In the heart of Kerry, the South West region of Ireland, there’s a thriving community of manufacturing and technology companies surrounding the RDI Hub centre of excellence. The opportunity to meet, network, and learn from this ecosystem is something we at Nightingale HQ value and continually want to contribute to. The RDI Hub invited us to talk at their new series along with Midland Steel and Astellas Pharma.

Tony Woods and the Midland Steel Group

The event kicked off with an address by Tony Woods, the CEO of the Midland Steel Group who are a partner of ours. The company was founded in 1998 and has grown to 250 employees across various locations, including Mountmellick, London, Bishop Auckland, Motherwell, and Norway. Their mission revolves around generating employment, promoting sustainability, and supporting the local economy. Over the years, Midland Steel has successfully tackled high-profile projects spanning diverse sectors, from commercial and residential to infrastructure, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and marine. Tony gave insights into their groundbreaking FasterFix solution, a patented solution that has earned the title of the world’s quickest steel fixing process. He also shared insights into our ongoing EIT Manufacturing project as a source of innovation and greener steel production in Europe.

Joining forces with Astellas Pharma on Process Mapping

In March, I had a site tour of Astellas Pharmaceutical, which left me in awe of their strides in sustainability, warehouse automation, and site management. They shared insights into the significance of Process Mapping, an area that we had been working extensively on with an customers in the UK. For the Digitalisation Series we crafted a session to demonstrate through example the business value of Process Mapping as a critical component to digitalisation. The collaboration was with Martin Ready and Megan Coffey and their session highlighted success stories where diverse processes were meticulously mapped, offering the audience practical advice and best practices accumulated throughout their journey. It also covered the very important change management elements of mapping and how important it is to bring all key stakeholders on that journey.

Richard Jackson, led the session from the NHQ side, delved into the fundamentals of mapping and underscored the pivotal role process mapping plays in the digitalisation journey. It’s an essential first step to any digitalisation project and acts as a precursor to understanding data readiness and informs the selection of digital tools.

The South West Manufacturing Digitalisation Series is not only a valuable networking event but also an important space to exchange ideas for companies that want to collaborate and scale.

Photo gallery of the event

Further Reading

• RDI Hub
• Midland Steel
• Astellas Pharma Ireland
• EIT Manufacturing