Layout 2 - University of Central Lancashire

Factory of the future
A state-of-the-art advanced manufacturing facility at UCLan’s Burnley
Campus not only acts as a major research centre, it has become a beacon
for educational opportunity, industrial partnership and wealth creation.
UCLan is located at the centre of one of the most
important advanced manufacturing and
engineering regions in the UK. The University has
exploited its geographical position and developed
strong links with local manufacturing companies
by focusing on a range of niche areas of
knowledge and expertise. Its vision is to continue
to create strong and innovate partnerships that
will help drive economic growth from higher
value manufacturing.
In 2011, the University took major strides to
extending its reach within the local manufacturing
sector with the Centre for Advanced Digital
Manufacturing Technologies at the Burnley
Campus, led by Professor Lik-Kwan Shark,
representing the cornerstone of this development.
By teaming up with global IT company Cisco, the
University created the world’s first Tele-immersive
Digital Manufacturing (TiM) lab.
As a distinctive lab-based miniature factory of the
future, TiM represents UCLan’s vision to improve
manufacturing competitiveness. It utilises digital
sensing technologies to acquire a range of
manufacturing data such as process performance,
product deviation and energy consumption.
Its digital data processing technologies execute
manufacturing adaptively based on data and its
digital communication technologies means that
manufacturing can be controlled remotely.
Professor Shark explained the concept behind
the new facility: “The state-of-the-art industrial
network infrastructure provided by Cisco
Systems make it possible for high volume
manufacturing data to be transmitted securely
in real-time,” he said.
“Not only is TiM acting as a pilot plant for
manufacturing companies to test drive digital
transformation, thereby accelerating the journey
to knowledge-based high performance
manufacturing, it’s also providing UCLan students
with hands-on experience of a full spectrum of
digital technologies in an ultra-realistic
manufacturing environment.
“It’s already exciting young people about
engineering by demonstrating a factory controlled
by fingertips without actually being physically
present. Components come in and finished goods
go out.”
The investment is allowing UCLan to work more
closely with companies across a range of sectors,
including aerospace, automotive and energy.
Crucially these industrial sectors are already using
TiM to improve their competitiveness.
Cisco Systems Senior Director for EMEA and
Russia Region, Ian Kennedy, commented:
“UCLan is the first and only university with the
very latest industrial networking system from
Cisco Systems with full technical support.
Partnering with UCLan ensures the unique
development of TiM will stay at the very
forefront across all digital technology areas.
“It was incredibly important for Cisco Systems
and UCLan to make this investment and highlight
to the manufacturing sector the huge impact of
digital innovation in all aspects and all levels of
their operations.”
UCLan has also attained Cisco Academy status
and aligns some of its teaching with the training
arm of the organisation that provides industry
courses for networking professionals. The TiM lab
is also exposing UCLan students to industrial
networking to give them a broader experience of
networking scenarios and technologies. In an
added twist, UCLan Cisco Academy students
shadowed the Cisco Systems engineers during
the installation of the equipment in order to
maximise their learning opportunities.
The facilities have also been viewed by the
Secretary of State for Business, Rt Hon Dr Vince
Cable MP, as part of a visit to highlight the
importance of the North West manufacturing
industry to the UK economy.
Dr Martin Brown, UCLan’s Director of Burnley
Campus, said “Alongside all the other many
benefits of our advanced manufacturing facilities
it is crucial that young people in Burnley have the
opportunity to experience advanced
manufacturing as they represent the future
workforce of this industry and the region.”
34
Pictured right: Lik-Kwan Shark, Professor of Signal and Image Processing.