An Evaluation of: ADAPT – Adoption of Digital Automation ... · two top businesses that are...

An Evaluation of:ADAPT – Adoption of Digital Automation Practices & Technology

A Business Basics: boosting SME productivity (proof of concept strand) project – Funded by Innovate UK

The Skills & Growth Company

Date May 2019

Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction to the ADAPT Project

3. Evaluation Aims & Methodology

4. Description of Project Activity

5. Quantitative Analysis of Outcomes & Impacts

6. Qualitative Assessment of Causality &

The Counterfactual

7. Lessons Learned

8. Conclusions

9. Recommendations

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1. Executive Summary

The Adoption of Digital Automation Practices & Technology (ADAPT) Proof of Concept was one of 15 projects awarded funding through Round 1 of the Business Basics Fund in December 2018. The concept was devised by Cheshire East Council’s Skills & Growth Company to test the effectiveness of ‘peer-to-peer best practice learning visits’ as a means of encouraging Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to adopt productivity boosting ways of working.

The Proof of Concept (PoC) tested the approach through running best practice learning visits to two top businesses that are industry leaders in two specific areas of digital automation:

1. Marketing Automation - the use of software and systems to automate marketing processes such as customer segmentation, customer data integration, and campaign management.

2. Manufacturing Automation – the use of systems that perform automated operations in a factory environment such as; processing, assembly, inspection or packing.

To determine if peer-to-peer best practice visits work in encouraging SMEs to take up these productivity boosting ways of working, a robust evaluation methodology was designed to collect quantitative and qualitative data on the project outputs, outcomes and impacts from participants as well as from a small comparison group.

During the PoC, 48 SMEs expressed their interest in attending a best practice learning visit. Of these, 30 were invited to attend a one-day best practice visit to either; Siemens PLC’s Digital Factory in Congleton to learn about Manufacturing Automation practices or to; RedEye International in Crewe to learn about Marketing Automation practices. The SMEs who were not able to attend a best practice visit were invited to be part of a ‘Control Group’.

Surveys were completed before and after the visits by both the participant group and control group, to quantify the change in certain ‘Outcome Measures’ that the project activity sought to influence. Following the best practice visits, a small sample of participants were selected for a qualitative interview to understand more about

how the outcomes of the project activity could lead to longer-term impacts i.e. an improvement in the business’s productivity rates.

The quantitative surveys showed that on every identified Outcome Measure, the best practice visits resulted in a positive change. As a result of the visits, participants were more knowledgeable about the automation practices; understood the advantages and disadvantages better; were motivated to finding out more and; felt more able to decide whether to adopt or reject digital automation practices than their counterparts in the Control Group.

100% of participants reported that the ADAPT best practice visit had changed their view of whether adopting automation could help to assist in achieving their business objectives. 79% of participants felt that the best practice visit helped to overcome the barriers that were preventing them from adopting automation and 85% reported that the ADAPT best practice visits have changed their plans to adopt digital automation practices and technology either ‘somewhat’ or ‘a lot’.

Although it is too early to see the impacts of the activity in terms of clear investment decisions to adopt marketing automation or manufacturing automation, and the resultant increase in productivity, the qualitative feedback shows that participation in ADAPT has successfully helped SMEs to progress through the initial stages of adoption (based on the BEIS Stages of Adoption Model) so that they are now in the decision making stage, actively taking steps to validate the costs vs benefits and Return On Investment (ROI) of adopting the practices/ technology.

This PoC has also demonstrated that although ‘best practice learning visits’ are successful at helping SMEs to progress through the early stages of adoption, additional support is also needed to help SMEs progress further and to ultimately adopt the productivity boosting practices. In particular, the costs of implementing digital automation and the lack of skills to implement it, have been identified as persistent barriers to adoption that have become even more acute following the participant’s increased level of awareness and understanding.

ADAPT can be seen as an effective ‘entry point’ intervention for SMEs at the very earliest stage of digital automation adoption.

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ADAPT can therefore be seen as an effective ‘entry point’ intervention for SMEs at the very beginning of their innovation adoption journey i.e. the ‘long tail’ of unproductive businesses who do not have sufficient knowledge about digital automation practices to be inspired to find out more or to access the support that is available to help them adopt it. To properly capitalise on the results of the ADAPT activity however, future iterations of the project need to link effectively with the wider innovation ‘ecosystem’ that is available through the ‘Innovate UK family’ and other government initiatives, for example; KTN, UK Smart Grants, Innovation Loans, Digital Catapult, Made Smarter Pilot, Growth Hub Grants etc. Indeed, as a result of the ADAPT activity, several participants have already been referred successfully to the Made Smarter Pilot and to Knowledge Transfer Networks for further implementation support.

Given the level of interest received in attending the ADAPT best practice learning visits, and the results achieved from them, the recommendation of this report is that options for scaling up the Proof of Concept to a ‘Full Scale Trial’ should be considered. The options to be considered could include:

1. Expanding the delivery area from a Cheshire & Warrington sub-regional level to a wider ‘Northern Powerhouse’ geography.

2. Increasing the number of best practice visits available by broadening the focus to include different digital automation practices and technology.

3. Enhancing the delivery model to include an effective referral mechanism to the wider innovation ‘ecosystem’ to support with implementation planning.

A full scale trial would seek to test if the success of the best practice visits at proof of concept stage can translate to other digital practices and technologies and if it can be successfully expanded into other geographic areas. A full scale trial would also seek to assess how peer-to-peer best practice visits compare to alternative approaches such as online ‘best practice’ guides and one-to-one consultancy and how an effective referral system to the wider innovation ‘ecosystem’ could work.

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Role of ADAPT in addressing the long tail of productivity

Other projects

Stage 1. Knowledge/Awareness

Stage 2.Persuasion

Stage 3.Decision

Stage 4. Implementation

Stage 5.Confirmation

Stage 6.Openness

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2. Introduction

Small businesses have become a focus for understanding why UK productivity is below most of its international competitors. Commentators have pointed to the ‘long tail’ of unproductive small businesses, which are acting as a drag on the rest of the economy. For instance, the ONS have found that 90% of the firms in the bottom 10% of the labour productivity distribution were micro-firms employing less than 10 people. In contrast, the top performing quartile of corporates are roughly two to five times more productive than the bottom quartile, and this gap between such companies has widened compared to other countries, such as Germany and France. (BEIS Productivity Review 2018).

