The Manufacturer: Top 10 videos of 2019

Posted on 13 Jan 2020 by The Manufacturer

Manufacturing businesses continually face new and perennial challenges in making their businesses more advanced, agile and competitive. Fortunately, The Manufacturer has you covered.

From embracing new leadership and management expertise and identifying more cost-effective methods of production, to managing energy expenditure and implementing incremental changes in digitalisation requirements.

Here are the 10 video from 2019 our audience found the most insightful.

1. How Made Smarter helped Abbey Group invest in new technology to increase efficiency and profits

Liverpool-based Abbey Group had bought all the best new kit for its many successful engineering projects.

However, it struggled to reap the expected return on investment, until the Made Smarter North West Pilot worked with the company to bring all its planning and machine data into one digital stream of information and increase efficiency – and profits – by more than 50%.

2. The secret to a successful Digital Transformation? It’s not where to start but where to focus

GE Digital’s Deborah Sherry discusses the cultural and technical barriers to truly digitalising manufacturing, and shares an exciting example of how one manufacturer is using digital technologies to take its production to the next level.

3. What can businesses learn from the way Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport leverages data?

A single Formula One race weekend in 2019 will generate more data for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport than the whole of one race season 10 years ago.

With the team gathering such a high volume of information, describing it accurately is paramount. Head of IT, Matt Harris, explains how the race team makes sense of all the data available to them – not just for today, but for the future.

4. Can the US Navy’s elite Top Gun fighter squadron help transform UK manufacturing?

Retired US Navy top gun, Brian ‘Bru’ Brurud, served his country during several conflicts, including the Gulf War of 1990, and flew 99 combat missions, survived 17 Surface-to-Air missile attacks, and one emergency ejection.

An individual fighter ace and tough, determined leader, Bru redesigned US Naval air strategy for the 21st century before going on to found Check-6 – a performance leadership and gas processing company he founded in Oklahoma in 2007 comprised exclusively of carrier fighter pilots and Special Operations operatives.

The company’s goal is to help manufacturers understand the exponential benefits that can be achieved in productivity through their high performance training programmes.

5. All the action from Smart Factory Expo 2019

Europe’s largest digital manufacturing show returned to Liverpool in November, enabling the 5,490 attendees to discover the technology and meet the people shaping the future of advanced manufacturing.

Eight zones, 12 theatres, more than 200 world-class exhibitors and a dynamic ‘Innovation Alley’ all combined to help digitally-minded manufacturers achieve better business outcomes.

6. Manufacturers need to better control their energy risk management. Here’s how.

As technologies and solutions evolve faster in the energy space, energy is increasingly an opportunity for leading businesses to differentiate themselves by managing risk and taking advantage of new opportunities.

Richard Cave-Bigley, explains the three critical areas of risk manufacturers face, how organisations can successfully minimise them, and the benefit of having a partner like SSE Enterprise.

7. Apprenticeships – nailing the lies

Many parents and schools continue to misrepresent modern engineering apprenticeships as a second-best choice for young people.

The Manufacturer spoke to a group of young women apprentices from the Nissan Skills Academy, which works with thousands of young people every year to encourage STEM learning and technical apprenticeships.

They said they regard themselves as significantly better off than school contemporaries who went to university – they are taking degrees while earning a salary, for a start – and they have a much better chance of a well-paid job when they qualify.

8. Why manufacturers are migrating their enterprise applications to cloud

Rackspace’s Dave Hills shares his expert view on what a typical journey into the Cloud looks like and advises on what to focus on first.

9. The tools E.ON offers to provide the insight and visibility manufacturing businesses require

E.ON’s latest insight report – The Value of Energy – found that high energy prices are directly affecting the competitiveness of more than half (54%) of UK manufacturing businesses.

What’s worrying is that over one-in-five (13%) have ‘no idea at all’ about how their company buys its energy, and only slightly more (16%) have just ‘a limited knowledge’.

In today’s margin-driven world, Rob Wheatley explains how manufacturers can better manage their energy consumption with E.ON’s support.

10. What exactly is real-time visual configuration?

Configure One’s Austin Roche explains what visual configuration is, the business benefits it brings, and shares an exciting example of how one manufacturer is already using the technology to take its organisation to the next level.