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Industry 4.0: Is the UK catching up? (CIMR debates in Public Policy)

When: —
Venue: Online

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Join the Centre for Innovation Management Research on Wednesday 26 April for an online lunchtime seminar on Industry 4.0: Is the UK catching up? 

The online debate is part of the CIMR Debates and Workshops in Public Policy series.

Panel

  • Rosa Wilkinson, Director of Policy, High-Value Manufacturing Catapult 
  • Tomasz Mroczkowski, Professor in the International Business Department, Kogod School of Business, American University Washington DC
  • Jeremy Galpin, Social Value Consultancy Lead, Costain Group PLC 
  • Discussant: Dr Marios Samdanis, Senior Lecturer in Strategy Entrepreneurship and International Management, Brunel, University London 
  • Chair: Jo Magnani, International Telecommunications Service Provider  

Abstract 

This debate in public policy will look at the case of Industry 4.0, which is a snapshot of the smart manufacturing methodology used by the UK manufacturing industry. We will examine the UK system and compare manufacturing to that of Germany, which is regarded as a pioneer in this field.

The intention of the CIMR discussion is to revisit this subject matter and ask the following questions:

  1. Is the UK still perceived as a laggard in smart manufacturing compared with Germany?
  2. As the UK is perceived as primarily a Service Economy (as opposed to a manufacturing economy), are we seeing more conversations around UK firms needing to 'near-shore' manufacturing (rather than continue to subcontract overseas), in order to bring about seamless, efficient manufacturing?
  3. Has the adoption of Industry 4.0 increased in UK manufacturing sector today?
  4. Or has the notion of Industry 4.0 mutated into an ‘enabling technology which can be applied to other vertical markets?  For example, has the narrative been changed by technology firms and Academic institutions whereby the Industry 4.0 solution is being applied as a ‘joined-up’ collaboration between Industry, Enterprise and Commercial? For example, Nokia and Cambridge University name Industry 4.0 as the ‘Internet of Everything’ (IOE). Whilst this is the perceived destination, how much progress has been made in the UK in the last 3 years?
  5. Nokia associates Industry 4.0 with ‘closing the digital divide’. Whilst it is an enabler, who has achieved this?
  6. Has Web 3.0 and the Metaverse overtaken the narrative on Industry 4.0 (e.g., with the inclusion of the Metaverse permitting Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Extended Reality (XR) and fusing all the concepts listed in Question 4 into one? Or is this merely trivialising the concept of Industry 4.0?

Biographies 

Rosa Wilkinson joined the High Value Manufacturing Catapult in 2017 as Director of Communications ad is now its Director of Policy. Rosa previous roles included senior civil service posts at the Trade and Business Departments, as Director of Innovation at the Intellectual Property Office and as Director of Public Policy for Lloyds TSB. Outside the Catapult, Rosa retains an involvement in her family’s industrial property business and is a non-executive with the MTA.  She also chairs Make UK’s Technology, Innovation and Digitalisation Policy Committee. From March to the start of July she led communications for the VentilatorChallengeUK Consortium.

Tomasz Mroczkowski is based at the Kogod School of Business, American University Washington DC, where he serves as Professor in the International Business Department, Tomasz Mroczkowski (M.Sc. Jagiellonian University, Ph.D. Cracow University of Economics) has also lectured on innovation in emerging economies at universities in France, Japan, Germany, UK, India, and Poland. Professor Mroczkowski, a Fulbright scholar (Fraunhofer Institute, Germany 2011/12) has studied and written about innovation, the management of change, and economic transition for most of his career. He is the author of over 100 works including articles in such journals as California Management Review, Academy of Management Executive, Journal of Product Innovation Management, and others. He combines interests in business history with a fascination about how to think strategically about the future.

Tomasz has conducted executive development seminars and has consulted for leading American and European companies and has served as advisor to central and local governments on economic development strategy and technology cluster formation. He serves on Editorial boards of several journals including the Journal of Global Business Advancement in South Asia, The Journal of East-West Business, and Worldview – a publication of Scientific American. He is a recipient of a number of grants from private and public foundations.

Jeremy Galpin leads the Costain Group, Digital Social Value and Stakeholder Management consultancy offering. Jeremy is a Chartered Engineer with the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personal and Development (CIPD) and a Member of the Association of Coaching, a member of Social Value UK, and a founding member and Director of the London Design and Engineering University Technical College (LDE UTC). Jeremy graduated in 2020 with Distinction in his MSc in Business Innovation and International Technology Management from Birkbeck College, University of London. His dissertation was entitled ‘How is, and how can, digital technology be used to maximise the social value delivered through major infrastructure projects?’ and proposes a definition of social value for the sector along with 12 actionable recommendations.

Dr Marios Samdanis is a Senior Lecturer in Strategy, Entrepreneurship and International Management. Prior to joining Brunel, he was a Lecturer in Digital Creativity and New Media Management at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Lecturer in Art Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London. He has a PhD in Management from Kent Business School, University of Kent, and a Masters degree in Innovation Management and Technology Policy from Birkbeck College. Marios research has been published in journals such as International Journal of Management Reviews, Journal of Business Research, European Management Review, Information and Organization and International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. He is an active reviewer for a wide range of journals in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Jo Magnani has been in the Communications Service Provider Industry for over four decades working in customer facing roles as Solutions/Enterprise Architect and also in Consultative Sales. Jo is an alumna of Birkbeck University where in 2020, she completed an MSc in Business Innovation with E-Business and specialised in Smart Manufacturing with specific focus on Industry 4.0. Currently, she contributes to CIMR events whenever the subject matter is appropriate and where she can offer an industry outlook.

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