The government announced the Business Basics Programme in its Industrial Strategy as one of several measures to resolve this productivity puzzle. The programme is designed to test innovative ways of encouraging SMEs to adopt existing technologies and business practices that can boost their productivity. The Business Basics Fund was established to support projects that will test new methods of encouraging SMEs to take up productivity-boosting ways of working. The fund is delivered in partnership with Innovate UK and the Innovation Growth Lab at Nesta.

The Adoption of Digital Automation Practices & Technology (ADAPT) Proof of Concept was one of 15 projects that was awarded funding through Round 1 of the Business Basics Fund in December 2018. The project was devised by Cheshire East Council’s Skills & Growth Company to test the effectiveness of ‘peer-to-peer best practice learning visits’ as a means of encouraging SMEs to adopt existing ‘digital automation’ practices and technology.

The Skills & Growth Company is ideally placed to test out this approach to best practice sharing. The company regularly engages with the ‘top 100’ performing businesses in East Cheshire and also delivers a programme of targeted business support to ‘High Growth SMEs’ on behalf of Cheshire East Borough Council. Through this business engagement activity it became apparent that there was industry leading best practice in automation practices by the top performing companies in the borough, but this is either completely unknown or under utilised by smaller businesses in the locality.

The ADAPT proof of concept selected two particular digital automation practices that were identified as being used very effectively by two high performing companies, with which to test out the concept of ‘peer-to-peer best practice learning visits’. These digital automation practices and technology are:

1. Marketing Automation - the use of software and systems to automate marketing processes such as customer segmentation, customer data integration (CDI), and campaign management. This form of automation is used by many national consumer brands to improve customer engagement across the whole customer lifecycle, leading to improved customer acquisition and retention rates.

Marketing Automation is used very effectively by RedEye International, a Digital Marketing company based in Crewe, Cheshire. RedEye are experts in employing data driven strategies and unique technologies and solutions. This provides their clients with customer insight and data that drives highly personalised and successful cross channel communications that attract, engage and convert prospects and customers. RedEye has grown significantly over the last 5 years and now employs 170 staff across 3 offices in London, Crewe and Milton Keynes, with a satellite office in Germany.

2. Manufacturing Automation – the use of systems that perform automated operations in a factory environment such as; processing, assembly, inspection or packing. Many national and international manufacturing companies are now using digital-integrated automated manufacturing to reduce manufacturing lead times, increase customisation (i.e. a batch size of one), improve product quality and increase labour productivity.

Manufacturing Automation practices are being used very effectively by Siemens plc at it’s Variable Speed Drives Factory in Congleton. Since 2015, Siemens’s factory in Congleton, Cheshire, has been on a journey to become a world class ‘digital factory’. This has required an ambitious transformation project involving increased digitalisation and use of automation technology and robotics in the manufacturing and assembly process. The Congleton factory is the groups’ largest manufacturing facility for variable speed drives in the UK. It manufactures 1.3 million variable speed drives per annum and employs approximately 500 staff.

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The proof of concept aims to test the hypothesis that providing peer-to-peer learning from industry leading expertise is a highly efficient and effective way to help SMEs overcome the unique challenges that act as barriers to their adoption of digital automation practices. These barriers to adoption include:

Figure 1 Adoption Barriers facing SMEs

1. Scale – SMEs do not have the resources required to access best practice expertise. This makes it harder to determine what ‘good’ looks like to make informed investment decisions. Providing access to best practice expertise that would not normally be available to SMEs will help overcome this barrier.

2. Risk of Failure – SMEs are reluctant to make investments in new technology/processes that don’t have a proven record of producing a return. This leads to risk aversion when it comes to adopting new technology and processes. Sharing examples of case studies of where businesses have made an investment and how this has impacted productivity performance will help overcome this risk aversion.

3. Skills – SMEs do not necessarily have the right expertise to identify their exact requirements. By providing access to world class expertise in particular technologies, the SMEs will be better equipped to specify what technology solutions they require.

The ADAPT project aims to test whether ‘peer-to-peer best practice learning visits’ will enable SMEs to overcome these adoption barriers. By taking small groups of SMEs on learning visits to companies that are industry leaders in the implementation of marketing automation or manufacturing automation, we hope to prove that ‘peer to peer learning’ is a highly efficient and cost effective way to encourage more business to innovate, reducing the long tail of productivity.

We are grateful therefore to our two industry partners, RedEye and Siemens, for hosting the best practice learning visits and sharing their expertise.

This report aims to add to the evidence base of what works in encouraging SMEs to take up productivity boosting ways of working. We have undertaken a robust approach to evaluation, using the overarching Evaluation Framework developed by BEIS, as the basis for our methodology.

ScaleResources | Access to best practice | Roi

Risk of FailureFinancial | Rate of Adaption | Expectations

SkillsExpertise | Design | Specification

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3. Evaluation Aims & Methodology

Robust evaluation is a key element of the Business Basics Programme. To ensure that there is a strong evidence base to support the findings from the proof of concept, an evaluation plan was developed during the early stages of the project design phase, using the BEIS Evaluation Framework as the basis, and shaped further by discussions with the team at NESTA.

As part of the evaluation planning, a ‘Logic Model’ was developed to describe the intended mechanism for change that the project seeks to influence, and to identify what data needs to be collected, at different stages of the project, to determine whether the intended change has been achieved.

To describe this ‘theory of change’ we looked at the ‘Stages of Adoption Model’ that BEIS had developed for the Business Basics Programme. This is illustrated below in Table 1. This model describes the various stages that a business moves through on its journey toward adopting innovative technologies and business practices.

Our logic model, illustrated in Figure 2, is based on the ‘theory of change’ that by providing businesses with access to industry leading best practice, through participation in a ‘best practice learning visit’, we can overcome some of the adoption barriers that prevent SMEs from moving from the earliest stages of adoption to the next. The outcome of the project activity is therefore expected to be an increase in the participant’s level of knowledge and awareness about marketing automation and manufacturing automation practices so that they have an increased level of interest in it and are persuaded of its usefulness. The intermediate impact of this outcome is a decision to adopt marketing automation or manufacturing automation and to develop an implementation plan.

The ultimate impact of the project is that the participating firms will invest in adopting marketing or manufacturing automation practices and technology, resulting in increased productivity and the creation of new value-adding jobs.

