They can also use AI and machine learning to predict, support, and improve customer relationships.

Malvern Panalytical designs, develops and commercialises analytical instruments for material analysis across a wide range of industries and applications. To help customers optimise their instruments, they built a digital solution that streamlines data capture – effectively offering them a ‘cloud-based control room’. Customers can use performance metrics to optimise assets. At the same time, Malvern Panalytical can use the data to understand how customers use their products. This allows them to offer better post-sales support and develop improved innovations.

Build the right culture for resilience

Whether on the plant floor, the office, or mobile, your people need to be empowered to drive resiliency. Investing in your existing talent and attracting the right talent is important. Not only does this help your organisation to take advantage of digital tech, but it is also key to building innovation and new business value.

Organisations need the right data and digital skills, plus a more agile culture to maximise impact. Manufacturers are clearly exploring these areas, but there is some way to go. Partnerships can support manufacturers here. At Microsoft, we have a range of learning resources available to help build technology competencies. The High Value Manufacturing Catapult is also working on data and digital skills programmes for the sector.

Use digital to innovate and build resilience

Finally, as manufacturers bounce back, using digital will be key to innovating and creating new business models and opportunities. For example, using technology to optimise and automate time-consuming manual tasks, giving employees more time to spend on value-adding work. At Phlexglobal, they use AI to automate the indexing and management of vaccine trial master files, improving time savings by 25-30 percent.

To be resilient, manufacturers also need to build partner ecosystems – not just within industry but across digital technology companies and other sectors. Open data and data sharing will help build resilience by driving new business models and innovations and creating more robust supply chains. We saw this in 2020, when British manufacturers united to build 20,000 ventilators in 12 weeks with the help of technology – something that would normally take 20 years.

For manufacturers, resiliency and digital modernisation go together. Embrace data and empower your workforce with the right skills to adopt an agile approach to implementation. Look for partnerships that support your goals and values to not only share expertise, but also innovate and drive new and current business models.

Find out more

Watch the webinar

The future of supply chains: Unlock sustainability through innovation

Build resilience today

About the authors

Rik leads Microsoft’s industry strategy across manufacturing, energy and resources in the UK. Responsibilities include working with the government and regulators, industry bodies, industry partners, and largest customers to ensure Microsoft enables sectoral needs. Rik sits on multiple industry boards for energy, manufacturing, research, digital twins and digital skills. His focus areas include the energy transition, sustainability, cyber security and digital technologies for operational environments.

Prior to Microsoft, Rik worked at Cisco for 13 years, with global lead roles in energy and resource industries, IoT and security, and digital transformation. He has been a member of multiple industry standards groups and consortia, is a published author, has written multiple industry white papers, and has spoken at conferences all over the world. He has an MBA in international leadership and is currently studying sustainability and green economies.

Lizzie works with a number of Manufacturing, Aerospace and Defence customers and partners in the UK, working closely with business leaders to help drive the use of digital technologies to achieve industry-focussed outcomes and unlock innovation. It is a pivotal time for both the Manufacturing and Aerospace industry to transform, with sustainability, factory of the future and connected supply chain being at the heart of many customer conversations, as well as the future of Manufacturing/work.

The post How digital tech can help manufacturers build resilience appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Traditionally, cost and service have been the most important factors in deciding whether a supply chain was operating ‘optimally.’ If profits and margins were high and customers were satisfied, a supply chain was considered successful. However, in the current economic, political and social climate, this has changed.

Sustainability is a new driving force to judge a retailers ultimate performance.  

Sustainable manufacturing

Sustainable manufacturing is emerging as the operating model of choice. It has become the driving force for innovative products, processes, and systems for next-generation manufacturing and the supply chains that support them.

Sustainability focusses on a balance between business survivability and minimising the environmental and social impacts of operating.

Today’s increasingly complex, interdependent, and volatile markets demand agile and resilient supply chains. Retailers need to understand the current and emerging challenges facing supply chains. They need to pivot and embrace new technologies and processes such as AI and automation. Then, they can optimise the value chain for better stakeholder outcomes and business continuity. By taking this approach, retailers will also reduce costs and materials consumption, make more efficient use of resources, and increase their adaptability in times of crisis or rapid market shifts.

