IfM News April 2013No 184

Focus on: Bit by Bit – a new research project on digital fabricationThis month we will focus on a new collaborative research project on digital fabrication that has just been awarded funding from the ESRC and EPSRC. ‘Bit by Bit’ is a cross-disciplinary project which aims to address key research questions relating to the emergence of digital fabrication and its impact upon the UK economy, and to deliver an enduring platform for responding to future digital economy-related research challenges. The project will start in September 2013.

The projectDigital fabrication – which includes processes termed ‘additive manufacturing’ or ’3D printing – is thought by many to be underpinning

a manufacturing revolution. These technologies have the potential to disrupt the organisation of manufacturing and the ways in which companies create and capture value. However, digital fabrication has attracted significant attention in the last year to the extent that there is danger of it becoming overhyped. This new project will draw together researchers from across the IfM, Judge Business School, Department of Politics and International Studies, and the Centre for Science and Policy to consider the interconnected technological, commercial and policy issues that characterise the emergence of digital fabrication.

StructureThe ‘Bit by Bit’ project is structured around a three-level model developed by earlier EPSRC-funded IfM research as part of the Emerging Industries Programme. Simon Ford and Letizia Mortara will be the project’s core researchers, while the project investigators will be Finbarr Livesey from the Department of

Politics and International Studies (POLIS), Chander Velu from Judge Business School, and IfM’s Tim Minshall and Ian Hutchings. The investigators will be coordinating research activities in the ‘Value Context’, ‘Value Capture’ and ‘Value Creation’ layers of the conceptual framework shown in the figure.

The project will be guided by an Advisory Group, chaired by Pieter Knook (CUED RAEng Visiting Professor of Innovation), representing the wider stakeholders: Basck, British Standards Institute (BSI), Centre for Business Research, Centre for Industrial Photonics, Centre for Science and Policy,

April News

Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation, Dyson, IET, Makespace Cambridge, Materials Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), NESTA, The Royal Society of Arts (RSA), University of Bologna, and the University of Sheffield/Mercury Centre.

ApproachThe digital fabrication project will use an ‘engaged scholarship’ approach and combine the use of case studies, surveys, and workshops to address three core questions:

1.How will digital fabrication affect the manufacturing landscape?

2.What impacts will this revolution have on manufacturing in the UK?

3.How can UK firms become global leaders in this new age of digital manufacturing?

The conceptual framework will be used to examine three aspects of digital fabrication: emergence, business model disruptions and scenarios. The first stage involves investigating how digital fabrication emerged and identifying any trends, barriers and enablers. In the second stage, efforts will be focused on the changing ways in which companies are making money from digital

fabrication. The final stage will examine future scenarios that may result from the diffusion of digital fabrication technologies and associated business models.

These research activities will be supported by

a national network of academics, practitioners from businesses of all sizes, and policymakers, with particular interest in the potential economic and social impact of digital fabrication.

OutcomeThis research will seek to build understanding of the potential effects of digital fabrication on the organisation of manufacturing in the UK, assess how and when value could be captured, and identify key support actions UK policymakers may need to undertake in order to underpin value capture resulting from digital fabrication in the UK.

More background on the project can be found at www.dfab.info. If you would like to keep up to date with trends in digital fabrication, please follow @dfab_info (www.twitter.com/dfab_info)

Tim Minshall will be speaking about the ‘Bit by Bit’ project at the Nerve 2013 Summit in Cambridge at the end of June. www.itsnerve.com/#whatisnerve

New Centre for Science, Technology & Innovation Policy (CSTI)A new IfM research unit funded by the Gatsby Foundation has been launched – the Centre for Science, Technology & Innovation Policy. CSTI research focuses on the question ‘What makes national innovations systems effective at translating science and engineering into new technologies, industries and economic wealth?’ and addresses it by bringing together researchers from a mix of backgrounds and with practical experience of working for research and innovation agencies in the UK and abroad.