Table 1 - BEIS Stages of Adoption

Stage Description

Knowledge and awarenessThe firm is first exposed to an innovation, but lacks information about the innovation. During this stage the firm has not yet been inspired to find out more information about the innovation.

PersuasionThe firm is interested in the innovation and actively seeks related information.

DecisionThe firm takes the concept of the change and weighs the advantages/disadvantages of using the innovation and decides whether to adapt or reject the innovation.

Implementation

The firm employs the innovation to a varying degree depending on the situation. During this stage the firm also determines the usefulness of the innovation and may search for further information about it.

ConfirmationThe firm finalises its decision to continue using the innovation. It may also seek to optimise or expand its use of the innovation.

OpennessThe firms ‘absorptive capacity’ is increased and now actively seeks information on other innovations.

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Figure 2 ADAPT Project Logic Model

Due to the short-term nature of the project (6 months from project start to end), it is not realistic to expect to see the ultimate impacts, or even the intermediate impacts, of the activity within the project period as there could be a long time-lag between being persuaded of the usefulness of automation technology/ practices and a decision to implement it. The evaluation is designed instead to capture data on the Immediate Outcomes from the project, with some further qualitative research undertaken after the project activity is delivered, to assess the extent that the outcomes will lead to long-term sustainable impacts.

Following guidance in the BEIS Evaluation Framework, in order to have strong evidence that any outcome changes can be attributed to participation in the project, the evaluation has been designed to meet the minimum standard of a Maryland Scale Score of 3. This means that the evaluation:

• Includes a comparison group

• Collects before and after data

• Collects data for both the treatment and control group

Activities

Development of Best Practice Learning Visit Programmes

Promotional activity and business engagement activity

Collection of Expressions of Interest in participating

Completion of beneficiary and control group ex-ante evaluation surveys

Delivery of Best Practice Learning Visits

Completion ex-post evaluation surveys

Outputs

45 x SMEs completing an Expression of Interest (EOI) Form and Ex-Ante Evaluation Questionnaire

30 of the SMEs completed an EOI form attend a Best Practice Learning Visit to either Siemens or RedEye International

15 of the SMEs that completed an EOI form did not attend a best practice visit to act as a control group

Inputs

Staff time in project management, business engagement, marketing and evaluation (c135 days)

Cost of staff time from Siemens plc and RedEye International in planning and hosting the best practice learning visits

Cost of Expert Workshop Facilitator to ensure businesses take away practical learning

Promotional and marketing material

Immediate Outcomes

An improvement in the participants knowledge/awareness of marketing/manufacturing automation practices

An increase in the level of understanding and interest in marketing/manufacturing automation practices

A change in the participants view of the usefulness of the technology /practices

An improvement in the participants confidence/ability to make an informed decision whether to adopt or not

Intermediate Impact

The project overcomes the ‘adoption barriers’ affecting SMEs i.e. access to best practice to understand what ‘good’ looks like; reduction in risk aversion; and access to expertise to design and specify solutions

An increase in the likelihood that participants will adopt new automation practices/technology

Development of an investment/implementation plan

Ultimate Impact

Participant’s adopt marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology

Increased capital and revenue investment in new technology and skills

Increase in firm productivity

Creation of new jobs

Inputs

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Method for selecting the treatment group and control group

To establish the treatment group and a control group we commissioned Circle Leadership to undertake business engagement activity across Cheshire & Warrington in order secure a target of 45 x signed expression of interest (EOI) forms from businesses that met the project eligibility criteria. This would allow us to randomly select the businesses to attend the best practice visits and those who would not attend, to form the control group. The project eligibility criteria was set out as:

• A Cheshire & Warrington based SME (using the EU definition of <250 employees and <£50m turnover).

• Operating in a business sector relevant to the specific digital automation technology and practices i.e. in a manufacturing sector or B2C sector such as retail, hospitality, financial or professional services etc).

• Not exceeded the maximum De Minimus funding limit.

The business engagement activity involved a combination of; direct email, postal and telephone communication to a target list of around 350 businesses that met the project criteria and wider promotional activity through using social media, networking and various intermediary organisations. Examples of the promotional leaflets produced are included in the Appendices.

An EOI form was developed that captured the following details:

• Companies House Registration Number

• Business name, address and postcode

• Contact details

• Business sector and activity

• Age of business

• Number of employees

• Latest Turnover figures

• Details of any previous State Aid received

• Confirmation of which ‘Best Practice Learning Visit’ they wanted to attend

• Consent for us to process their data for the purposes outlined

• Confirmation that, after accepting a place on the visit, if they do not attend, they may be required to pay the value of the State Aid by means of cash payment

• Signature

A summary of all the signed EOI forms that were collected during the business engagement and promotional activity is included in the Appendices. In total, 48 signed EOI forms were received.

From this list, we offered places to 30 businesses at random, subject to completion of a pre-event survey. In some cases people were no longer able to make the available dates for the visits and withdrew from the project. In these cases we had to swap their place with someone else from the control group.

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Data Collection Method and Survey Design

All the businesses that completed an EOI form were asked to complete an ex-ante evaluation questionnaire (pre-event survey). A copy of the ex-ante questionnaire is included in the Appendices although the businesses were provided with a link to complete an online version of the survey.

The survey was designed to collect quantitative data on the Outcome Measures described in the project Logic Model in figure 2. The survey asked a series of questions and, using a Likert-type scale, asked respondents to rate their current level of:

• Knowledge/awareness of marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology;

• Understanding and interest in marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology;

• Perception of the usefulness of marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology to help achieve their business objectives;

• Ability to decide whether to adopt marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology or not.

The survey also sought to collect quantitative data on the intermediate impact measures, including:

• The Barriers preventing SMEs from adopting marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology;

• Likelihood that they will adopt marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology in the next 12-18 months;

• Details of implementation plans and further support required.

Immediately following the Best Practice Visits, participants were asked to complete an ex-post evaluation questionnaire. A copy of the ex-post survey is included in the Appendices. The survey used similar questions and rating scales as the Pre-event survey so as to be able to compare before and after scores on the Immediate Outcome measures and Intermediate Impact measures. In addition, the ex-post survey asked a number of questions about the quality and usefulness of the Best Practice Visits themselves to determine the extent to which the visits had achieved the intended impact.

