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Digital Manufacturing Ireland will promote and position advanced manufacturing transformation in Ireland and will also work to enhance Ireland’s reputation globally as a leader in digital manufacturing adoption.
DMI will promote industry transformation impact stories, collaboration case studies, data science research and insights, as well as industry facing showcase exemplar events, news, and international trends and thought leadership on digital manufacturing transformation.
DMI’s marketing team will proactively drive awareness, understanding and engagement of national and international manufacturing transformation stories across digital platforms and engagement programmes.
When Vernon Smit got his first computer, he was ten years old, and it was a birthday gift from his parents. For a kid growing up in rural South Africa in the 1980s, this was a big deal, so naturally, the present came with some parental conditions.
What do you understand when you hear the term ‘vision cognitive technology’? Unless you’re deep in the weeds of high tech manufacturing, the odds are probably not much. But for Tommy Brennan, machine vision is the focus of each of his days and something he is arguably an industry leading expert in.
The biggest obstacle to digital transformation in manufacturing is thinking in silos. That’s the central message from Terry Scanlon, director of technology operations for DMI, who goes on to say that full buy-in from the boardroom on down is crucial for companies to fully realise the potential of the cash they spend on IT.
For Sheila Whelan, a specialist in data analytics and machine learning with DMI, a career in technology wasn’t initially on the cards when she started her working life. Her undergraduate degree from the University of Limerick was in industrial chemistry but it was her first interaction with ‘regression modelling’ in an early job that made her rethink her trajectory.
“Every company is unique and every site is unique, and they all have micro-cultures. This means we usually need to take a multi-pronged approach to bringing people with us when trying to transform the way a company does things.”
It was while working with data generated by what he describes as ‘Fitbits for cows’ that Michael Kiely realised just how fulfilling a career in data science could be.
“There is widespread agreement in manufacturing that digital twin technology is enormously important, but at the same time, there’s also disagreement about what exactly it is. I find that fascinating. For us, at least, digital twins are real-time replicas of physical production environments.”
One of the key challenges in managing a fast-paced manufacturing environment is finding the time to plan effectively for change. It’s a paradox associated with success that any thriving enterprise is a busy place and it’s not unusual for senior managers to get so caught up in day-to-day affairs that they have no time for future planning and strategic development.
If there’s one thing that connects companies that have had bad experiences with automation in manufacturing in the past, it’s "not doing enough due diligence".
25 years ago, the average family car had one warning light to tell the driver when oil levels were low. Today, the same car’s dashboard is likely to look like an airplane cockpit and the reason is data.
For 27 year old data scientist Ciaran Knowles just working with data isn’t enough. Once he started out in the industry he knew that to be truly satisfied with a career in technology, he’d need to be able to make a real world difference not just to one company but to many.