We are very pleased to announce that Alan Norbury, Industrial CTO, Siemens PLC, will be presenting at our Automation and Factories of the Future - where next? event taking place on 14th September.
Alan is the CTO for Siemens UK industrial activities - a leading global supplier of industrial plant and software, manufacturing automation and drive technologies to industrial customers across the UK and Ireland.
Alan started his career as an Apprentice in Siemens Congleton in 1978 moving into the role of Technical Specialist for Siemens automation and low voltage products. In 1992 Alan spent time in Germany acting as Global Account Manager for key accounts such as Philip Morris & ICI.
He later became the UK Product Specialist for a number of advanced technologies, developing into the role of Applications Specialist primarily focussing on the UK OEM market. Alan established a team of Application Specialists in 1997, a team of pre-sales technical consultants positioned across UK and Ireland whose main focus was to provide advice on the best use of Siemens Industrial technologies.
Today, manufacturing is changing faster than ever before and the drivers for this include globalisation, individualisation, time to market and sustainability. Energy and resource efficiency are increasingly decisive factors in manufacturing competitiveness, even in developing economies which are adopting automation technology at rates that look set to further improve their traditional cost advantage.
Globalisation is driving the need for shorter innovation cycles, as time-to-market represents a competitive advantage for an increasing number of products. Localisation agendas are more apparent all over the globe too, driven by interests in local manufacturing and jobs. Manufactured products themselves are becoming more complex and data generated from their production, distribution and use is growing exponentially.
In essence, Industry 4.0 will involve the technical integration of Cyber-Physical Systems into manufacturing and logistics and the use of the Internet of Things and Services in industrial processes. This will have implications for value creation, business models, downstream services and work organisation.
Abstract of Alan's talk
International investors no longer locate their businesses based on labour costs alone. Many locate in the UK because of our strengths in R&D, technology and skills. Some commentators suggest we are on the cusp of a fourth industrial revolution -‘Industrie 4.0’ - driven by ‘embedded’ or ‘cyber physical’ systems interacting intelligently. So what does this mean for UK productivity and growth? How will technologies change the way we do business? Are we about to witness a period of advanced reindustrialisation?