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.

Formed in 1946, the company is a preeminent specialist Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) organisation that enables their customers and end users to support their products, systems, and platforms, many of which have critical status for extended periods, to and often beyond the products natural lifespan. Operating in the Global Defence, Nuclear and Oil & Gas industries, they utilise their extensive knowledge and supporting supply chain to maintain a continued availability of components, which ensures a product life extension for their customers as well as specialist knowledge in the sourcing of obsolete/difficult to source components.

This project is part of a Government Industrial Strategy Funded Project, working in partnership with BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, GKN, Nissan, and Airbus UK. The aim is to remove paperwork from the shop floor, using technology to improve efficiency within their operations and ultimately deliver better value to their customers.

The client is a privately-owned family business celebrating its 43rd year. From humble beginnings as a one-man-band making wrought-iron gates, they now employ around 80 staff as a subcontract steelwork manufacturer to a wide range of sectors including rail, defence, office furniture, automotive, and cycling to name a few. They also manufacture a successful range of high-quality bike racks and cycling accessories. Their wide-ranging capabilities include welding/fabrication, tube-bending, laser-cutting, CNC machining, powder coating and more. They supply a range of local, national and international companies including Network Rail, MoD, and Senator International.

The intern would support the implementation of the SFDC system and create the analysis tools required to close the feedback loop in their newly digitised factory. The goal is digital capacity planning for their manufacturing plant. The support for the successful intern would come from their in-house team who are experts in the manufacturing process, and Chess + Sicon as our IT support and software partner. The intern potentially being the conduit between the different parties and maximising the effectiveness of the funded project.

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.

A unique business that combines leading edge plating technologies with traditional machining capabilities that are rarely found in modern manufacturing but are still essential to strategic industries in the UK and elsewhere. Specialising in the design, manufacture, and remanufacture, of high-performance heat transfer rolls for many industrial applications. Heat transfer rolls provide temperature control by circulating heated or cooled fluid through the inside of the roll chamber. Roll design and configuration of the internal spirals play a major role in the performance of heat transfer rolls. The company can advise on the design and method of manufacture of its customers’ rolls to ensure optimum performance and efficiency. Using processes such as electroplating, precision grinding, polishing, and inspection, the company manufacturers and repairs rolls to extremely tight tolerances.

To study the plating processes (chrome, nickel and copper), to measure all inputs, to study the effect of the inputs on the outcome, to control the inputs and to automate the inputs. The study should follow a structured methodology, such as Design of Experiments (DoE).

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.

The client is an owner managed textile business based in Stockport. The company was established in 1999 and now employs over 100 FTEs. They set out to be the UK’s first one stop shop in the garment sector, bringing together all the key garment finishing processes including labelling, printing and embroidery together in one business. The MD established his first company in 1988 and began making licensed products in 1996 (Football’s Euro 96 tournament) and reached 50,000 units per week, then repeated this for the 1998 World Cup. In 2004/5, the business consolidated onto one site and expanded operations at the current Stockport factory through the development of adjacent units.

The company has embarked on a comprehensive digitalisation programme – basically “to automate everything that can be automated” in their new factory. This involves identifying “smart” machinery that can be linked across the factory and working with a number of external organisations who each bring their particular skills to develop the required total software solution. The company needs in-house support to work with these organisations, coordinate their respective inputs, then develop and assist in the delivery of a comprehensive, integrated solution that will meet company objectives. Currently these skills are lacking within the organisation.

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)