As our first priority, we are spending time listening to SME manufacturers, to understand their needs and to identify common requirements between companies.
This is happening through requirements gathering workshops around the UK and in other countries. In the workshops, SMEs are being asked to discuss their priority business areas for digitalisation and provide scores to rank their operational requirements. Additionally, we are conducting onsite visits to partner SME manufacturing companies to evaluate digitalisation ‘readiness’ and needs, using an assessment framework and step-by-step audit.
From these activities, the research team is classifying SME challenges and priorities, and creating a list of top priority requirements for proposed low-cost digital solutions.