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Ahmad Beltagui explains how universities can help SMEs get on the path to digital transformation
The digital revolution and all its associated hype can be overwhelming for manufacturers, especially SMEs. In turbulent and challenging times, making sense of the futuristic possibilities and technologies seems like an unrealistic luxury. Working with the right universities, particularly through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership( KTP) programme can help you make sense of, and get value from, digital technology.
By now, everyone has heard about the fourth( or is it fifth?) industrial revolution. A wonderful world of fully automated, end-to-end order fulfilment with gleaming factories running like clockwork, where robots and artificial intelligence( AI) do all the work you hate. While this vision excites academics( and technology vendors), it often seems out of touch with the reality of running a manufacturing business. Cutting through hype, digital data supports manufacturing processes through three transformations:
1. Physical to virtual- digitizing physical activities and resources enables visibility, access and ease of sharing data, e. g. sensors or Radio Frequency ID tags convert movement of goods or performance of machines into data that can be shared and analyzed.
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