Modular Offsite Construction and Digital Manufacturing event

Modular Offsite Construction and Digital Manufacturing

16 January 2019 9.00am – 4.30pm, AMRC Factory 2050

This one-day event attracted a capacity audience and was held jointly with Professor Ash Tiwari, University of Sheffield.

The event was aimed at suppliers to the modular construction and manufacturing industries in the Sheffield region and surrounding area (including Nottingham and Derby).

It showcased recent thinking on modular offsite construction and digital manufacturing, translating research findings for use in SMEs and in systems integration across the supply-chain. The event included presentations and breakout sessions that offered an opportunity to discuss emerging themes and points of particular relevance. There was also an opportunity to tour the AMRC Factory 2050. You can find the Agenda of the day here.

Discussions centred around ‘Modular Construction and SMEs’ and ‘Manufacturing and SMEs’ and highlighted opportunities for SMEs to upskill and benefit from a systems integration approach and digitally-enabled modular building supply chains.

Professor Jennifer Whyte from the Centre of Systems Engineering and Innovation at Imperial College opened the day by exploring how new tools can enhance productivity by integrating  activities across regional  supply  chains in digitally-enabled  modular construction, with the aim of enhancing productivity in the Sheffield City and Derby/Derbyshire/Nottingham/Nottinghamshire areas https://imperialcollegelondon.box.com/s/0s8b3a1bbkwifi5vlwt336ti17d9ax9p

Mark Farmer from AMRC followed with a presentation on why there is a need for change in construction and how this can offer opportunities for manufacturing SMEs in the construction sector (link to slides?).

After lunch, Lynn McGregor from Innovate UK discussed how innovative tools in digital manufacturing can benefit SMEs (link to slides?), pointing out that, subject to business case and match funding from industry, the government is prepared to invest over £120m to upskill a million industrial workers to make sure that digital technologies can be successfully exploited.

Professor Ash Tiwari from the University of Sheffield talked about his research on how to deliver step-change productivity in manufacturing by investigating and developing new techniques for digitisation of skill-intensive tasks in manufacturing processes. He also highlighted the benefits of remote real-time collaboration (link to slides?).

Last but not least, Gavin Hill, from AMRC,  introduced a project on legacy machine digitalisation. After a brief introduction and setting out what the main challenges are, he showed some practical demonstrators and projects (link to slides?).

The event included presentations and breakout sessions that offered an opportunity to discuss emerging themes and points of particular relevance. The breakout sessions provided an opportunity for the regional Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to highlight issues (e.g, procurement model, design process, life cycle management systems) and suggest solutions to support a collaborative supply chain for modular construction (e.g., new collaborative models for risk and investment management). The participant of the sessions had also the chance to brainstorm on the use of digital technologies (IoT, Big Data, BIM, VR) in modular construction.

The event was funded through Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) regional awards associated with the RAEng Professorships of Jennifer Whyte and Ash Tiwari, cosponsored by Laing O’Rourke and Airbus.

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Our upcoming event will showcase recent thinking on modular offsite construction and digital manufacturing, translating research findings for use in SMEs and in systems integration across the supply-chain.

Full details and agenda

Event and booking details
Where: AMRC Factory 2050, Sheffield Business Park
When: 9.00am to 4.30pm on Wednesday 16 January 2019.

To book your place please contact: g.cigala@amrc.co.uk, 0114 222 6661

This event is funded through Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) regional awards associated with the RAEng Professorships of Jennifer Whyte and Ash Tiwari, which are cosponsored by Laing O’Rourke and Airbus.