• Can you give an overview of your conference topic/session? Why is this an important topic to discuss?

I will be discussing the importance of building cross sector collaborative ecosystems.

• To drive competitiveness of existing supply chains;
• establish new supply chains in emerging sectors such as autonomous vehicles;
• connect with Universities and Technical Colleges to build the required skills pool;
• connect with Academia to co-innovate;
• connect with LEPs and finance organization to fund skills, innovation and capex investment.

I will also emphasise the importance of multi-tier supply chain intelligence so that manufacturing business have visibility of customer demand profile and supplier capacity / performance / inventory. Without this transparency it is impossible to optimize productivity and competitiveness.

• What can attendees expect to learn and discover from your session?

What is a collaborative ecosystem? Why is this important? How to create a collaborative ecosystem?

• What do you think is the biggest issue being faced / discussed in your industry at the moment?

Need for cross sector collaborative ecosystems ie. Integrating and cross pollinating traditional vertical sectors, universities, technical colleges, LEPs and finance institutes. Technical / operational / commercial skills to deliver industry 4.0

• What is the biggest lesson you learned in 2016?

The importance of collaboration – need to focus on core competence and build extended enterprise of partners that can deliver non-core activities

• What do you think the biggest challenge for the industry will be in 2017?

Making effective collaboration happen – need for digital and physical infrastructure, who will facilitate collaboration and serve as catalyst? – OEMs? National Government? LEPs? Regional Associations? Universities? Disruptive Entrepreneurs?

• What innovative measures should the industry adopt in the next few years to ensure market sustainability and growth?

Leverage wealth of manufacturing assets in UK and combine with digital sectors and academia to establish new supply chains in high growth emerging markets

• Why do you think events like Industry 4.0 Summit are important for the industry?

Too many business leaders (especially SMEs) don’t know what they don’t know…they will be left behind unless they start to formulate an Industry 4.0 strategy that is right sized for them

The summit will raise awareness of industry best practices and trends so that business leaders can identify gaps and develop a strategy of how best to adopt industry 4.0. It will also serve as a catalyst to build an ecosystem of cross sector organisations, academic institutes and government bodies.