Digitalisation in Manufacturing - reflections on the event

Some reflections from my visit to Sbarc yesterday.

I ventured from Pembrokeshire to Cardiff yesterday, driving up in the morning, for a very interesting afternoon, hosted by Wales Cyber Innovation Hub at the sbarc|spark building.

Before I delve into the event itself, and some reflections on the topics raised, I would like to say a big thank you to the Pembrokeshire road management team, who completed the new traffic lights just outside of Pembroke Dock EARLY, and opened them early as well!

These have been adding 20 minutes on to many people’s drive out of the county, so phew – especially as the other way has even more major road works going on at the A40.

It has been a big transition from Oxfordshire to Pembrokeshire, not without its challenges, but we have embraced, and loved it. There is a thriving small business network at The CoLab Group UK , who provide some excellent networking events that has resulted in new friends, new clients and new partnerships.

I have decided to up my efforts to get more cyber collaboration and education going in the area we now call home. I feel there is a definite market for it here, especially with the number of farms, holiday parks and leisure businesses looking to digitalise and innovate.

As one of the panel members said yesterday “Why do we need to digitalise? We want to stay in business, it’s that simple”. Some very wise words from the excellent Steve West CEng MIMechE , Director of The Pudding Compartment, a North Welsh SME success story.

Why do we need to digitalise? To stay in business, it's that simple. Steve West, The Pudding Compartment

That nicely segways into talking about the event at the sbarc|spark building.

The event itself was hosted on the ground floor, with an open area and a lecture theatre. I really liked the design of the space, and having a mix of chairs and benches in the theatre was a great touch.

 With a breakout lab area for demonstrations, some tables outside the room itself and plenty of space to stand and network, it really worked well.

The event was attended by a good mixture of manufacturing, cyber and academic people, which made for a great and very lively panel session, which definitely didn’t need a microphone 😊

The day was kicked off by Prof. Pete Burnap , Director of the Cyber Innovation Hub and Pete has a lovely style about him, which puts everyone at ease. He also, and this was a thread which ran through many of the speakers, emphasised the fact that there were many more experts in the room than him on the topic.

I think it is very noticeable and positive for everyone when the host edifies the speakers, and the attendees. The challenge of ensuring that digitalisation in the manufacturing sector is done in a way that provides technical solutions without sacrificing the need for operational resilience and delivery will take many skillsets. There is no easy one-size-fits-all solution.

The opening keynote was done by Rab Scott from the AMRC Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre and acted as a great scene-setter for the rest of the sessions. Especially his discussion on The Arsenal of Venice.

His talk on manufacturing through the lens of past centuries was both fascinating and highly relevant to today’s challenges. His presentation on the Arsenal of Venice, and the production line manufacturing concept they implemented in the 16th Century has many parallels in the automotive and aerospace world which I am more familiar with.

One thing I was personally pleased to see was his example of the inspection drones used by Airbus around the A320, a project I am very familiar, having been at Airbus Innovation Works at the time the drones were first being researched for that purpose.

The session then moved on to the panel discussion, which as I said, was lively.

That’s great!

We have all been at these events where everyone on the panel agrees with the same basic points and just uses the time to either make themselves sound more important, or try and squeeze their product/solution sales pitch in, without being too obvious. (tip: You are being obvious, don’t do it).

I won’t go into what each individual covered, but overall the threads that I picked up were;

• The time-cycles for refresh, and return-on-investment between Manufacturing Equipment and IT differ wildly, and a conversation needs to be had about how to handle that
• In some cases local manufacturing bypass IT and just buy stuff to solve local challenges, which opens up attack vectors
• We need the UK to step-up its efforts to have cyber equipment certifications published and adhered to
• One barrier is that suppliers are happy to standardise, as long as people go with their standard, not their competitors, which dissuades coopetition
• More needs to be done to help people talking “technical solutions” to learn the language of “manufacturing”, and vice-versa

One area of feedback I would give is that the questions were all posed by the facilitator from a list of pre-selected ones. This meant no time for questions from the floor and I think adding that extra layer of interaction with the audience can add real value. Not only does it allow for questions that might challenge more the speakers, it also makes the audience feel more involved, rather than just sitting and listening.