This blend of complementary expertise allows the Centre to conduct innovative policy-focused

research related to technological systems and industrial structures, the management of innovation and operations, and the dynamics of technological and industrial change within a multidisciplinary and integrated framework. It also enables CSTI to fill gaps in academic research while providing evidence at a level of technical detail (and presented in a language) that meets the needs of Science, Technology and Innovation agency officials and policymakers.

CSTI’s research agenda is defined in close dialogue with applied UK policy agencies, including: the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and the Technology

Strategy Board; the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; the Higher Education Funding Council for England; as well as with international institutions such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

To find out more about CSTI and its research projects, visit bit.ly/CSTI1

CIM receives UK-India Advanced Manufacturing Research GrantThe Centre for International Manufacturing has been awarded a joint EPSRC-DST £1m grant for their project Engineering Driven Sustainable Supply Networks – A UK/India Collaborative Study.

The research seeks to extend existing supply network configuration theories by integrating sustainability dimensions into the traditional cost, quality, and timely and dependable delivery analysis. Sustainability considerations in network design

are now becoming increasingly critical and this project seeks to integrate

capabilities in the simulation and modelling of operations and industrial supply network design. CIM will be working in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology in Ropar and the Indian Institute of Management in Lucknow.

The project will seek to develop methodologies that support optimal usage of key resources such as energy, materials, water and other inputs, while minimising the generation of waste. The units of analysis will be specific product categories in both discrete (automotive and aerospace) and process (pharmaceuticals, food processing) industries located in the UK and India.

Read the full news: bit.ly/13lQlnO

CTM works with United Nations on Climate Change

The Centre for Technology Management was commissioned by the United Nations to research how

technology roadmapping could help tackle one of the world’s most critical problems: greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is aiming to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations to prevent dangerous climate change. A division of the UNFCCC, the Technology Executive Committee (TEC), approached CTM in 2012 to write a report on how technology roadmaps (TRMs) could aid this objective – specifically, how they could catalyse the development and use of climate change mitigation (e.g. renewable energy) and adaptation (e.g. coastal zone protection) technologies.

Elliott More and Dr. Rob Phaal (CTM), in collaboration with Dr. Marc Londo of energy consultants ECN, co-authored a background report investigating TRMs published on these technologies.

Draft findings of the report were presented at the 4th TEC meeting in September 2012 in Bangkok, before the final report was submitted in November. The report has only recently been published following approval and discussion at the 5th TEC meeting in March this year in Bonn.

More information can be found here: bit.ly/Zp8ZM0

Inkjet research centre available for Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) projectsUndergraduate students who want to work on a UROP project may be able to do so in the Inkjet Research Centre. This is a great opportunity to use a million-frames-per-second camera on loan during the summer.

Those who missed Kai explode water bombs on needles at the Science Festival have seen nothing yet!

Find out more about the ‘High speed

imaging and inkjet printing’ project on the UROP website: bit.ly/UROP7

For more information contact Steve Hoath sdh35@cam.ac.uk

Cambridge Service Alliance director awarded Schoeller Fellowship

Andy Neely has been elected as a Schoeller Fellow by the University of Nuremberg. Schoeller Fellowships are awarded

annually following an international competition to a limited number of academics. The formal awards ceremony will take place on Wednesday 15 May at the Museum for Industrial Culture in Nuremberg. Andy will use this Fellowship to further the work of the Cambridge Service Alliance on big data and business model innovation.

PhD student presents paper at international conference Mélanie Despeisse presented a paper on ‘Strategies and Ecosystem View for Industrial Sustainability’ at the

20th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) in Singapore, on the theme of ‘Re-engineering

Manufacturing for Sustainability’. The conference took place between 17-19 April and gathered academic and industrial experts together to discuss recent growing trends in life

Mike meeting Dr Devi Singh

Double balloon bursting recorded at 16,000 fps

cycle engineering and sustainable manufacturing.

