Smart Engineering Design - Tech Innovation Challenge

Smart Engineering Design - Tech Innovation Challenge

I recommend you investigate this very interesting innovation initiative for specialist Information Technology service providers: https://ter.li/cs51an 

IBM and Rolls-Royce are offering a golden opportunity for those with expertise applicable to systems design and manufacturing data analytics.

They are seeking “the perfect IT Service Provider” to optimise Rolls-Royce Defence design processes, helping them to improve their Right First-Time manufacturing performance. They’re inviting entries to this challenge from such specialist companies, whether currently known to IBM and/or Rolls-Royce Defence or not. They’re especially keen to encourage smaller, founder-managed businesses in this space.

Rolls-Royce design engineers want to quantify the impact of their design approaches on the manufacturing process – specifically, to reduce design iteration times and the manufacturing costs of new components. The chosen solution will be a paid Proof of Concept, deployable internally by Rolls-Royce.

The winning solution will use existing data together with live data feeds from manufacturing processes. It should:

  • Extract insight from manufacturing data using AI techniques and technologies
  • Identify which of these insights impact right-first-time manufacture
  • Complement the existing design software (Siemens NX)
  • Combine design boundary conditions and manufacturing insights to create an initial design for a component
  • Use the Cloud to provide access to data and functionality to ensure productivity & profitability

The winning solution must be deployable at scale across multiple teams and it may eventually be deployed in Rolls-Royce beyond the Defence sector.

Your proposition must take advantage of IBM’s cutting-edge technology and apps, such as AI/ML, Manufacturing Automation and Digital Knowledge Banks.

There is a substantial developer credit available to enable access to any of the 152 managed services and software solutions within the IBM Cloud Catalogue, and you must use at least one such API or service.

This is clearly an opportunity to engage with Rolls-Royce and IBM to showcase your capabilities - and potentially move forward to at-scale deployment with a world-class business. As I’ve already said the winning PoC will be a paid project, and the onward deployment could well be a further serious commercial proposition.

Rolls-Royce has a proven history of using cutting-edge and environmentally clean technologies, and of engaging with best-in-class partners to deliver future digital technology capabilities, creating value from disruptive and innovative execution.

The winning proposal with be selected by a “Dragon’s Den” style process during the week of the 24th February. This will involve a pitch and demonstration of short-listed solutions to a RR & IBM executive panel, who will choose 1 winner.

As I say, I suggest that you consider this unique opportunity if you have Manufacturing and/or Design Technology innovation skills - together with disruptive thinking invoking leading edge technologies.

The competition is now open, and your entry must be in place by midnight on 31st January 2020.

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