UK manufacturing SMEs can now take advantage of a unique service that tailors essential Industry 4.0 adoption to their business reality, while delivering a tangible bottom line benefit.
LMAC Consulting are market leaders in Australasia and for the last five years have been the go-to agency, as the New Zealand Government especially strengthens its economy via efficiency, quality and process improvements based on the latest Industry 4.0 principles.
Consequently, LMAC were one of the first companies around the world to become certified assessors for Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI), which is the internationally recognised standard for Industry 4.0 planning and endorsed by the World Economic Forum.
LMAC CEO Alastair Crawford (who originally hails from the North West) was the first certified SIRI assessor for the UK – and having originally honed his skills and expertise in the world-class lean methodology environment of Toyota, is passionate about supporting our manufacturing sector’s take up and adoption of leading edge digital transformation and sustainability practices to cut costs.
Alastair explains: “Industry 4.0 principles and technology enable manufacturers to keep their advantage and grow in a market constrained by available skills. Often however, business leaders aren’t clear on where or how to start their journey and investment, so the LMAC focus is on proven organisational processes that are capable of delivering significant benefits and returns to the UK’s SME landscape in a scalable and pragmatic way.
“It needn’t cost a lot of money either, because we concentrate on the key SME issues of short term ROI and how it contributes to overall productivity. Digitally driven factories are the future of manufacturing and SME’s need to start making the transition to Industry 4.0 now, but it’s about starting with smaller ‘smart’ goals and then quickly scaling them once we have proven the concept.
“SIRI measures a business’ current maturity and prioritises the Industry 4.0 dimensions that will have the greatest impact on the business, aligned to its strategic priorities. Being a certified assessor also allows us to benchmark against other local and global manufacturing companies within any specific sector and against the wider manufacturing community. This is powerful as it allows you to see where you can make some quick gains. If others in your industry are more mature in a particular dimension, the technology is already commonplace and there is less risk /investment required.”
The outcome is a Smarter 4.0 roadmap and data analytics pathway with definitive focus areas that delivers measurable benefits towards priority KPI’s, primary costs and critical success factors – all without wasting precious resource and factoring in the change management issue that arise .
This in turn creates an aligned leadership team with a clear vision of how to adopt the right Industry 4.0 principles to increase competitiveness and take the company forward and in the right direction.