Mélanie’s paper reviewed and synthesised approaches and strategies for industrial sustainability using an action framework and proposed a novel industrial ecosystem model (thinking framework) based on the principles of circular economy, industrial ecology and cradle-to-cradle. Because “less bad is not good enough”, we need to promote positive environmental impact and natural capital regeneration as an ideal model for future industrial systems.

Contact Mélanie: md621@cam.ac.uk

Seminar on Structural Equation Modelling (SEM)‘Introduction to Structural Equation Modelling’ will be held in SR3 on Wednesday 1 May 2013, from 12:00-13:30, followed by lunch and an interactive session until 14:00. This seminar, which is part of the IfM’s Researcher Capability Development programme, aims to familiarise IfM researchers with the SEM approach to test and estimate theoretical models, and is designed as an introduction to the technique.

Professor Hans Baumgartner from Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University will give an

overview of the method covering the appropriate use of SEM, fundamentals underlying SEM and the use of SEM notation. This session is ideal for those who wish to assess SEM papers and use the method in their own research. Please write to Leila Alinaghian lsa27@cam.ac.uk to express your interest in attending.

First-Year IfM PhD Conference 2013This year’s First-Year PhD Conference will be held on Wednesday 15 May. About 20 first-year PhD students from IfM will each give a 20-minute presentation to introduce their research. At the end of the conference, students will present their research in a poster format which will then be judged by an academic panel. Prizes will be given for the three best posters.

This conference is a great opportunity to learn about new projects from almost all of the IfM’s research centres and to find out more about the latest advances in manufacturing and management from the students’ presentations and posters. There will also be plenty of opportunities to engage in formal and informal discussions which may lead to future collaborations. This year’s opening speaker is Professor Ian Hutchings. To register for the free event or for further information, please contact Miss Yuan Tao yt289@cam.ac.uk.

For more details: bit.ly/PhDconf

DIAL hosts Big Data eventDIAL, in partnership with the UK chapter of DAMA (International Data Management Association) and the BCS DMSG (British Computer Society Data Management Specialist Group), hosted a one-day event on Big Data on 11 April at the IfM.

The focus of the event was on engineering data management challenges and technologies that can harness and leverage the new

opportunities offered by today’s voluminous, varied and fast-paced data. The event was organised by Philip Woodall (DIAL) and Lee Edwards (DAMA) and included four leading speakers from industry and academia who gave their views on big data: Frank Terburg, Director of Technical Solutions EMEA at Clustrix Inc.; Dr Mark Harrison, Director of Auto-ID Lab; Andrew Graham, Director of Sales at AIIM International; and Nigel Turner, Vice President of Information Management Strategy at Trillium Software.

DIAL seminar on the impact of uncertainty Dr John Ahmet Erkoyuncu from Cranfield University shared his research on the impact of uncertainty on cost for industrial product-service systems as part of the DIAL seminar series, on Tuesday 28 March. In his talk, Dr Erkoyuncu described how the service orientation in the defence and aerospace industries is making cost estimation challenging, due to uncertainties. The talk introduced the topic of uncertainty in service delivery, and went on to classify types of uncertainties. He explained processes for uncertainty-based service cost estimation and demonstrated a software application that incorporates the influence of uncertainty into cost.

This talk was organised in association with the Cambridge University Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction and was moderated by Tariq Masood. The DIAL seminar series is run jointly by Dr Philip Woodall and Dr Raj Srinivasan. For further information, contact Tariq Masood: tm487@cam.ac.uk.

Forthcoming Events

Recent Events

Notice boardPhotography Competition at the Department of Engineering sponsored by Carl ZeissThis year’s photography competition, open to all staff and students in the Department, is sponsored by leading optical systems manufacturer Carl Zeiss (electron microscopy division) who have kindly donated four excellent prizes. This year, for the first time, there will also be a Head of Department cash prize of £300 for the photo or video with the most innovative engineering story behind it.

1st prize: ZEISS Planar Camera Lens T* 1,4/50 to fit either a Canon (ZE) or Nikon (ZF.2) camera.

