Exclusive Factory Tours to demonstrate 4IR in action

Posted on 16 Oct 2017 by Jonny Williamson

Registered Smart Factory Expo visitors have the unique chance to get behind the scenes and see applied digital innovation first-hand.

The Evoque being manufactured at Halewood. Photography attributed to JLR.
The Range Rover Evoque being manufactured at Halewood – image courtesy of Jaguar Land Rover.

For the first time, Smart Factory Expo is heading to Liverpool – a city set to see 22% growth in advanced manufacturing over the next 10 years and where a 34% increase in productivity has seen the city leading the way for UK manufacturing.

Registered Smart Factory Expo delegates have the opportunity to visit Liverpool City Region manufacturers and innovation hubs for FREE – with tours taking place on Tuesday 14 November and Friday 17 November (the days immediately before and after the Expo).

Registration opens today (October 16) for Factory Tours and places are offered on a first-come first-served basis.

Confirmed Factory Tours include:

Jaguar Land Rover, Halewood

Liverpool is birthplace of the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport, both of which are produced at Halewood.

The tour will give you a flavour of Jaguar Land Rover vehicle manufacturing, with an expert guide providing an overview of the production process to specific customer orders. This will concentre on one area of the build process, namely Trim and Final Production.

Dates/Times available: 14 November at 09:00, 10:30, 13:00 and 14:30

Duration: 1 hour 30 mins

Restrictions: All limbs must be covered and appropriate footwear must be worn. No photography is allowed in the factory. Please note that the tour requires a substantial amount of walking.


Sensor City

Take a tour of the new purpose-built innovation hub offering start-ups and existing companies the technical expertise, business support and international platform needed to collaborate, fund and promote sensor solutions and IoT to a global market.

Bridging both industry and academia, Sensor City facilitates connectivity and accelerates progress, helping partners to capitalise on the growing sensor revolution and develop concepts into prototypes with speed and accuracy.

Delegates will be offered a tour of this specialist facility to see first-hand how sensor technologies are facilitating the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), and hear from like-minded professionals and companies how sensor technologies have improved products, processes and efficiencies.

Dates/Times available: 14 November at 11:00 or 15:00 & 17 November at 11:00 or 15:00

Duration: 1 hour


Sci Tech Daresbury

Delegates will be able to visit one of the most exciting innovation campuses in Europe and a global leader in the deployment of industrial digitisation throughout industry. Sci-Tech Daresbury is home to more than 100 high-tech companies employing over 500 people in areas such as advanced engineering, digital/ICT, biomedical and energy and environmental technologies.

Delegates will visit:

  • The Virtual Engineering Centre delivers innovative Digital Engineering solutions to industry, through academic research and the latest scientific and technological infrastructure. It helps organisations to deliver their digital strategies, with the key aim of enhancing capability and transform business performance and competitiveness – it achieves this through the evaluation, application and adoption of digital tools and techniques. Companies, including SMEs who work with the VEC gain access to a leading centre in: advanced modelling and simulation, autonomous systems and robotics infrastructure, virtual test beds and immersive visualisation.
  • The Hartree Centre transforms UK competitiveness by accelerating the adoption of high performance computing, big data and cognitive technologies. Hartree has partnerships with many organisations such as IBM and Unilever, and applies the most technically advance high performance computing, data analytics and machine learning innovations from the research community and partners. This allows the Hartree Centre to address real life challenges and deliver transformative gains in performance, innovation and time to market for UK industry. Services include collaborative projects, research/Invention projects, software development and optimisation, platform as a service and training and skills.  The facilities, high performance computing, big data analytics clusters, cognitive computing platforms, energy efficient platforms, software and visualisation suites.
  • Campus Technology Hub, this purpose built engineering facility enables businesses, universities and research organisations to work in partnership to tackle engineering challenges through rapid-prototyping. See how 3D printing technology can be applied to medical, automotive, aerospace, electronics and building construction. The CTH also eliminates the need to develop, buy or pay prohibitively high prices to use engineering R&D capabilities as there is an impressive array or tech, equipment and expertise. CTH offers laboratory space for ‘proof of concept’ projects, high-specification equipment, flexible power, network and benching, test equipment and flexible workspace with in-house expertise.
  • Techspace One is a laboratory and office building for companies from sectors such as biomedical, materials, process technology and clean technology with approximately 10 to 50 staff. The building provides high quality facilities for science and technology companies developing or upscaling their business.  The three-storey multi-let building provides a combination of 33,000 sqft of wet and instrumentation laboratories, together with grade A office accommodation. The three individual uses are separated on a floor-by-floor basis.

Dates/Times available: 14 November  at 14:00 & 17 November at 10:00

Duration: 2 hours


Unilever

Details being announced soon


More information here.

What is Smart Factory Expo?

The UK’s biggest digital manufacturing show!

Liverpool and the North West’s advanced manufacturing is in the spotlight as the region plays host to 4,000 manufacturers from across the country at The Manufacturer Smart Factory Expo.

The UK’s largest standalone Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Expo coincides with the government’s much anticipated Industrial Strategy, and features:

  • Dedicated Exhibition Zones – Industrial Automation, Digital Transformation, Smart Factories, Industrial Internet
  • Free Conference content – Close to 100 presentations from world-class manufacturers and technology experts over two days
  • Innovation Alley – lifting the lid on the UK’s manufacturing tech start-up scene
  • Hack & Pitch – real engineers, tackling real problems, in real time!

Register for Smart Factory Expo