Our recent report, Creating a Blueprint for UK Competitiveness, found that a combination of talent, technology, future readiness and the ecosystem represent the key ingredients in any organisation’s future success. Essential to accelerating innovation and competitiveness is a collaborative approach focussed on business and industry impacting goals.

Resiliency and sustainable supply chains

Retailers must evolve their foundational supply chain practices quickly, with sustainability as a strategic priority. The current forces driving a resilient supply chain amplify seven key considerations for retailers. Business leaders must address immediate challenges and plan for future needs on supply chain sustainability:

Why is now the time to act?

In the 2018 World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report, extreme weather events, natural disasters, and failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation topped the list of risks with the highest likelihood and impact supply chains. These are long-term trends that will continue.

There is an increasing urgency to modernise practises while these forces drive a need for organisations to rethink the supply chain. As a result, business leaders are taking immediate steps to build resilience into every aspect of planning and execution in the supply chain.

A new approach to sustainable supply chains

In the past, supply chains were linear, push-based, focussed on ad-hoc production and stocking. Systems that were not fully integrated across the value chain sometimes were reactive in nature. They are not the most sustainable option.

The circular supply chain model – as an extension of the circular economy – encourages businesses to loop their supply chains. This achieves cost efficiencies, facilitates innovation, reduces waste and excess inventory, and minimises environmental impact.

Businesses with a consistent, connected technology platform can now predict and pivot to address customer changes immediately. This also allows the ability to link people, processes and technology together much more tightly across partnerships. This allows for real-time intelligence sharing across the value chain.

The role of digital technology in sustainable supply chains

One of the key enablers of supply chain evolution is technology. The digital supply chain enables visibility, orchestrated processes, insights, and resilience. It enables you to make faster and better decisions with data and AI. It allows you to reduce your costs while potentially creating new and innovative business models and products.

The ability to gain real-time and predictive insights across supply chains based on external factors such as weather, consumer spending, and trends together with your internal data offers the ability to make faster decisions, serve customers better, and manage warehouses. AI can help identify areas of operational efficiency, predict and prevent disruptions, reduce waste and promote sustainable practices.

Sustainable supply chains are driven by empowered employees. To be more resilient, leaders need to drive a diverse and inclusive workforce, increase digital skills and encourage employees to be active stakeholders in business innovation. Only 48 percent of employees said their organisation offered some type of training in new skills[1]. Successful firms with sustainable supply chains have encouraged staff to re- or up-skill to match new technology.

Where does the journey start?

Retailers have struggled to balance competition and economic fluctuations with the complexities of environmental and societal challenges from their suppliers and customers.

But now smart software solutions, connected on a shared platform, can aid in breaking down silos to transform the global supply chain into a key aspect to deliver a corporate sustainability strategy.

The journey starts now. Not only is there a financial and a moral case, but technology enables us to deliver a strong balance sheet and sustainability improvements now and in the future.

Find out more

Get the eBook: The New Intelligent Supply Chain.

Get the playbook: Sustainability. Good for Business.

Download the Retail Trends Playbook: Driving operational resiliency with connected people and systems

Download the report: Creating a blueprint for UK competitiveness

Ensuring products are made in a sustainable way has never been more important

About the author

Ali is a highly successful award-winning industry-business leader, with a successful career spanning 22 years working in the retail and technology sectors including Executive Director of Retail at Verizon. He works as the Microsoft UK Retail Industry Executive creating visionary, business, and technology outcomes for customers and partners in this area.

Outside of Microsoft Ali, hosts and runs The Retail Podcast. He is also an advocate for (CALM) a leading movement against suicide. Every week 125 people in the UK take their own lives. And 75 percent of all UK suicides are male.

The post Closing the loop on sustainable supply chains in retail appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Intelligent automation to streamline operations

A McKinsey 2019 study found that 60 percent of all occupations have at least 30 percent of activities that could be automated. Intelligent automation is the combination of three key factors:

Digital Process Automation (DPA): Lets you automate workflows between applications and services, sync files, get notifications, collect data, and perform other common tasks across modern cloud services.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA): Turns manual tasks into automated workflows by recording and playing back human-driven interaction with legacy on-premise software systems. You can program RPA to run unattended, accelerating automation of high-volume, repetitive tasks or automate cumbersome or repetitive processes while still allowing for human intervention.

