DIGITAL FACTORY

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“ For food manufacturers there ’ s a great opportunity to embrace the made in Britain concept . We ’ ve got some very successful customers , such as Ian Macleod whisky distillers , doing just that and sourcing local ingredients to make unique local products .”

It ’ s a different story for companies reliant on extended supply chains across borders . “ They ’ ve got huge problems to overcome ,” reckons Hughes . “ We ’ re seeing customers stockpiling raw materials and components . From a systems perspective , being able to identify and declare origins of goods , whether it ’ s a hard or soft Brexit , is going to lead to the necessity to be able to provide a lot more information about how goods have been created . Many Epicor customers are familiar with offering high levels of traceability throughout their products , whether that ’ s serial numbers of electronic components or down to what field a potato was grown in that ended up in a bag of crisps . The ability to quickly adapt to changing reporting requirements is going to be critical .” Allied to this , growing issues with the movement and reduced availability of labour is having an impact that is changing the way companies do business . “ Going forward it ’ s important for Epicor that everyone we choose to work or partner with has a similar global model ,” says Hughes , who believes that spread of capabilities maintaining the ability to service customers will be vital .

Many UK manufacturers have excelled when it comes to design and prototyping at the front end , but Hughes believes there ’ s an opportunity to improve production processes via automation . “ How do we join the two up ?” customers are asking Hughes .

NOVEMBER 2019