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Programme

Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub

Digitising the supply chain

Supply chains cover nearly every industry from life sciences through to automotive to energy and utilities. As move forwards through the fourth industrial revolution our supply chains and the digitisation of these becomes ever more critical.

A vital part of industrial businesses, these supply chains are under immense pressure. They account for:

  • 50-70% of a manufacturing businesses costs
  • Over 80% of most industrial companies CO2 emissions are created through the supply chain
  • 5 to 1 ratio of employment within manufacturing

The Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub is a digital innovation ecosystem that empowers individuals and organisations to work together to make supply chains smarter.

The Hub will transform UK manufacturing by accelerating digital innovation – making supply chains more efficient, resilient and sustainable. We’re harnessing the power of UK manufacturing, bringing businesses and researchers together to develop new solutions, tackling sector specific and industry wide challenges, and building a powerful UK supply chain community.

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Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub

The Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub is led by Digital Catapult, the UK authority on advanced digital technology, funded by UKRI through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, as part of the national Made Smarter innovation activities. It is delivered in collaboration with the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult, National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and TWI Ltd.

Created to tackle challenges faced by the UK’s manufacturing supply chains, the Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub sets out to accelerate commercial integration of advanced and emerging digital technologies across manufacturing supply chains.

Over the next four years, the programme partners will work with technology providers, research organisations and academics up and down the country to develop a globally competitive, resilient and sustainable digitally enabled manufacturing supply chains. The project aims to help manufacturers integrate advanced digital technologies, leading to improved data sharing and more informed analysis, meaning manufacturers are able to spot bottlenecks in supply chains, reduce waste and boost efficiencies.

Flagship projects

In partnership with UK manufacturers and universities, the Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub will deliver a number of flagship projects to boost existing expertise, create regional centres of excellence and ongoing efforts across the sector to accelerate commercial integration of industrial digital technologies with these flagship projects:

  • Logistics Living Lab: Led by Digital Catapult, to explore and develop delivery resource collaboration to tackle the costly and unsustainable “last mile” of delivery.
  • CMBEE: Led by the High Value Manufacturing Catapult and supported by NPL, to create a collaborative and ultra-secure digital testbed that maximises innovation across multiple tiers of supply-chain networks in the Tempest defence programme.

Creating a digital supply chain hub

The programme will also develop a virtual and inclusive platform that coordinates the integration and adoption of industrial digital technologies by establishing a virtual digital supply chain hub, and exemplar projects addressing key challenges within the supply chain through the development, standardisation and sharing of knowledge.