AI: Integrate AI models into workflows with a low or no-code approach.

Using automation in finance to streamline operations

Together, these three factors combine to build automated workflows across all the apps, services, and on-premise legacy systems at the same time. Bridging DPA, RPA and AI into Power Platform makes it possible to create secure and compliant automation in your construction firm.

What happens when you use automation to take over manual time-consuming processes? You can free your financial team to focus on higher value work.

Automation can streamline operations and processes, such as invoicing. You can also use it to predict or view insights in real-time. You can also connect silos across your whole firm, giving your whole organisation a single source of truth.

Collecting intelligence at a larger scale will lead to better services and streamlined operations. This will lead to greater value driven, and increased agility.

For example, when connecting your finance data to your supply chain you forecast labour and product needs. This helps you make predictive and real-time decisions. As a result, construction projects are delivered quicker. You can also react quicker to external circumstances.

Grow with agility and resilience

Automation is a long-term strategy. You do get quick wins when you streamline operations and workflows – can you imagine how much time I would have saved in my finance role? But when connected with AI, it can help uncover and create new efficiencies in the future.

The important thing to remember about automation is that it amplifies our work. It lets people focus on strategic work. The Total Economic Impact of Power Apps, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester consulting on behalf of Microsoft in March 2020 found that employees were saving almost two hours a week from automation.

Construction firms have a lot of different needs, especially between different teams and on-site frontline workers. By giving everyone the tools to do their jobs smarter and faster, you can be more agile and resilient.

Find out more

Learn more about how we can help your business transform today

Discover how Power Automate can streamline repetitive tasks and paperless processes.

Learn how businesses reduced development costs and increased overall efficiency using Power Automate in this commissioned Total Economic Impact™ study.

Resources to empower your development team

Learn how to implement robotic process automation

Watch Microsoft Tech Days on-demand: An introduction to Power Platform 

About the author

Simon worked in practice for seven years before moving into the commercial sector as Finance Director of a global Industrial Pumps Business, mainly focussed on the oil and construction sectors. Simon then moved into sales of ERP Software. He now has over 25 years’ experience of selling ERP, with over 500 successful implementations – many on a global basis – across multiple sectors. He focussed primarily on construction, professional services, and field service industries, but also assisted many in the distribution, manufacturing, education and non-profit sectors.

Simon has now been at Microsoft for over three years and has brought his considerable ERP experience to become Sales Lead for Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management in the built sector.

The post How to use process automation in finance to streamline operations for construction firms appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

In manufacturing today, this is reflected in the complex proprietary systems that create data silos and slow productivity. Manufacturers must combine talent, technology, and future readiness to drive transformation, resilience and competitiveness in the new normal.

How can manufacturers become more innovative and deliver a sustainable future and competitive growth? By looking at unifying data and intelligent manufacturing and resources. Here are five ways you can get started.

1. Transform the workforce and empower innovation

Manufacturers often work across different sites. Frontline workers often need secure access while out in the field. Or perhaps, you have a hybrid workforce. To work in their best way, everyone needs the same secure access to their tools and apps, no matter where they are.

Combine productivity apps, intelligent cloud services and security to transform the way you work wherever you are. While the Ventilator Challenge UK was a unique scenario where 33 manufacturers came together to address the shortage of ventilators, the way they chose to work highlighted the power of technology.

By using Microsoft Teams, the Challenge found communication between everyone easy. They could collaborate on documents, have meetings, and share information as a single source of truth. With built-in security, data is protected in transit and at rest, meaning confidential proprietary information can be shared with confidence.

“It’s been absolutely invaluable as a collaboration tool. It saved so much time and confusion,” says Laura Shrieves, Head of Systems Engineering – Training Solutions at Thales, one of the participating engineering companies.

Another challenge manufacturers face is the ability to train and assist frontline workers from anywhere. This is where Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and the HoloLens 2 can come in handy. With the help of this technology, manufacturers can now empower people to collaborate, solve problems in real time, access critical information while working and be able to walk through the site virtually. With Dynamics 365, the Ventilator Challenge were able to quickly train employees across different sites and deliver expert guidance when needed.