Furthermore, to assess how much of the change in outcomes and impacts could be attributed to participation in the visits, a shortened version of the ex-post survey was sent out to the Control Group. Unfortunately not all businesses in the control group completed the ex-post survey which has limited the ability to compare the differences between the before and after results for both the treatment and control groups.

Data Analysis and Assessing the Counterfactual

The before and after data from the businesses that participated in the best practice visits (the treatment group) was analysed and compared to the before and after data from the businesses that did not attend (the control group). The results of this quantitative analysis is detailed in Section 5 of this report.

To establish causality between the immediate outcomes and longer-term impacts, and also to assess the extent to which the outcomes/impacts would have occurred anyway (the counterfactual), we carried out follow up qualitative surveys with a small sample of participants from the treatment group. These qualitative surveys were in the form of semi-structured interviews, providing the businesses with the opportunity to explain in more detail how they intend to apply the learning from the best practice visit and what impact these changes could have on their business’s productivity. The results of these qualitative interviews have been turned into company case studies and included in Section 6 of this report.

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Following the business engagement and marketing activity, 30 of the 48 businesses that returned an Expression of Interest form and completed a pre-event survey were invited to attend a best practice visit to either the Siemens Digital Factory in Congleton or RedEye International’s Head Office in Crewe.

Three visits were initially scheduled to be held at both Siemens and RedEye, with approximately 5 participants on each visit. However due to the availability of participants it was not possible to get an even distribution of 5 businesses per visit and a decision was made to combine two of the RedEye visits into one larger group. The dates of the best practice visits and the number of businesses that attended each visit are shown in Table 2, with a full list of participants available to view in the Appendices.

4. Description of Project Activity

Table 2 - Number of participants in the best practice visits

Each visit lasted a full day. A programme for the day was devised in conjunction with the expert staff at RedEye and Siemens, and workbooks were produced for each delegate containing copies of the slide-decks from all the presenters. The structure for both visits followed a similar format including a facilitated scene-setting session at the beginning and wrap-up session at the end. The core part of the day was given over to the expert hosts to deliver guided presentations and workshops to share their knowledge and best practice. As the subject matter for manufacturing automation is quite different from that of marketing automation, the method for sharing best practice at each company was quite different.

Date of Best Practice Visit

No. of Attendees to Siemens

No. of Attendees to RedEye

13th March 4

19th March 4

20th March 5

26th March 7

28th March 10

Total 15 15

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The Siemens Digital Factory visit focused on sharing Siemen’s own experience of becoming a world class digital factory.

Following the welcome and introductions by our facilitators, the MD of Siemens Congleton, Andrew Peters, presented an overview of the journey that the company has been on and an explanation of the business imperative for adopting digital transformation. He explained how since the economic downturn of 2008, the factory was under enormous pressure from the HQ in Germany to save costs and increase productivity. For the period leading up to 2015, the business therefore embarked on a relentless drive to ‘Lean’ their manufacturing processes through continuous improvement and

eliminating waste. By 2015 the business had got to the point where they were highly efficient at producing a fairly small range of ‘standardised’ products. However, when it came to responding flexibly to ‘non-standard’ customer requirements, the Lean manufacturing process struggled to cope.

At around this time there was a growing expectation from customers to ‘customise’ products to their own specific requirements. The ability to flex product output in line with customer demand and make standard products alongside customised products, whilst maintaining a continuous flow of production, required entirely new approaches to product development, assembly, quality inspection and packing.

The Lean Operations Manager, Graham Tapp, went on to explain how digital tools and automation systems have helped achieve this business transformation. For example, ‘Digital Twinning’ i.e. designing a production process in a virtual environment before implementing it in the physical environment, has reduced the lead time from product development to operation and has allowed the company to use the

existing factory floor space more efficiently, allowing the business to further expand and grow.

Following a working lunch, where participants had the opportunity to talk to the senior staff at Siemens and exchange ideas with each other, they were taken on a guided tour of the factory to see the digital tools and automation systems in practice.

The Best Practice Learning Visit to Siemens Digital Factory, Congleton.

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This included a demonstration of how robots are being used alongside workers in the packing area to ensure customised products are correctly packed and labelled.

The tour also included a demonstration of how Siemens use their ‘VR Cave’ to design new manufacturing assembly cells to continuously improve the efficiency of their operations.

Following the factory tour, we facilitated a final group workshop to reflect on what participants had learnt throughout the day and to distill this learning into key action points that they would take away to be able to apply in their own businesses.

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The focus of this visit was on the use of Marketing Automation practices and software, the format was different to the Siemens visit as there was no factory tour possible. The RedEye best practice visit was more workshop based, centering around providing information on the theory, uses and benefits of marketing automation, followed by a demonstration of RedEye’s software tools and finally group workshops looking at how marketing automation could be

applied to real life case studies of businesses participating.

To begin with, following the introductions and scene-setting, the expert presenters from RedEye went through an introduction to Marketing Automation. This explained how marketing automation tools can help marketers achieve their business goals throughout the entire customer lifecycle from; initial customer acquisition to; customer

development, retention and re-engagement. RedEye were able to provide examples of how different businesses have used automation tools successfully at different stages of this lifecycle.

They then went on to provide an overview of the Marketing Automation marketplace and provided useful guidance on how to select the most appropriate platform for each participant.

The Best Practice Learning Visit to RedEye International, Crewe.

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The afternoon session went into more detail on how to integrate customer data from different sources and how this can be used to segment their customer base and use this data to create automated triggers for communication campaigns.

Following this, two businesses from each group volunteered as real-life case studies to develop either a customer acquisition or customer retention strategy that the group could build an automated marketing campaign around. These strategies were developed through a facilitated workshop with all the participants contributing to the strategy development automated campaign process.

To conclude the best-practice learning visit, after the case study groups presented back their ideas, we held a final group workshop to reflect on the entire learning from the day and identified the immediate actions that they could take back to their businesses.

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5. Quantitative Analysis of Outcomes & ImpactsFollowing the best-practice learning visit, each participant was provided with an email link to the ex-post evaluation survey. A similar survey was also sent to the control group.

This ex-post survey data was then able to be compared to the ex-ante (pre-visit) survey data to assess whether participants knowledge, attitudes and behaviours had changed after the visit from what they were before the visit. The charts below show the extent of the change in the treatment group, compared to the change in the comparison (control) group.

