Achieving Low-Cost Industrial Digitalisation for SMEs

The main driver for industrial digital systems developments over the last 30 years has been improved functionality rather than cost. Given the large number of outstanding challenges this has been a logical direction to take and in the last 10 years Industry 4.0 has provided a framework for bringing many of these developments to fruition. But a limited focus on cost has meant that many industrial companies - especially small ones - do not have sufficient budget to add digital solutions to their operations. The field of low-cost industrial digitalisation which has emerged over the last ten years in which cost is given a higher priority than functionality. This talk will discuss the meaning, scope and applicability of low-cost digital solutions and argues that a systematic approach to their specification, design and deployment can be effective in increasing the confidence of industrial organisations in applying them. The so called Digital Shoestring approach developed at Cambridge will be introduced as an example and case studies from manufacturing and logistics will provide examples of the way in which such an approach can applied.