“We quickly realised that the HoloLens 2 could be used with the remote assist capability in order to get expertise and knowledge out of Smiths and Penlon, who have been building ventilators for many years. This was one of the big advantages,” says Shrieves.

2.      Engage customers in new ways

By unifying your data across different silos (e.g. service, sales and marketing), you can drive value with insights and deliver personalised customer experiences, making you more agile and competitive in the market.

Automotive enterprise CNH Industrial, wanted to help customers optimise the use of their vehicles. They built a digital platform on Azure to collect insights that can give their customers information on how to save fuel or optimise their journeys. They can also then use this data to deliver better experiences and build better products, quickly.

“The platform may provide feedback to truck drivers on how to brake or accelerate differently. Such changes in driving style can save money on gas,” says Matteo Barion, Head of Digital Platform, DevOps & Quality Assurance at CNH Industrial.

3. Make the supply chain more visible and intelligent

When you make your supply chain intelligent with AI and IoT connected to devices and factories, you can improve resiliency, efficiency, traceability and profitability. When you build agile manufacturing and distribution processes you can deliver products on time, optimise resource planning, adapt to changing business models, and ensure business continuity while staying profitable.

Coats is one of the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturers and thus has global operations and a complex supply chain. By moving to Azure, they gained the flexibility and agility to optimise existing processes and accommodate for unexpected changes in operation.

By linking everything to an intelligent supply chain, Coats can minimise its environmental footprint while keeping up with demand. For example, they were able to fine-tune thread winding machines to ensure it only uses what it needs, and by moving to the cloud from on-premise data centres, they have been able to reduce their carbon footprint and now only use processing power when they need to.

“With Azure, we have the horsepower we need to hold to our timelines and get products through the manufacturing floor in an efficient manner,” says Helge Brummer, Vice President of Technology and Operations at Coats. “In some situations, the results have been dramatic. For example, sampling orders—which are an important part of customer decision-making—used to take 10 to 14 days to process. With the agility of the cloud, we’ve cut that to two days.”

4.      Optimise plant and asset lifecycle

That brings us to our next way that manufactures can innovate by infusing operations with tech and industrial IoT you can drive reliability and quality whilst delivering safe and secure operations.

By leveraging machine learning and AI across factories, Ricoh can access greater insight through data to deliver greater value for customers. Ricoh can adjust machines in real time ensuring they are running at optimum and producing high quality products. They have also improved operational and cost efficiency by up to 10 times with predictive maintenance.

5. Drive new innovation and new services

Finally, by unifying data and harnessing the power of analytics and AI, you can uncover new business value from digital services and sustainable products that can transform the customer experience.

To increase supply chain transparency and implement innovative logistics solutions across plans, BMW Group started several logistic pilot programmes in their production lines. They developed automation kits, smart watch capabilities, and Smart Transport Robots.

This meant they were able to load and unload goods containers quicker, integrate scanners, displays and smartwatches to support employee logistics and utilise virtual reality to create spaces for planning and logistics of new plant sites.

“Logistics is the heart of our production system. Our broad spectrum of ground-breaking projects helps us run increasingly complex logistics processes efficiently and transparently​,” says Jürgen Maidl​, Head of Logistics.

Be ready for the new normal

Underpinning manufacturers ability for sustainable growth now and in the future is Manufacturing technology and industry expertise. The most important thing to remember about driving this change is to keep your people at the heart of any decisions. Unifying data and optimising processes across supply chains makes it easier for your employees to uncover insights, deliver personalised customer experiences and innovate with new products and services.

We work closely with manufacturing companies and industry organisations to ensure we are delivering genuine business outcomes through partnerships that bring together expertise in people, processes, and technology. We work closely with a number of the innovation centres, in particular the Advanced Manufacturing and Research Centre (AMRC), to help scale innovation across the manufacturing landscape. We’ve also worked with BMW Group to create the Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP). Designed to break down barriers through the creation of an open technology framework and cross-industry community, we’re supporting the development of smart factory solutions. The goal is to significantly accelerate future industrial IoT developments, shorten time to value and drive production efficiencies while addressing common industrial challenges.