2nd prize: Nokia Lumia 820 Sim-free Windows Smartphone with ZEISS Lens.

3rd prize: ZEISS Mini Quick Monocular 5 x 10 T*.

Scanning Electron Microscopy prize for micrographs captured using an SEM: ZEISS Cinemizer OLED 3D Multimedia Video Glasses.

Head of Department prize for the photo or video with the most innovative engineering story behind it: £300 cash prize.

The judges want to see images “that relate to research or teaching in the Department or engineers out in the field, which may be beautiful, fascinating, intriguing, amusing, or possibly all of these things.”

Last year’s competition was won by two IfM researchers, Ronan Daly and Alfonso Castrejon-Pita, with a stunning optical microscopy image: ‘Drying Patterns of AKD on Glass’.

Photographs must be submitted by email to: photo-competition@eng.cam.ac.uk or delivered to Jacqueline Saggers or Ann Lynn at the Department of Engineering.

Deadline for entries: 14th June 2013

Full details at: www.eng.cam.ac.uk/photocomp

Last year’s winning image

OutreachTim Minshall to talk at Hay FestivalTim will be taking part in this year’s Hay Festival, which brings together writers from around the world to debate and share stories surrounded by the beautiful Welsh landscapes around the town of Hay-on-Wye. He will talk about the role of engineers in building a better future for everyone, with the aim to get children interested in the field.

Tim’s talk is part of the ‘Cambridge Series’ which is now in its fifth year at the Hay Festival and showcases the huge breadth of subjects studied at the University. It will be held on Sunday 2 June at 11.30am at the Sky Arts Studio.

More information can be found here: bit.ly/HAYfst

AchievementsIfM students launch taxi-sharing start-upJacky Yuen (2008) and Robin Smid (2009) are working on a taxi sharing start-up called Flitter (flittercab.co.uk). Flitter is a taxi booking app that lets users choose to share their journeys. When booking a taxi, users can choose whether to share with their Facebook friends, fellow guests at a Facebook event, or anyone on the Flitter network. If there are no other passengers travelling on a similar route at that time, the user travels alone.

Flitter is currently in discussions with local hackney carriage drivers to launch the service in Cambridge this Spring. The apps are available for iPhone and Android – just search “flitter” on your device. Feedback from IfM staff would be most welcome! feedback@flittercab.co.uk

Over £1000 raised for charityOn 14 April, Nancy Broken and husband Hidde-Jan ran the Brighton Marathon in 4:10.20! The picture says it all - it was painful, but they are glad they did it.

Thanks to those who made generous donations to Scope, they have raised more than £1000!

The fundraising website is still open for another month: uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/Nancy_and_Hidde-Jan

CongratulationsNew babyPhD student Kyounglim Lee gave birth to a healthy 3.2kg baby on 15 April, who will be named Kayoung Lena Kim. Both baby and mum are doing very well.

Wedding bells for Sophie

Congratulations to Sophie Gough – now Mrs Fuller – who got married on 13 April at Great St Mary’s Church in Woodditton. We wish her and Merrick all the best for their future together!

Mingming Yao has recently joined CIM as part of a joint PhD programme, under the supervision of Dr Yongjiang Shi. She is a PhD student at Zheijang University, majoring in Enterprise Management,

and has done research at the National Institute for Innovation Management (NIIM). Her research focuses on business model innovation of manufacturing servicetisation according to value network and technology innovation in developing countries. She plans to develop the linkages between business model development and firm’s capability upgrading.

Steve Giles has joined IfM ECS as an Associate in the Large Company and Public Sector team, bringing with him 25 years of industry and consulting experience. Steve started

his career in aerospace, is a qualified engineer and has an MBA. His experience includes: product design and

development; supplier management; strategy development; supply/support chain transformation; and complex business change programme design and delivery. Steve has experience across a variety of sectors, including aerospace and defence, industrial

products, food and beverage, and consumer electronics. Steve has also consulted to government, and to the security, retail, financial services, and media sectors.

