Cost pressures dictate the need for smart solutions

These are challenging times for manufacturers but the MTA stands ready to do all it can to support its members. Its MACH 2024 exhibition will be dedicated to finding solutions to issues including ongoing supply chain disruption mounting energy costs and the desire for green manufacturing and improved skills levels.

Investing in the latest machinery has the benefit of maximising efficiency by improving productivity and reducing downtime. Improved functionality on next-generation equipment also offers the benefit of predictive maintenance schedules, thereby helping businesses plan more accurately how to manage maintenance cycles. Such benefits will be felt on a business’s bottom line and softens the return-on-investment equation. 

Maintenance concepts for businesses of all sizes 

However, such options are not available to every business. Investment decisions have to be weighed carefully against the benefits they offer a business. For such businesses therefore, prolonging the life of current machinery is more beneficial in helping to mitigate costs and sustain productivity. In this scenario, accurate and effective maintenance cycles grow in importance.

The increasing use of digitalisation and its associated technology continues to characterise today’s manufacturing sector. Down the years, the MACH exhibition has shown how data generated by machine learning is having a hugely beneficial effect on the ability to accurately interpret maintenance cycles. Being able to predict when maintenance is required rather than having to react to breakdowns has helped sustain many businesses at a time when security is needed most    .

There are many practical steps businesses can take to improve performance. For example, optimising the layout of a machine shop prior to equipment being installed can improve workflow, as can identifying where raw materials are being introduced into the production process. The shortest distance between two points is always a straight line so making workflows as linear as possible will invariably help speed up production processes, with a subsequent impact on costs.

Efficiency will also be improved by identifying which processes can be automated and which cannot. Automation invariably decreases the number of workers on the shopfloor, in turn freeing them up for upskilling and added value tasks.

Ensuring full connectivity is available will also improve cycle times. Digital manufacturing technologies rely on connected systems and processes. This helps create an integrated manufacturing operation, incorporating everything from design to production, as well as predictive maintenance scheduling. 

Temperature control is an essential part of any production operation, therefore effective heating and cooling systems must be in place to ensure optimal production efficiency can be maintained. Businesses need to consider what sustainable solutions might be available as these could be more cost efficient. 

Identifying smart solutions 

Sustainability and green manufacturing techniques will be key themes of MACH 2024, as will establishing cost-effective smart solutions to ongoing work cycles. These solutions can be as simple as identifying the best location for power and data points so they are easily accessible and to ensure that equipment can easily be added at a later stage should this prove necessary. Having to relocate power and data points at a later stage will incur additional costs, often at the most inconvenient times. 

Determining in advance product life cycles will help with retooling costs and component compatibility. Data extracted from connected systems will be useful here, enabling revisions to design specifications and, future maintenance cycles.

Creating a digital twin of the production operation based on expected workflows will help to identify the best way of maximising production efficiency. Flexibility is key to ensure any changes can be implemented without disruption to work cycles.

Effective modelling and process simulations will improve the quality of production process. Big Data is useful in helping to improve decision making, while generating cost savings, reducing the time a product takes to reach market and creating an efficient, connected process capable of anticipating a range of variables, especially when it comes to maintenance cycles.

Reducing costs via digitisation 

The array of technical solutions available to help manufacturers achieve optimal and cost-effective production operations is today broader than ever. The emergence of new technologies such as Robotics, 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing, the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Big Data, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Cybersecurity are all important aspects of Advanced Manufacturing and key to optimising modern manufacturing processes.

All these technologies will be evident when the doors of MACH 2024 open at the National Exhibition Centre next April. As show organiser, the MTA is keen to see the wider adoption of these new technologies and in the case of Additive Manufacturing, has taken major strides to advocate the use of the methodology by bringing the only trade association dedicated to the technology under its wing.

AMUK is specifically designed for companies working with Additive and 3D printing technology - such as materials suppliers, design services, machine suppliers or post processing services. The association is actively promoting the transformational technologies that are increasingly having a disruptive impact on traditional methods of production, enabling businesses to develop new and better products at lower cost and with greater sustainability. 

The Engineering Supply Chain Show

Maximising the capabilities of the UK’s manufacturing supply chain and its highly skilled sub-contractors is also a key issue for the MTA and fellow cluster member, the Engineering Industries Association (EIA). So much so, that MACH 2024 will the launch of a new dedicated exhibition, the Engineering Supply Chain Show, which will be co-located with the more established event.

This new exhibition is for the main part, a response to the immediate needs of UK manufacturers and engineers to source new business. It also brings together a wider audience focused on capacity in the UK subcontracting and supply chain sectors.

It is the event where world-class suppliers, exclusively in the UK engineering and manufacturing supply chain, exhibit and is dedicated to helping buyers looking to source precision sub-contracting products and services from UK-based suppliers and has grown due to the need to expand the UK Supply Chain Zone, which was always a key part of the main MACH exhibition.

For 2024, the ESC show will include new specialist zones, with a strong focus on energy efficiency in the engineering supply chain, machine and equipment safety, motion control and sensors used in manufacturing.

The business case for sustainability 

It will feature a strong message around greener manufacturing, with UK-sourced goods and services helping to reduce goods miles. It is by no means the only initiative being promoted by the MTA for the MACH event. In addition to bringing the EIA into its trade association cluster, it has done the same for AMUK, the only UK association dedicated to the advanced technology of Additive Manufacturing. 

It is no coincidence that the most efficient and sustainable production operations will be the ones producing the least amount of scrappage. The cost-effective technology facilitates short production runs and prototyping, offering many sub-contractors the opportunity to add a further string to their bow and increase their range of services at minimal cost.

"Being owned by the industry, for the benefit of the industry, the MTA’s primary aim is to help and support the sector we represent to do business, boosting the UK’s manufacturing performance and enabling UK PLC to compete at a global level. Manufacturing is the heartbeat of the UK economy and growing a resilient manufacturing industry has never been more important," said James Selka, CEO at the Manufacturing Technologies Association. 

"By 2024 we must all hope brighter times are ahead and as the industry looks to shape its own destiny, the MTA and EIA stand ready to assist manufacturers in any way they can. We expect MACH 2024 to make a positive contribution to future prosperity and we urge the engineering and manufacturing community to embrace opportunity and support the event by signing up to exhibit now."

The Manufacturing Technologies Association

Tel: 020 7298 6400

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.mta.org.uk