Sam Maxwell & Rob Bowland, Cohort 2018
On Wednesday, 13 November we had the chance to visit the Smart Factory Expo at the Liverpool Exhibition Centre alongw with Mo-anna Tucker from our SELA Cohort. Our aim was to understand the current innovations in industry surrounding data and the Internet of Things, to build context for our second year SELA project. This year our project is based on data-driven manufacturing. We are looking to show how data can accelerate improvement in manufacturing processes; for example, performing quality control on the machining of very high tolerance jet engine blades.
Smart Factory Expo brings together companies from across Europe to
showcase the latest developments in technology: from Cybersecurity to
Additive Manufacturing, all the technologies involved in Industry 4.0
can be found here. As well as finding the giants of the industry –
Siemens, PTC and Autodesk, to name a few – start up businesses
developing very innovative and targeted technologies can also be found
at the Expo (along “Innovation Alley”). Ultimately, this was a fantastic
event to get some fresh ideas on how data can drive continuous
improvement in a business, and to build contacts to help with our
project.
My aim with this blog post is to share some of the great ideas and technologies we found at the event. So, here are our highlights of Smart Factory Expo 2019.