Shoestring Digital Manufacturing

Shoestring's inventive, and practical, approach helps small and medium sized manufacturers embrace digitalisation one step at a time by using off-the-shelf technology to create practical low-cost, low risk digital solutions. The practical Shoestring process starts with a workshop in which a company selects a solution which benefits their business and specifies what it needs to do. The solution is designed by adapting a starter solution. Once a company has built the solution on site, they can deploy it alongside existing processes. After a couple of months the company reviews the impact of the solution, decides whether to improve or expand it or add another one. Shoestring solutions are low-cost and low-risk: a digital solution to an operational problem that typically uses components that cost under £300, is simple to deploy, works in parallel to existing processes. For example job tracking, process (eg temperature) monitoring. Any company can start immediately. No specific digital skills are required. You just need to appoint a champion with 'operational know how' to oversee the process and an implementer,'technical enthusiast keen to learn', to own the digital solution development. Shoestring delivers business benefits, such as improved efficiency, productivity, quality and/ or sustainability. It also develops a digitally-aware culture within the workforce and provides employees with hands-on experience using basic digital skills. Shoestring is shaped by industry, it evolved from an EPSRC-funded research project run by the University of Cambridge, with the University of Nottingham, supported by 55 partners working across the manufacturing industry. Shoestring will scale and be accessible to all; it is developing an online and regional support system, currently running regional pilots in Scotland, East of England and Western Australia, in association with business support organisations, HEIs, local governments and manufacturing companies.