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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION


What is ‘additive manufacturing’?


U


K manufacturing has suffered low levels of productivity growth for decades and investment is needed to remedy this. The Office for National Statistics reported that


the productivity gap compared to the other G7 economies in 2016 was 16.4%. As part of a coordinated programme


to address this gap BSI has joined with government, industry and academia to transform the prospects of the UK’s manufacturing sector by encouraging the uptake of digital technology. By doing this it hopes to boost productivity growth, create more highly- skilled jobs and enable more efficient, cleaner production systems.


Ben Sheridan


BSI supports the work of the Made Smarter Commission, co-chaired by Business Secretary Greg Clark and Siemens CEO Juergen Maier. The commission is tasked with developing the vision for the future of UK manufacturing and driving the digitalization of the sector. For UK manufacturers looking to remain competitive, digital manufacturing appears to offer many solutions, such as additive manufacturing (see right). In reality, for most manufacturers in the UK particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), digital manufacturing remains something they view with caution.


Ben Sheridan, Market Development


Manager, Manufacturing, explained why: “Making things to the right quality and specification and delivering them on time is a hard thing to do well. Many businesses will not invest in something that hasn’t been proven to


HOW INDUSTRIAL DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY (IDT) COULD TRANSFORM UK MANUFACTURING CLICK TO READ


work,” he said. There is also the issue of internet connectivity, “Manufacturers worry that if they open up their systems online it makes them vulnerable to cyber attack and puts their intellectual property at risk. Many manufacturers reckon 80% of their value is in their IP which gives them a competitive edge.”


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