Cyber resilience in manufacturing has become an uptime KPI. When systems fail, the question is not what policy do we have. It is how fast can we recover, and can we restart safely on a live line. Many firms invest heavily in prevention. Yet they still struggle when reality hits. The gap is not technical. …
AI in manufacturing is not a silver bullet. It does not fix messy processes, unclear decisions, or weak standard work. In fact, it tends to make those problems run faster, in the wrong direction, with more confidence. You are already running two jobs at once: keep today’s output stable and change the system producing it. …
It was the last night shift before Christmas. The line was still running, the emails were still pinging, and a tired manufacturing leader was walking the factory one more time before heading home. Let’s call them Eben Scroggs (or should that be Ebenezer Scrooge?). Dickensian Christmas or not, Eben’s head was full of the same questions many leaders …
Read more “A Manufacturing Christmas Carol – Ghosts of Transformation Past, Present and Yet to Come”
We’re pressing pause on Beyond the Buzzwords blog for a few weeks. And honestly, we think more leaders should do the same. It’s easy to fill every week with back-to-back calls, endless firefighting, and half-finished strategy decks. But real progress, the kind that drives your manufacturing performance, often needs space to breathe. Time away from the laptop. …
Read more “Manufacturing Trends 2025: What Factory Leaders Really Care About”
AI in manufacturing ROI is no longer a theoretical conversation. It’s a litmus test. Every manufacturing executive I speak to is saying the same thing: “Don’t give me a lab experiment. Show me something that works, and makes money.” That shift is critical. For years, smart manufacturing efforts got stuck in what many call “pilot purgatory”. …
Read more “AI in Manufacturing: How to Prove ROI and Earn Executive Buy-In”
If you’ve ever tried scaling industry 4.0 in manufacturing plant, you’ll recognise this story. A new system goes live on one line. It runs well. You get a bump in uptime or energy efficiency. Everyone’s optimistic. The pilot proves that Industry 4.0 works. But then it fizzles. Rollout plans get deprioritised. Budget discussions go quiet. …
Read more “Scaling Industry 4.0 in Manufacturing: From Pilots to ROI at Scale”
It’s not every week the UK Government issues a sweeping 10-year plan to transform our economic future, and puts manufacturing at the heart of it. But with the release of the UK Industrial Strategy 2025 and the accompanying Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, this week marks a significant shift for British industry. The publication of the UK Industrial Strategy …
Read more “What the New UK Industrial Strategy 2025 Means for Manufacturing Businesses”
A Wake-Up Call, Not a Whitepaper If you’ve been wondering how to start digital transformation in manufacturing, really start, not just talk about it, the latest 2025 SIRI Global Benchmarking Report offers the most useful reality check you’ll read all year. The 2025 Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) report by the International Centre for Industrial Transformation (INCIT) is the most comprehensive …
Read more “How to Start Digital Transformation in Manufacturing: Lessons from the 2025 SIRI Report”
At the Radical Collaboration event in London on the 16th May, it became clear that incremental improvements won’t fix the deep inefficiencies in how we work across the manufacturing ecosystem. What’s needed now is a fundamental reset, one that breaks down silos, rethinks relationships between manufacturers and their partners, and creates the conditions for transformation to …
Read more “Radical Collaboration in Action: The Quorum Principle in Manufacturing”
Democratising Technology for Mid-Market Manufacturers: Where to Start for Maximum Impact Every day, manufacturing leaders face intense competition, rising costs, and fast-changing customer demands. For mid-sized manufacturers, these challenges can feel even more acute. Yet, democratising technology for mid-market manufacturers through strategic adoption of affordable technologies can significantly level the playing field, delivering impactful productivity …
Read more “Democratising Technology for Mid-Market Manufacturers: Where to Start for Maximum Impact”