Michael Summers joined the IfM as an embedded researcher working as part of an exciting industrial collaboration between the IfM and Michell Instruments Ltd., an international leader in high-precision gas and moisture sensing. As the company’s Principal Research Scientist, Mike is part of a multi-discipline research team tasked with developing new concepts and prototypes with a strong commercial potential. His work will focus on creating cutting-edge photonic and optoelectronic technologies in partnership with Professor Bill O’Neill, Dr Tim Wilkinson (CAPE) and PhD student, S.J. Senanayake. Mike previously worked for Oxford Medical Diagnostics, looking at spectroscopic analysis of breath and industrial gases. He was also a Postdoc in the Physical Chemistry Department at Oxford, looking at applications of optical trapping in the study of colloids and aerosols.

New people & roles

ECS NewsCaterpillar at IfM for first week of executive education programme A group of professionals from machinery and engines producer Caterpillar has completed the first of four weeks of training as part of the programme run by IfM ECS. The 26 participants have come from business units in Hungary, South Africa, Germany, Belgium, Russia, Pakistan, France, Switzerland and Italy, as well as the UK. They will

be back in May, June and July to complete the training.

The programme is designed to help Caterpillar’s supervisors make the

transition to manager level by providing the foundations for managerial effectiveness in the global business environment. The programme gives them the concepts and analytical tools they need to operate across the functional areas

of business and to achieve better organisational performance.

For more information contact Alan Cousens akc32@cam.ac.uk

Recent publications

IfM in the news

IfM People, Projects and Activities 2013 is now out. You can take a printed copy from reception or find it online at this address: bit.ly/XNc9JJ

Ivanka Visnjic, Taija Turunen, Andy Neely - When innovation follows promise - why service innovation is different, and why that matters. This Executive Briefing looks at the process of service innovation in an attempt to improve the way that service and product–service providers develop new services.

Wu Y.R., Huatuco L.H., Frizelle G., Smart J. - A method for analysing operational complexity in supply chains. Journal of the Operational Research Society (2013). The paper looks at how supply chain stability might be assessed by identifying a reference point where turbulence is at a minimum, explains how the measure of turbulence is calculated and demonstrates how it can be applied, through a case study.

Lu, W., Giannikas, V., McFarlane, D., Hyde, J. – The role of distributed intelligence in warehouse management systems, 3rd International Workshop on Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing and Robotics, Valenciennes, France (2013).

Drop speeds from drop-on-demand ink-jet print heads by Stephen Hoath, Kai Hsiao, Graham Martin and Ian Hutchings (IfM) with Neil Morrison and Oliver Harlen (University of Leeds, Applied Maths) is now online in the Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, Volume 57 Issue 1 010503 (2013).

Academics in the I4T consortium (Innovation in Industrial Inkjet Technology: IfM, Chemical Engineering & Biotech, University of Leeds (Applied Maths, Institute for Particle Science and Engineering) and University of Durham, Chemistry) have submitted an invited paper on Jetting of complex fluids for inclusion in a Journal of Imaging Science and Technology special issue on digital fabrication.

New Executive Briefing

Here is a selection of this month’s media coverage:

High Value Manufacturing Catapult: It’s the knowledge, stupid The Manufacturer www.themanufacturer.com/articles/high-value-manufacturing-catapult-its-the-knowledge-stupid/

Exposing the Challenges of Real-time Supply Chain Monitoring Supply Chain Europe www.scemagazine.com/exposing-the-challenges-of-real-time-supply-chain-monitoring/

UK-India Advanced Manufacturing Research awarded £1 million funding Cambridge Network www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/uk-india-advanced-manufacturing-research-1m-funding/

Creating Value in a Global Network Manufacturing Leadership Journal www.gilcommunity.com/journal/creating-value-global-network/

Making It manufacturing campaign launched in Liverpool EN for business www.enforbusiness.com/news/making-it-manufacturing-campaign-launched-liverpool-20139747