What do Formula One and Manufacturing have in common?

Posted on 25 Jul 2019 by Jonny Williamson

The high-octane world of Formula One isn't as far removed from the more traditional field of manufacturing as you might think. In fact, they share several key similarities beyond the obvious.

Manufacturers and Formula One teams are both trying to make sense of an ever-increasing volume of data and how that changes the way they behave. Both are also having to make case-by-case business judgements on a growing list of potential technology investments, while simultaneously trying to minimise disruption to their operation and their employees and maximise the opportunities.

The Manufacturer recently explored how these three themes – data, technology and people – are impacting Formula One with Matt Harris, Head of IT at Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, as well as the manufacturing sector more broadly with Ian Henderson, Chief Technologist at HPE.

DATA

One of the most striking similarities between manufacturing and the high-octane world of Formula One is how both are trying to marry up the unstructured insights and ‘gut feelings’ of their respective experts with more structured telemetry and analytics.

Click here to read how a successful F1 race team correlates driver instincts with hard data

VIDEO BELOW: What can businesses learn from the way Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport leverages data?

TECHNOLOGY

Modern manufacturers (and Formula 1 race teams) need real-time insights right where the action is. But how do you gain data-centre level compute power without the time involved with sending information to be analysed and the results returned?

As this article makes clear, the secret to winning is having an Edge

VIDEO BELOW: What can businesses learn from the way Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport approaches technology?

PEOPLE

What’s the real driver of a successful digital transformation? Fostering a culture where your employees are more engaged, informed, satisfied and, crucially, productive.

Advanced technologies aren’t replacing human roles but augmenting them, alleviating workers from repetitive, arduous, low-value tasks and allowing them to focus more of their time on creating value. Nowhere is this more evident than in the high-octane world of Formula 1.

Click here to discover how prioritising cultural change will accelerate your Digital Transformation

VIDEO BELOW: What can businesses learn from the way Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport empowers its people?

From smart manufacturing, to smart factory – to smart enterprise

With 85 years of production and engineering experience, HIROTEC is globally recognised as a premier auto parts manufacturer and supplier.

The business wanted to leverage Industry 4.0 innovations to tackle a perennial challenge: unplanned downtime. So, it paired an IoT platform from HPE partner PTC with HPE Edgeline systems, boosting its already formidable operations technology capabilities with cutting-edge predictive analytics.

Click here for the full story