Resource Efficient Supply & Manufacuturing Environment (RESuME)

Tender description

The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS) is a group of industry-led manufacturing research and development facilities where research, industry and the public sector work together to transform skills, productivity and innovation to attract investment and make Scotland a global leader in advanced manufacturing. NMIS will: > Increase productivity by reducing barriers to innovation > Stimulate investment and increase manufacturing competitiveness > Catalyse job creation and strengthen supply chain links > Inspire and attract talent and equip current and future workforces with the skills they and businesses need > Work with manufacturing businesses of all sizes in multiple sectors, providing benefits across the whole of Scotland. The National Manufacturing Institute Scotland’s RESuME testbed is intended to be a sandbox environment to support the development of Scotland’s manufacturing sector by providing expertise, capability and resources for digital transformation. A requirement has arisen for support in developing the required technology roadmap. The Resource Efficient Supply & Manufacturing Environment (RESuME) testbed will underpin the NMIS Digital Factory. The RESuME testbed is modelled after the ISA-95 structure that sets out the communication and interface protocols for automation in manufacturing environments. The model adopts a hierarchical architecture to separate layers of communications, from sensors systems embedded within machinery through to enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. To support this NMIS, requires a detailed roadmap of the technology required to create a ISA95 compliant connected digital smart factory, along with market analysis detailing short-, medium and long-term trends in technology and supply within this specific sector. The roadmap must account for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 approaches, along with proposals for digitising manufacturing data acquisition processes (e.g. moving from manual data harvesting from HMIs to fully online networked solutions) which lead to data-driven decision making. The roadmap must be supported by detailed IIoT and network architecture and must consider the current estate and infrastructure as a starting point, and build upon our manufacturing hardware and software solutions to achieve live data acquisition from all machinery and equipment located across NMIS sites. Connectivity solutions for machinery and equipment can be supported by additional edge devices, external sensors, gateways and other enabling solutions. The roadmap must also detail the necessary developments and acquisitions required to build on the existing base to create a live instance of the future factory vision. On top of identifying gaps in the NMIS technology infrastructure, the roadmap must highlight key gaps in current thinking and ensure that the vision of the digital factory is clear, ambitious, future proof and World Leading.