Small manufacturers keen to become big manufacturers face an acute dilemma. How can they scale up manufacturing without spending vast sums, while also retaining value for the company as well as control over production and product quality?
One answer, says Professor Toby Peters, founder and CEO of cooling equipment manufacturer Dearman, is technology licensing – handing over the manufacture and sale of technology to a third party for a fee: “There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but having taken a technology from its initial idea through the valley of death to proven commercial viability, merely earning a licensing fee can undervalue the effort that’s gone in.
“More significantly, it can risk the long-term future of the technology if the quality of the finished product being manufactured away from HQ falters even slightly.”
A second option is to invest piles of cash into developing manufacturing centres around the world. This enables technology developers to retain control and to maximise the long-term returns on their investment in R&D. However, as Peters points out: “In today’s climate, raising that cash is far from easy and it can be downright impossible when the technology has yet to fully prove itself.”
The Factory in a Box (FiaB) concept bridges the gap between these two extremes by providing prospective investors in target markets with a blueprint and all the necessary tools to set up a manufacturing process in their country.
Peters puts it like this: “It’s a bit like buying flat pack furniture – all the key components will be provided along with a clear set of instructions for how to put them together and use them.
“In this case though, rather than the box containing bits of painted MDF, it will include a validated technology, supply chain specifications or key suppliers in place, key elements of manufacturing infrastructure for specific elements to be made in country, but through a controlled process and the full process manual and teams to support establishment of the plant and training both on-site and back here in the UK.”
For Neil Rawlinson, strategic development director at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), the FiaB model involves developing self-contained, modular factory units that can be deployed almost anywhere in the world and managed remotely from the parent organisation: “This is a fundamentally new manufacturing concept, which would make it far easier for UK organisations to extend their presence in international markets while retaining control of their activities.”
This approach will help establish manufacturing quickly, efficiently and at lower risk. It will also allow technology developers to capture and monetise some of the investment they have made in establishing their own manufacturing processes by packaging and selling that know-how. And it is a business model that delivers jobs and supply chain engagement locally.
Industry 4.0 principles integral to FiaB enable the operation of a combination of physical manufacturing assets, connecting and communicating to the parent organisation via the internet.
Rawlinson again: “In the early stages, these factories can be modelled virtually during their design – models which are then used during real-time management of the units. A high degree of self-management and diagnosis would be built into the factory units.”
Alan Norbury, industrial central technology officer at Siemens, adds: “One part of Industry 4.0 is the ‘digital twin’. That means you have a virtual model – it can be a machine, a factory or a product – and then you have the physical twin. The benefit of that is that you can do parallel engineering… The point of that is that you accelerate innovation…
“If you use this digital twin approach (also known as cyber physical systems), you can take products to market a lot quicker because you take products through prototyping in the virtual world.”
So will FiaB give the UK an unassailable global advantage? Peters says: “I do think it has the potential to enable British technology developers to get their ideas and inventions into the global marketplace more quickly and more efficiently.
“If the UK can demonstrate leadership in the development of smart manufacturing processes and advanced tooling to accelerate getting new technologies to market then it also allows the country to retain more value from our exports.
“We have an opportunity to become the world leaders in technology creation and industrialisation, rather than necessarily having to manufacture complete systems here in the UK, which limits speed to market in a changing world.”
Rawlinson agrees: “It will certainly give UK manufacturers a competitive edge in their aspirations to expand outside the UK. However, other countries are working on similar concepts so there is something of a race to be the first to use this combination of technologies.”
And Dr Lina Huertas, technology manager intelligent automation and informatics at the MTC, sees a bright future for the FiaB approach: “It will give a massive advantage to the UK in two ways – one is being able to capitalise on markets outside of the UK. But, equally, what we are going to have is the first factory demonstrator for digital manufacturing or Industry 4.0 in the UK.
“It will be the largest demonstrator of a lot of technologies that are not out there in factories. So it is a key opportunity for UK manufacturing to see how these technologies work, how they generate business benefits and how they relate to their own challenges and opportunities.
What is Factory in a Box?
Factory in a Box (FiaB) is a project managed by the Coventry-based Manufacturing Technology Centre – part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult which is supported by Innovate UK.
FiaB is designed to help transform small and medium-sized UK manufacturing companies into digital factories. Backed by £10 million of government funding, it involves deploying custom-designed mini-factories into established manufacturers around the world.
These mobile factories, which can be shipped in a container, will use Industry 4.0 technology including smart sensors, super-fast broadband and big data to measure and control production processes remotely.
This should make it cheaper to set up stand-alone production facilities, while also giving UK companies the opportunity to establish manufacturing footprints in new markets relatively quickly.
Alan Norbury of Siemens points to another benefit of FiaB – a reduction in the carbon footprint: “You are manufacturing components or parts near to the location where they are required so you reduce the amount of transportation.”
The programme is scheduled to run for three years and the first demonstrator system should be available towards the end of year two or early into year three.
Toby Peters of Dearman concludes: “Using modern ‘internet of things’ technology it is quite conceivable that product can be manufactured simultaneously at multiple sites with quality monitoring taking place from base. Data from machine shop operations can be collated, analysed and disseminated via the cloud, producing real time advice and guidance for operators, be they in Birmingham, Brisbane or Bangalore.”