Treatment Group sample size: • 15 respondents in the Manufacturing Automation

group;

• 15 respondents in the Marketing Automation group

• Control Group Sample Size:

• 5 respondents who did not attend either visit

Immediate Outcomes Measures

As described in Section 3, the survey was designed to collect quantitative data on the Outcome Measures described in the project Logic Model in figure 2. The charts below show the results of the analysis of the ‘before and after’ scores for both the treatment and control groups on the following Outcome Measures:

• Knowledge/awareness of marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology;

• Understanding and interest in marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology;

• Perception of the usefulness of marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology to help achieve their business objectives;

• Ability to decide whether to adopt marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology or not.

The best practice visits had a demonstrable outcome on the participants’ level of awareness on the two types of digital automation practices and technology.

• Overall participants’ level of awareness increased from an average score of 1.66 before the visits (below a basic level of awareness) to an average of 2.76 after the visits (3 = a good level of awareness).

• In comparison the control group respondents awareness level did not change from an average score of 2 (Basic level of awareness).

• The biggest increase in awareness was amongst those businesses that attended the Marketing Automation best practice visits to RedEye, demonstrating that this was the least well known of the two automation practices and technologies. This is perhaps not surprising as there has been a lot of coverage of Industry 4.0.

Outcome on participant’s ‘Awareness’ of the Automation Practices & Technology

No Awareness 0.00

Vague Awareness 1.00

Basic Awareness 2.00

Good Awareness 3.00

Full Awareness 4.00

Pre-VisitTreatment

Group

1.66Average 2.76 2.00 2.00

Post-VisitTreatment

Group

Pre-VisitControl Group

Post-VisitControl Group

Chart 1: Awareness of Automation Practices & Technology

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Participants’ knowledge and understanding of the two types of digital automation practices increased from an average score of 1.83 before the best practice visit to 2.62 following the best practice visit. Overall, this represents a shift from below a basic level of understanding initially to between basic and good understanding after the visit. This compares favourably to only a minor shift within the Control Group. There is clearly further to go however before participants feel that they have a full understanding of the specific technology and business practices, but as can be seen from the following questions, they now have the motivation to go and learn more.

Outcomes on how ‘Persuaded’ participants are about Automation Practices & Technology

None at all 0.00

Not quite sure 1.00

Basic Understanding 2.00

Good Understanding 3.00

Full Understanding 4.00

Pre-VisitTreatment

Group

1.83Average 2.62 1.40 1.50

Post-VisitTreatment

Group



Chart 2: Understanding of Automation Practices & Technology

Chart 3: Interest in Automation Practices & Technology

Chart 3 shows that the best practice visits have piqued the interest of the participants to learn more about Automation practices and technology. Whereas both the treatment group and control group were around an average score of 2 before the visits (Vaguely Interested but not actively seeking information), only the participant groups level of interest increased to an average score of 3 (Interested and actively seeking more information).

No Interest At All 0.00

Not Very Interested 1.00

2.00Interested but not actively

seeking information

3.00Full Understanding more information

Fully Persuaded 4.00

Pre-VisitTreatment

Group

2.28Average 3 2 2

Post-VisitTreatment

Group



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Participants also appear to be more persuaded than the control group that automation can help achieve their business objectives. Even before the learning visits, the treatment group were, on average, more convinced than the control group that it could be beneficial. After the visit, they were even more persuaded, whereas the control group had not changed their opinion.

This is further backed up by the chart below, showing the results of a question to just the participants that attended a visit:

As can be seen from the chart above, 100% of participants felt that the ADAPT best practice visit had changed their view of whether adopting automation could help to achieve their business objectives.

Chart 4: To what extent do you think automation can help achieve your business objectives?

Chart 5: To what extent has the ADAPT visit changed your view of whether adopting automation could help achieve your objectives?

48%52%

Somewhat

A lot

Not At All 0.00

Not Very Much 1.00

Not Sure 2.00

Somewhat 3.00

A lot 4.00

Pre-VisitTreatment

Group

3.1Average 3.5 2 2

Post-VisitTreatment

Group



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The participant’s confidence in their ability to make informed decisions on whether to adopt digital automation practices & technology has also increased significantly in comparison to the control group. The Treatment Group’s view of their confidence has increased from an average score of 2.0 to an average of 2.7 meaning they now feel quite capable to weigh up the advantages and disadvantages and decide whether to adopt or reject the innovation.

Intermediate Impact Measures

The survey also sought to collect quantitative data on the intermediate impact measures, although there was recognition that there may be a delay between the Immediate Outcomes and seeing any Impacts. The Intermediate Impact measures were identified as:

• The extent to which barriers preventing SMEs from adopting marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology have been overcome;

• The likelihood that the SMEs will adopt marketing/manufacturing automation practices and technology in the next 12-18 months.

• Details of implementation plans and further support required.

The charts below show the results of the analysis of the ‘before and after’ scores for both the treatment and control groups on these Intermediate Impact Measures:

Outcome on participants ‘Ability’ to decide whether to adopt Automation practices & technology

Chart 7: Has the best practice visit helped overcome any of the barriers that were preventing you from adopting automation?

Chart 6: How capable do you feel of deciding whether to adopt automation practices & technology?

A lot

Somewhat

Not at all

Not sure

Not very much

48%

31%

14%

4%

3%

Not At All 0.00

Not Yet 1.00

Quite Capable 2.00

Capable 3.00

Fully capable 4.00

Pre-VisitTreatment

Group

2.0Average 2.7 1.6 1.5

Post-VisitTreatment

Group



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The chart above shows that participant’s perceptions of the main barriers to adopting digital automation have changed following the visit. The number of respondents who stated that ‘automation is not for us’ has reduced following the visit, however there is an increase in the perception among the SMEs that they do not have the skills or capability to implement an automation solution and also increased recognition of the cost of implementing automation.

This demonstrates that the Best Practice Learning Visit has highlighted the benefits of digital automation practices & technology but also highlighted the challenges in progressing from the

‘Knowledge/ Awareness’, ‘Persuasion’ and ‘Decision Making’ Stages of Adoption to the ‘Implementation Stage’ (see figure 2 BEIS Stages of Adoption).