An area where the panel were particularly lively was around buying digitalisation hardware to help manufacturing process. This certainly was an area of much discussion when I was at Airbus and Siemens as well.

In most larger companies, the factory owner is responsible for the main KPIs – cost, quality and production line deliverables. His potential bonus or part of his salary is geared around making sure up-time time is kept at the maximum, whilst costs are kept as low as possible.

This makes it hard sometimes to accept newer technologies, especially if there is an uncertain view on the long-term viability and life of the solution, compared to the very long cycles of Cost/ROI that operate in traditional manufacturing. If something is working, why take the risk of breaking it?

Food & Beverage is a huge manufacturing sector for Wales, and it was highlighted how digitalisation and innovation is key to their survival, against outside competitors. However, the difference is that the sector is filled, in the main, with SMEs. In a smaller factory setting, even relatively small purchases digital equipment of under £100 can make a big difference to costs.

The downside of this was that inserting these cheap devices into the value chain also adds a potential attack vector, especially on data collectors that are internet enabled.

It was refreshing to see that both sides of the discussion made their points and could clearly see the value in working together to ensure the balance between productivity and security was judged correctly.

Next came a short break for networking, which was very useful and well planned by the organisers. Organisers sometimes neglect the value of allowing discussions during the day, and not just at the start & end. In can inform and even drive the debates better when reacting to things said in previous sessions. Too many times you have a thought after presentation 1, but lose the thread or relevance by the time you get to presentation 6.

The session re-started with a talk by some of the people behind the training courses that the Cyber Innovation Hub provides.

I really liked the “chilli model” from the National Cyber Security Centre they have adopted for the training. One thing that scares a lot of potential SMEs from understanding more about how they can be cyber secure is the thought they might need a PhD to understand it. By giving each course a chilli rating, it is easy for people to see where they can begin, and where they can progress.

Next were two presentations from start-ups from the hub’s Venture Building Programme.

I first met both companies when I was lucky enough to visit the amazing The Alacrity Foundation UK back in May. They were getting ready to all travel down to London for InfoSec, where they were on-stand for the event.

The nature of an intensive 12-month venture programme, including all the wrap around support reminded me very much of Airbus Foundation Wales, which we launch some years ago.

I really like the immersive yet guided nature of it and both companies showed they had really matured their pitches and gave great presentations.

Max Stephenson from Invenode talked about a new tool to help with risk management, and used the example of Fukushima to paint a picture of how it could be used.

Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) is an essential area in all aspects of security & manufacturing and this tool shows real promise.

Lewys Davies and Mariia Semenenko from Oxzen Cyber spoke about the work they have done in making cybersecurity accessible and affordable for all.

I really like the simplicity of their message, as well as the innovative messaging style they have developed.

They discussed the reality that many SMEs find ensuring good cyber-hygiene can be too expensive and technically complex. They are developing a “risk-appropriate” simple, accessible, and affordable all-in-one platform aimed at spreading impactful security measures to SMEs.

As they put it - Bridge existing gaps, and build new bridges

A lot of SMEs start on the road to cyber-hygiene through the UK Cyber Essentials Scheme – but this can be daunting for those without technical knowledge. By assessing an organisation's needs and automating technical checks, they aim to simplify the entire journey with clear, jargon-free instructions, error-checking and real-time feedback, ensuring compliance without the headache.

With more networking time at the end, complimented with fizz and nibbles, plenty of people stayed around to discuss the day.

Alas, I had to depart early, as I had a very rainy 3 hour drive home ahead of me, but that is the joy of living in Pembrokeshire!

Many thanks to everyone at the event and the organisers for a great afternoon.

Lewys Davies and Mariia Semenenko