This all connects to help manufacturers become more resilient, agile and ultimately more innovative. In the last year, we’ve learned to expect the unexpected and sustainable growth helps us manage this with confidence.

Find out more

Discover more about the resilient supply chain

Harness the power of data and analytics

About the author

Richard is responsible for leading Microsoft’s approach into the UK Manufacturing industry.

Richard joined Microsoft 14 years ago, where he has held various leadership roles across the business, the most recent of which is to establish and drive Microsoft’s strategy into the UK Industrial sector. He works closely with businesses and partners across automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing focussing on how digital transformation can enable them to achieve more.

He also works closely with associated industry bodies and consortia, supporting industry collaboration, growth and skills development.

Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Accounting.

Join the conversation at Envision

Digital technology is changing not just how organisations operate but how leaders lead. Join us at Envision, where executives across industries come together to discuss the challenges and opportunities in this era of digital disruption. You’ll hear diverse perspectives from a worldwide audience and gain fresh insights you can apply immediately in your organisation.

Connect with leaders across industries to get relevant insights on leadership in the digital era.

The post 5 ways to empower manufacturers for innovation appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

We spoke to Stephen Phipson, CEO of Make UK; Phil Hadfield, Country Director of Rockwell Automation; Ruth Nic Aodih, Executive Director at McLaren Automotive; Rina Ladva, Sector Lead, Manufacturing and Resources UK at Microsoft; Thierry Malleret, Managing Partner from The Monthly Barometer; and Juergen Maier, Chair of Made Smarter.

What have been some of the positives to emerge in manufacturing this year?

While the events of this year created disruption to supply chains, processes and our daily working lives, it has been refreshing to see how manufacturing business leaders quickly adapted to reflect the new ways of working.

As we return to work and operations in the new normal, we need to take advantage of these new technologies, and we are already working with industry bodies like the HVMC and AMRC to do so. Data and analytics can help us engage customers in new ways or even create more resilient supply chains. Digital Twins and AI can help us build more agile factories, and digital workspaces can help our teams stay connected no matter where they are, securely. During the session the panel shared their thoughts on the opportunities and challenges in these areas:

Stephen Phipson: “One advantage has been to heighten the awareness of digital possibilities. We need to dispel the myth about this being incredibly complicated and expensive for SMEs. The other opportunity is the UK is a world leader in innovation in manufacturing. We need support to scale up.”

Ruth Nic Aoidh: “There is a huge amount of innovation happening in the UK and we need to bring it to market. We took the Ventilator Challenge at McLaren; one of the things it highlighted was the ‘can do’ attitude that exists in UK manufacturing already. If we work cross sector, we can achieve anything and hopefully we will see more collaboration as well.”

Rina Ladva: “One of the challenges we faced at Microsoft was not just innovating but adopting and developing what technologies we already had. Microsoft was involved in the Ventilator Challenge as well. We brought together companies who were competitors in the past, to leverage data and collaborate. Some of the collaborators never met in person. Another benefit was that things were now getting done quicker.”

Phil Hadfield: “The pandemic has really emphasised the importance of adopting digital technologies with open standards to help manufacturing achieve greater flexibility. We’re having more virtual meetings, more remote maintenance and digital modelling; we’re using digital tools to accelerate production and improve cost efficiency and to minimise human interaction in the workplace. We also need to contextualise data from smart devices more and turn it into strategic information.”

Thierry Malleret: “The pandemic has given us a chance to reset our world. The race is on to a more sustainable future. It will be accelerated by rising activism of the younger generation. A new phenomenon is the combination of youth activism and investor activism and this will accelerate over the coming months and years.”

Jurgen Maier: “COVID-19 has, no question, accelerated the need for the adoption of digital technology. But the implementation has taken place in what I’d call ‘light tech’ areas, like remote monitoring and web conferences. In terms of ‘deep tech’,  less than 20% of manufacturers are really engaging with this more complex technology. We’re brilliant innovators in Britain but we’re not very good at being integrators of technologies.”

This question then led on to policy. In order for the UK organisations to remain competitive, they need to make incremental changes to attract the right skills, talent, tech and leadership. Currently, nearly half (46%) of British organisations fall into the worst performing category, posing a real threat to UK prosperity.