Although the best practice learning visit can help progression through these earlier stages of adoption, further support is necessary to enable a business to move all the way through to adoption. This is where other support programmes can come in for example, The Made Smarter Pilot which can offer grant funding support and leadership and skills development. In fact, several of the businesses that attended the Manufacturing Automation Best Practice Visit to Siemens have been referred to the Made Smarter Pilot for further support.

79% of the participants felt that the best practice visit helped to overcome the barriers that were preventing them from adopting automation either ‘a lot’ or ‘somewhat’. These barriers can include; lack of information about the technology/ practices; lack of resources/ capacity to implement new practices & technology; lack of skills/capability to implement

new practices & technology or; the financial cost of implementing new technology & practices.

The participant’s perceptions of the main barriers to adopting Automation practices & technology both before and after the best practice visits is illustrated below.

Chart 8: What are the main barriers preventing you from adopting automation?

Pre Visit

Post Visit

Already determined it is not for us

Cost of implementing an automation solution

(Lack of ) skills/capability to implement solution

(Lack of ) resources/capacity to implement solution

(Lack of ) information about marketing automation

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As predicted in our Proof of Concept hypothesis, we have not yet been able to witness a dramatic increase in participant’s plans to adopt new digital automation practices and technology as it will require further deliberation and research before a decision is made and the business can move to the implementation stage. This is confirmed by some of the qualitative interviews described later in the report, but also by the comments captured in the ex-post survey:

“All depends on gaining interest and momentum to invest in this going forward.”

“Will look at basic options, but taken from today we need to start again from scratch and build up our database.”

“By taking some of the learning from today, by mapping desired customer outcomes onto our business strategy we should be able to define specific campaigns to take forward. An assessment of current platforms can then be made to determine if we would benefit from a different/ better system which would need an ROI investment decision.”

“Review the information from Siemens and share with the Leadership Team to get buy-in.”

“Key learning and messages will be taken forward in our customer communications to demonstrate that we understand and can respond to the challenges and opportunities posed by smart manufacturing. Beyond this, we will identify customer-specific opportunities on a case-by case basis.”

“We have to find out how manufacturing automation can be applied to our business and what practical value it can bring to our manufacturing unit. Effectively do a costs benefits analysis. After this has been done we would then need to see how we could finance any projects deemed suitable.”

“We are collating details of what we want and need to ensure we fully scope the project and solution.”

Chart 9: How likely is it that you will adopt/implement a digital automation solution in the next 12-18 months?

Not At All Likely 0.00

Not Very Likely 1.00

Not Sure 2.00

Quite Likely 3.00

Very Likely 4.00

Pre-VisitTreatment

Group

2.8Average 2.9 2.2 2.0

Post-VisitTreatment

Group



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Although the likelihood to adopt digital automation in the next 12-18 months may not have increased significantly, 85% of participant’s report that the ADAPT best practice visits have changed their plans to adopt digital automation practices and technology either ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’.

This suggests that the best practice learning visits have been successful in changing the interest and inclination in adopting digital automation practices and technology but it will require further research, discussion and support before they can make a decision to implement it.

“After learning about some real examples of best practice and how this has improved businesses with tangible benefits, we would initially need access to some expert skills that could assist with main opportunities to bring this technology to our business and review what benefits and how we could introduce the technology. At this stage we would need to look at what finance is required to make these improvements. Once improvements are realised, we would quickly adopt the technology throughout the business.”

We asked participants what further support they would need to be able to adopt digital automation practices and technology. They were asked to rank various categories of support in order of priority. The chart below shows the percentage of respondents that ranked each type of support as the highest priority. This shows that 45% of respondents didn’t consider additional support as a high priority,

however of the remaining 55% of respondents, the most frequently cited priority was ‘Access to finance’, followed by ‘Access to additional technical skills’. This shows the importance of providing effective referral routes to innovation grant/ loan funding and Knowledge Transfer Networks or skills development programmes for those businesses that are ready to progress to this stage of adoption.

Further Support Required:

Chart 11: What further support do you need to adopt automation?

Chart 10: To what extent has the ADAPT project changed your plans?

Not at all

Not very much

Not sure

Somewhat

A lot

28%

55%

7%

7%

3%

45%

10%

14%

21%

10%

Further info on what best practice looks like

Leadership training

Access to additional technical skills

Access to finance

No support required

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6. Qualitative Assessment of Causality and the Counterfactual

Background

Extronics design and manufacture equipment for hazardous and harsh environments, such as wireless and personnel and asset tracking solutions. www.extronics.com

Why did you take part in the ADAPT Programme?

I wanted to gain knowledge and see examples of world-class manufacturing. At Extronics we feel we are at the start of the journey to being world class, and see many similarities with the journey Siemen’s have been through. Our board are fully supportive in collaboration and adopting best practices, so it was seen as an outstanding opportunity to learn more about world-class manufacturing.

Did it meet your expectations?

The visit not only exceeded our expectations but surpassed them. The assumption was that the visit may have focussed on pure automation with robots; however the trip encompassed all aspects of improvements, from value stream mapping, through the continuous improvement journey to fully automating some processes.

What did your learn and how has your attitude changed towards automation?

Transferring between traditional management of teams and having agile teams that are more adaptable and flexible to change. The ability to let the team develop freely whilst time-boxing the project was excellent - I have never heard of this before, and will be something we are looking to adopt. Also, the risk of ‘digitising bad processes’; whilst this seems like an obvious one, we have now made a point of reviewing our

processes, prior to investment in any potential MES systems. This will allow us to tighten the processes and learn lessons to allow us the best chance of getting it right first time. We have also ventured into the value stream mapping of our latest projects.

What changes have you made or plan to make, and what will the impact be?

We will be attempting to empower the workforce to work through improvements themselves. Adoption of employee involvement was a metric used at Siemens and I thought it was a great way to encourage the team to lead the improvements, which should ease the change process and realise productivity improvements quickly. We plan also to push our bespoke configuration to the end of the production process, to allow us to standardise the sub assemblies as much as we can.

Would you recommend the ADAPT Programme to other businesses?

Absolutely. The future of manufacturing in the UK has never been more important, and collaboration will be critical to achieve this. The Best Practice visits embody this completely, and should be adopted by manufacturing companies across the UK.

To establish causality between the immediate outcomes seen in earlier sections and the longer-term impacts, we carried out follow up qualitative surveys with a small sample of participants from the treatment group. These qualitative surveys were in the form of semi-structured interviews, providing

the businesses with the opportunity to explain in more detail how they intend to apply the outcomes from the best practice visit and what impact these changes could have on their business’s productivity.

