Digital Technology Internships

The client is a privately-owned company specialising in the production and supply of a variety of household laundry and cleaning products. They supply several national and international customers with their own brand of laundry and cleaning products. They have laboratory, blending and packing facilities at their Birkenhead premises to produce household, laundry and cleaning products. They develop, scale up and produce all their formulations in house for products to match briefs from their customers. They specialise in the development and production of environmentally friendly products using sustainable plant-based materials to match the performance of the big brands.

At a high level, the client would like to: Optimise production from order receipt to product dispatch Optimise stock management Optimise production planning and yields from, each of their production lines (2) and blending silos (3) Monitor costs of product to maintain profitability Provide clearly displayed information for all the necessary staff.

Based in Manchester, the client is a manufacturing group that provides fast track, just in time production to brands, retailers and wholesalers. They manufacture a diverse range of print and textile products which are marketed under four product brands. The company has built its reputation as the manufacturing and fulfilment partner of choice for online retailers serving consumers with a diverse range of “made to measure” home products including window blinds, printed matting and digitally printed textiles. Once a sales order is received, it is manufactured and despatched directly to their customer’s customer within a few days. The short lead times and direct fulfilment model enables their customers to operate with minimal stock, thereby reducing working capital and avoiding the risk of lost sales. The company’s flexible, reactive manufacturing is a compelling alternative to overseas supply options, and this has led to year-on-year sales growth over each of the past 4 years. They are enthusiastic to adopt digital technologies wherever they can have a positive impact on their growth. As they have grown and enthusiastically adopted a wide array of different cloud based solutions they have created a confusing data infrastructure which may expose the business to risk through cyber-attack, loss of data etc. They need to understand where these risks lie and how they can migrate safely to a new, more robust data management platform that will support further growth.

The project will focus on data management across the business, reviewing their current systems, Xero, Zoho, Google sheets and in-house bespoke solutions, considering how they link together, or don’t as the case maybe. It should also aim to identify the holes where they do not generate or use the data available. The output of the project will help them invest wisely in a robust, integrated platform for gathering, storage, and controlling data that supports accurate and timely reporting and minimises further cyber threats. Preferably this new solution will be implemented in a way that retains what they have learned from the adoption of key applications such as Xero and Zoho.

The company is a multi-disciplinary creative studio. Creating objects, structures, and experiences in the form of large-scale artworks, public art installations, bespoke sculptural commissions, interiors, custom made furniture art, as well as design style experiences and brand promotional objects. They have always had a commitment to combine traditional handcraft techniques with more modern cutting-edge technologies. This allows the opportunity to explore new concepts in the world of art and design, to explore the boundaries between art and design by using them to tell a story and produce pieces that are site specific and unique.

One of their core values is that of combining traditional hand-crafted processes with the latest in technological advancements. Having a skilled intern who can look at the machinery and push its capabilities to its full potential would be a fantastic asset. Successful candidate should be able to understand the extent of the possibilities that the automated machinery can reach, to work with the studio in developing new products utilising the capabilities of the machinery.

The company are an online retailer of own-branded skincare and cosmetics, who are moving towards manufacturing in-house. They distribute and retail a range of skincare, haircare, and shaving solutions that are kind to you, your skin, and the planet. Currently they supply predominantly to consumers via their website and wish to scale up via retailers and distributors.

The client is looking to create an A-Frame picking machine that will be used by the logistics team to pick the order contents and therefore improve speed and accuracy. Such a machine will greatly improve the picking performance and accuracy which in turn will increase customer satisfaction by reducing despatching time and errors. The work plan: 1. Liaise with the company CTO to establish the requirements 2. Review an existing Proof-of-Concept machine 3. Discuss possible design improvements 4. Extend and improve upon the machine so it can handle many products per dispenser (currently limited to around 5 due to lack of power in the motors) 5. Scale up the machine so it can support many SKUs (Dispensers) 6. Integrate the picking machine with the digital ordering system.

The client design and deliver toolmaking and provide injection moulding services. Their portfolio of clients is broad, but their key markets include defence, automotive and other industrial blue-chip customers. In addition to their injection moulding services, through their class-leading, in house tool room they commission over 60 Injection Mould tools every year and all are covered by the companies ground-breaking 10-year warranty. They are extremely quality conscious, and system focused.

Investigate and recommend best practice programmes to support: 1) Proactive approach to packaging design, leading to reduced costs, less errors. Whilst the choice of potential commercial software solutions is limited, at least one solution has already been identified that warrants further investigation and will form the starting point of the proof of value exercise. 2) Automation of quotation and other processes using DriveWorks add on to Solidworks CAD system. Whilst the software extension to SolidWorks is well established (there are 3 levels of solution), the merits of each and relevance to current and future needs will form part of the evaluation process.

The company is a family-owned industrial roofing and canopy manufacturer who has been in operation for over 30 years. At their manufacturing facility in Birchwood, Warrington, they design and manufacture a range of roof glazing products and fabricated canopies for use in rail, education, retail, and healthcare. Primarily canopy products are manufactured from aluminium sections. Their roof glazing products can be supplied in polycarbonate and glass with polycarbonate being the main glazing that they promote. Their vision is to use technology to automate the standard elements of what they do within their manufacturing processes, which will allow them to focus on adding value through bespoke manufacture.

The project is to review all current connection details for their canopies with a view to improving the ease of manufacturing. e.g engineering out welds where appropriate and implementing / improving mechanical fixes. The successful candidate will be responsible for reviewing the overall product design of their prefabricated panel system to aide automation of manufacturing processes.

Founded in 1984 the company offer customers a range of specialist precision engineered services including: • 3D Computer Design – using Solid Edge, Auto Desk and CAD CAM Fusion 360 Solid Edge Software • Prototype, sampling & volume production • 3D Print Service: Fortus 360, Markforged X7, Form Lab 3 • Jigs and tooling • Product Testing Design and development of testing equipment • 3 and 4 Axis CNC Machining of ferrous/non-ferrous/composite materials • Reverse engineering of obsolete parts • Injection moulding • Laser marking The company operates from a modern 10,000 sq ft facility with 14 full-time team members, offering a complete service from design to manufacture utilising 3D Prototype Modelling through to full scale production. The company have developed several innovative and patented products that are still in current production.

The successful intern will work alongside the managing director and production manager in the following digital transformation projects to design and develop customer products and improve workshop efficiency using the following: - CNC programming, Computer Aided Manufacture with Fusion 360 - Use of 3D printers Markforged X7, Fortus 360, and FormLab3 - Cloud based shop floor data collection system (SFDC)

The company is a UK-based family-run manufacturer of food packaging machinery commonly found in farm shops, bakeries, butchers, and many other food preparation businesses around the world. They also provide a complete packaging solution for their customers by stocking a wide range of food trays, film, and disks to accompany their machinery range.

The company is looking to move to specific cloud-based systems that are targeted at financial management, inventory management, and a CRM – all of which can integrate with each other. Moving from one system to 3 will require significant project management and notable data transfer. We want to minimize business disruption and support continued day-to-day tasks for staff, whilst also completing the necessary transfer into the new systems.