What should be the role of the government?

Another key discussion topic in the session was the role of the government. The panel concluded that in order to be successful, UK organisations need strong support from the government. They can help with access to the rights tools and resources or run fund initiatives to help enable the right set of digital and data skills. Most importantly, they need to incentivise organisations in the long-term to make these changes to support the UK recovery and emerge more prosperous and drive innovation.

Stephen Phipson: “ The government has done well short term with things like the job retention scheme. But over successive administrations, we have not been long term enough… Manufacturing is a long term game. The French and Germans are taking a much longer term view with regards to support. The UK recovery is going to take longer than government first estimated.”

Phil Hadfield: “I think the situation accelerates the need for manufacturing to train employees to leverage a digital future. Manufacturing also needs to have an ongoing dialogue with academic institutions and to make engineering more appealing and diverse. This all requires help from the government.”

Rina Ladva: “I think there is definitely more we can do with government support around common data platforms and data mechanisations. We’re hearing from our customers about getting the data strategy right. We also need to empower the next generation of skills and drive digital transformation quicker.”

Ruth Nic Aodih: “The government offered welcome support in the initial stages of the pandemic. But we’re not in recovery yet. I would ask two things of the government: firstly, we need to know what the medium to long term support will look like… Recovery is optimistically 18 months away. Secondly, I’d implore government to look at the supply chain… If we don’t support the suppliers and technology-leading SMEs, we’re going to see a massive impact on the bigger manufacturers. So I would say to government, what happens next?”

Thierry Malleret: “If the UK does not embrace wholeheartedly the fourth (digital) industrial revolution, it is doomed to fail. An industrial strategy or policy doesn’t give you a competitive advantage. But you do need one. Success will depend on things like how you relate to trading partners, how you harness the power of globalisation and the Brexit outcome. But we don’t know yet how Brexit will take shape. You can’t consider industrial policies in a silo; it has to relate to other circumstances.”

Jurgen Maier: “It’s not all doom and gloom; I think the situation will rally the industry, people will get incredibly passionate and, through innovation, we will find a way to get through this period. However, it would be incredibly helpful as an antidote to all of this, especially since we have Brexit on top of everything else, if we could learn more from Germany and France and inject a bit more of their long termism and their scale of investment.”

Creating a blueprint for UK competitiveness and innovation

A clear call to action from the panel’s industry experts is now is the time to build on our people’s skills and technology to drive innovation for not just recovery, but to create a competitive and exciting shared future for the UK.

This was emphasised in a recent study by Goldsmiths, University of London in partnership with Microsoft. It found that the UK economy could receive a £48 billion boost if companies leveraged digital technology to enable agile changes to employee and cultural transformation.

In the research, Clare Barclay, CEO of Microsoft UK, said: “UK organisations face a unique moment…The tech intensity that was starting to gather pace before the pandemic struck has become turbocharged – to keep up, leaders must act decisively and quickly. Small changes in approach to investment, people and technology can quickly boost the UK’s competitiveness, giving our economy the best chance of success in the post-COVID and post-Brexit era.”

To successfully navigate the current climate, and importantly thrive in the future, there is a need to deliver against four key areas:

• Talent
• Technology
• Future readiness
• The ecosystem.

Together, these four dimensions represent the key ingredients in any organisation’s future success.

In the research there was huge emphasis on the fourth area – the ecosystem and partnerships. It found that a collaborative approach, is absolutely essential to accelerate innovation and industry transformation, both at pace, and at scale. This is why Rockwell Automation and Microsoft are committed to working together to help customers deliver the right skills and technology to successfully navigate the current uncertain climate in manufacturing, and prepare as well as possible for the  new normal that is already emerging.

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About the authors

Rik joined Microsoft at the start of 2020, with responsibility for Microsoft’s strategy across manufacturing, energy and resources in the UK. He is Microsoft’s lead when working with regulators, industry bodies, industry partners, and our largest customers to ensure Microsoft enables the needs of industry. Since joining, Rik has become a board member in techUK’s Smart Energy & Utilities working group, techUK’s Digital Twin steering board, UK Research & Innovation Manufacturing Made Smarter board, and the BIM4Water Digital Skills steering group. Prior to Microsoft, Rik worked at Cisco for 13 years, with global lead roles in energy and resource industries, IoT and security, and digital transformation.