The results of these qualitative interviews are summarised in the following pages.

Case Study 1:

Pete Reynolds, Production Manager, Extronics

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Background

Terry Lifts have over 50 years experience of designing and manufacturing disability and public access lifts for the domestic and commercial markets. www.terrylifts.co.uk


I felt I had a lack of knowledge of the digital marketing process and wanted to learn how to set up Marketing Automation and learn best practice. Terry Lifts sell lifts to many target markets, over varying time periods, with many touch points, so Marketing Automation will enable our business to connect with our customers.


More than; RedEye are experts in Marketing Automation. We covered the customer lifecycle from acquisition to conversion, setting objectives, creating campaigns and choosing the right KPIs.

What did you learn and how has your attitude changed towards marketing automation?

RedEye guided the seminar attendees through the process of setting up a Customer Flow action plan for new prospects and retention. With the other attendees I worked on a plan for new prospects. I now understand how marketing automation works; set up correctly, it is sure to increase our conversion and return on marketing investment. I am treating the project as a priority.


We are looking at Marketing Automation systems to see which will work best with our business, to understand how they will integrate, how much they will cost, their GDPR compliance, how secure they are and what support we would receive to implement them. Although it will take time to set up and improve; in the medium term I am looking to save time and increase our conversion rate by nurturing our prospects.


This is a great opportunity for SMEs, and an excellent insight into how large companies with significant marketing budgets exploit the technology and gave us an understanding of the marketing automation activities that these companies are using. I have taken away a list of Marketing Automation best practices which we are looking to utilise going forward.

Case Study 2:

Maxine Skelton, Marketing Coordinator, Terry Lifts

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Background

SpanSet are a leading manufacturer of products, systems and safety management for lifting, load control and height safety. Global customers include emergency services, military and a wide range of other sectors requiring safety equipment and load lifting equipment. www.spanset.com


I was recommended to take part by my MD, and although initially reticent, wary of vanity projects and of how relevant it would be; I was very surprised and it was a real eye-opener.


Yes, I was able to overcome any negativity and learn a great deal from Siemens about their journey and how greater digitisation could help our business to manufacture products quickly and efficiently at the right price.

What did your learn and how has your attitude changed towards manufacturing automation?

Whilst robots and automation may not be right for our business at the moment, I was able to understand how jargon such as lean manufacturing can really be put into practise and how they have overcome the hurdles along the way. It was also very beneficial to see how to avoid putting roles into silos and how the whole company can work together to close the gap between the customer and the supplier.


Although we are at the early stages of our journey, the visit reinforced that its not a quick-fix and although we have limited resources, we are identifying the steps we need to take to achieve lean and agile manufacturing processes. I also learnt a lot about the culture at Siemens and how they have managed to move away from the traditional adversarial, top down approach with a culture of openness and ownership of problems, rather than keeping everything secret.


Yes, I would definitely recommend looking at other examples of best practice; you always learn something from seeing things afresh and not in a sterile academic way. You will see things differently, whereas in your own business its harder as you see the same things everyday and don’t notice them, good or bad!

Case Study 3:

Derek Read, Operations Manager, SpanSet

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Background

Hydraulics Online was founded in 2004 with the aim of creating a specialist, independent and customer-led hydraulic equipment and solutions sourcing hub that could offer an alternative to traditional, product-led industry players. With 80 different hydraulic brands and customers in 130 countries, the UK Department for International Trade recognised their achievements by recently accrediting Hydraulics Online with its ‘Export Champion‘ status. www.hydraulicsonline.com


Marketing automation had been on my radar for some time, so when I was recommended to look into the ADAPT Programme by my Manager it seemed like a perfect opportunity to find out more.


Yes, it exceeded my expectations, the content was just the right mix of theory and hands-on workshop, plus the organisation and venue was excellent too.

What did your learn and how has your attitude changed towards automation?

Although I had attended previous marketing courses, this one stood out. The opportunity to visit RedEye, a market leader in automation and be guided by their expertise was very inspiring and beneficial.


The timing was very relevant as we are looking to implement greater automation. So starting with a clean canvas, I have been able to look how we can plan the customer lifecycle from email sign-up to re-engaging with lapsed customers to drive more sales conversions. We have 20 market segments (such as marine and off-shire), we plan to use MA to approach each segment individually with relevant content. As we have a high proportion of customers overseas, it will help us to both segment the market more effectively too and raise our profile. I am convinced it will have an impact, but its hard to quantify yet.


Certainly, you will learn a lot, meet marketers from other businesses and learn from their experiences too, as well as gaining new skills. It gave me a structure I can use to implement MA in the business.

Case Study 4:

Jenny Harper, Marketing Executive Hydraulics Online

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Through the post-event surveys, we asked participants to provide some further feedback on which aspects of the best practice visits were most useful, what worked well, what could be improved and what other topics they would like to see covered in future best practice visits. The comments received for each of these questions is provided below:

All of the participants stated that the best practice visit had been either ‘Useful’ or ‘Very Useful’.

What was most useful?

Comments from attendees to Siemens: Comments from attendees to RedEye:

Seeing how it was important to LEAN the processes, before AUTOMATING them

To re-align our current processes before jumping in at the deep end

Insight into Siemens implementation

The Factory tour

The way in which Siemens have gone on their journey to get to where they are today.

Exposure to funding and support potentially available

The factory tour and the lean discussion with Graham

Dialogue with Andrew Peters on business drivers, cultural aspects and high level plans

To see a process implementation that took years from commencement to delivery and to recognise that it’s not a quick fix even for well equipped organisations

To see what ‘good’ really looks like

50% was the way Siemens has adopted digital technology to enhance their manufactur-ing technology, 50% was the other best practices; e.g. ownership culture, trusting the expertise of the staff, very customer focused, first lean then digitize, be agile

Learning how digital automation needs to be applied after lean principles have been applied to our processes

Learning that we can start small and on a modular basis

Knowing that support is available and making contacts that could assist with any programme

It was extremely useful to see best practice and meet the management team at Siemens and other business stakeholders at the visit

Learning how to improve our productivity

All of it was good but the practical session was really useful to me

The whole day was really interesting and gave me a different perspective on how we operate as a business

All of it but understanding how preferences can help with responses

Customer journey

Workshop, and RedEye staff contribution

The workshop

Hearing from the other businesses and seeing real life successs story examples from Red-eye

All of it

The exercise in the afternoon

Having access to the expertise of the team at RedEye and sharing experience

Asking any questions with in-depth answers. The case study completed on Terry lifts gave me a good understanding of the approach we should take. Examples; What information we should request from the customer on a form to help/guide them on their journey, Make a closer connection in the email responses conveying 'care' through trust signals and advising them of what to expect when our surveyor visits

All of it

The overview of the current state of technology and industry practice

Collaborative case study exercise

Chart 12: How useful has the best practice visit been?