He has an MBA in international leadership and is currently studying for a Masters in Green Economy.

Phil studied with the Open University, where he gained his BSC (Hons) in Engineering, in 2000.

He joined Rockwell Automation in 2005 and has over 20 years of automation sales experience in a variety of different industries. He is responsible for overseeing continued growth of Rockwell Automation products, solutions and services in the UK, and leading the continued expansion of The Connected Enterprise principles that help its customers expand human possibility in the era of Industry 4.0.

A registered STEM ambassador he is passionate about enthusing the next generation of engineers, Phil has also recently been engaged across EMEA in a strategic role relating to the company’s investment into PTC.

Follow Phil on LinkedIn where he publishes his blogs and other company news, and posts regularly on issues most important for UK industry and its growing importance to the UK economy.

The post The future of manufacturing and innovation appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

By taking a people-first approach to returning to the workplace, organisations will drive better engagement from their employees in demonstrating that they are putting employee safety and wellbeing above all else.

Using tech to empower employee safety

Our workspaces need to be optimised for social distance, as well as resilience. Using technology to optimise the workforce is the best way to make it easy for them to do their best work and to create workplaces where employees feel safe and protected.

Our partners have been instrumental in helping organisations ensure an efficient return to work, while prioritising employee safety. Transparity is a great example of this as they’ve been at the forefront of helping customers respond to COVID-19, from helping transition to remote working at the start, to enabling a safe return to work as we begin to adjust to the new normal. At a recent hackathon, they created a no/low code app via Power Apps that helps improve employee health and wellbeing. Because the app is quick to build, you can implement it quickly across your factories and offices and it can also be customised to suit specific business needs and requirements.

Here are three ways you can use Transparity’s PowerApp to keep your employees safe and healthy when planning the return to work:

1.      Track symptoms with thermal imagery

Part of the ‘new normal’ is looking at your workplaces and how they can be adapted to social distancing, such as implementing clear guidance on social distancing in workplaces. Provide PPE, such as gloves, face shields, masks as well as hand sanitiser and handwashing stations. This will help show employees that their health is the priority when they return.

Take a look at some easy technological solutions too. For COVID-19, body temperature is a key indicator of infection. By placing thermal cameras at entrances, you can use Transparity’s app to track employee’s temperatures easily. If an employee has a higher than average temperature, they are sent additional information via the app. The employee’s line manager is also notified; and where needed, additional measures can be put in place.

2.      Identify risks through proactive monitoring

Part of empowering employees is to ensure their voices are heard. This can be as simple as asking employees to complete a self-assessment on a weekly basis. This proactive monitoring is one that enables an organisation to identify employees who may present with symptoms in the future.

3.      Maintain clear communication

The best way to keep employees engaged is to keep lines of communication open, listening, and implementing feedback, especially through times of change.

Regular virtual meetings, Q&As and even quick email messages are great ways to give updates, information, and connect with the workforce. For quick information, an app with Microsoft Power Virtual Agent built in lets users ask commonly asked questions and receive this information in real-time. It can link out to relevant company information and escalate to a team if an answer can’t be found.

Creating an employee-centric culture

By implementing technology that supports a safe return to work, manufacturers will show their employees that they’re leading people-first rather than profit-first. This will create a workforce of supportive, engaged employees who are confident to return to work in their best way.

Find out more

A Year of Change: Digital Transformation Trends in 2020 e-book

Building your first business app

The total economic impact of Power Apps

A roadmap to recovery: How manufacturers can return to work safely

About the author

Richard is responsible for leading Microsoft’s approach into the UK Manufacturing industry.

Richard joined Microsoft 14 years ago, where he has held various leadership roles across the business, the most recent of which is to establish and drive Microsoft’s strategy into the UK Industrial sector. He works closely with businesses and partners across automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing focussing on how digital transformation can enable them to achieve more.

He also works closely with associated industry bodies and consortia, supporting industry collaboration, growth and skills development.

Richard holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Accounting.

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