84%

16%

Useful

Very useful

7. Lessons Learned

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97% of participants said that the best practice visits either met or exceeded their expectations.

What worked well?

Comments from attendees to Siemens:

Comments from attendees to RedEye:

It was a day well spent, facilitating a wider perspective and some useful benchmarks

Very informative and thought provoking visit

Very useful and interesting

Improved knowledge

It’s a real eye opener to what is possible

Good informative snap shot of what can be achieved and the support available

It was brilliant and extremely useful for SMEs like us

Today provided real peer-to-peer learning and the sharing of best practice in action

Eye opening

The passion and commitment to the process which would be infectiously inspiring for those not having been exposed to this world before

Wide range of knowledge gained during the visit

It gives a head start with tips on how not to start any digital automation project

It represents an excellent learning opportunity

I took away ideas to help improve productivity in the workplace

Relaxed learning environment with talented people

For those that want knowledge into the area it was informative and I came away with a better understanding to allow me to easily judge whether we could or couldn't use it. As it wasn't a sales pitch about RedEye, I felt I made a more non biased view that this is for us rather than being sold a dream

Very well organised from start to finish

It was useful to meet others who were asking similar questions and to learn about the technology

Precise presentation, clearly explained automation

Brilliant

A chance to network and learn some very useful and relevant content

I was happy with the group size as there was only 5. I think this an excellent opportunity for Cheshire businesses so the group could have been larger 8 to 10 would still be fine.

Duration too short: I would happily lean more about Marketing Automation. For a day’s learning the length was fine.

Everyone from Skills & Growth, & RedEye were really helpful going above and beyond. Thanks for organising such an informative well run course. Looking forward to implementing Marketing Automation

Great information sharing providing answers to how best to schedule information

Very informative session, great to talk to like minded marketing professionals

The right lengthInformativeInteractiveGood balance between slides and workshopExceptionally well organisedVery nice venue

The event was attended by a well selected mix of delegates who were able to support each others’ learning process. The presentation was well pitched to meet the needs of the group the interactive presentation style ensured content was adapted to meet the needs of all who attended

I was doubtful about attending and actually found it very useful

Bite size demo of what can be done

Really useful information. Given access to specialist knowledge that you wouldn’t usually be able to access unless you’re a client

Chart 13: Has the best practice visit delivered on what you expected?

56%41%

3%

Exceeded expectations

Met expectations

Partially met expectations

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What could have been improved?

Comments from attendees to Siemens:

Some knowledge of Lean Manufacturing Principles is required to get the most out of the visit

More delegates attending

Possibly more time asking company specific questions to the group to see opinions about problems currently faced

More delegates to enable more group discussion and best practice sharing

I enjoyed the day enormously and learnt a lot. Opportunities to take direct action will, however be limited when compared to others in a true manufacturing environment

Direct follow-through on living the dream of what we saw, especially exposure to a kick-start to the bottom-line for SMEs that don't quite have the luxury of the generational approach to business improvement that Siemens has

We expected a lot more on the robotics side of things

Not sure

Less Powerpoint presentations and more examples

Very good visit, nothing to add

Possibly specialise in different aspects, lean, automation techniques etc

I viewed this visit as a reflection of where my company is and to start the thought process of where it could go to; as it delivered on this I think that little could be done to improve

Electronic copies of the presentation material/slides made available at the end of the visit

For me, a slightly larger focus on practical implementations and less theory

More discussion about the tools/companies available

Nothing, it was honestly the best course I have been on in some time

It couldn't I don't think as it would ruin the learning element and technical theory and turn it more into a sales pitch

Not at all

Perhaps some more demonstrations of the systems and interfaces?

In depth understanding of RedEye costings/finance options

It couldn't

Some of the content in the presentations was a little difficult to see at times due to being displayed on TVs rather than large screen projection so perhaps consideration of zoom or different display methods?

I suspect my marketing knowledge was more advanced than other attendees, so therefore I would have liked to have explored the RedEye system hands on. I kept asking for some guide costs, but no figures were mentioned

Nothing

It was great

I think it was very well organised and have no ideas for improvement

Larger seminar room

Start earlier, finish later, get more content in

Can't think of anything in particular

Comments from attendees to RedEye:

Chart 15: Would you recommend attending an ADAPT best practice visit to others?

Chart 14: Could you have gained the learning you got from today without attending the visit?

100%

No

Yes

No

Partially

Yes

62%

35%

3%

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8. ConclusionsBased on the quantitative and qualitative analysis described earlier in this report, the table below summarises how successful the project activity has been in affecting a change in these outcomes and intermediate impacts and how this has contributed toward participants’ progression through the ‘Stages of Adoption’:

In summary, the proof of concept has demonstrated that the approach of taking SMEs on ‘Best Practice Learning Visits’ to larger corporates, is an effective means of changing participants’ awareness of, understanding, interest in, and ability to decide whether to adopt digital automation.

We found that 79% of SMEs participating in the POC felt that the best practice visit helped to overcome the barriers that were preventing them from adopting automation and 85% reported that the ADAPT best practice visits have changed their plans to adopt digital automation practices and technology either ‘somewhat’ or ‘a lot’.

Although it is too early to see the impacts of the activity in terms of clear investment decisions to adopt marketing automation or manufacturing automation, and the resultant increase in firm productivity and new value adding jobs, the qualitative feedback is that participation in ADAPT has successfully helped SMEs to progress through the first two stages of adoption so that they are now in the decision making stage, actively taking steps to validate the advantages/disadvantages, costs vs benefits and Return On Investment (ROI) of adopting the practices/technology.

This POC has also demonstrated that although the concept of ‘best practice learning visits’ is successful at helping SMEs to progress through the knowledge/awareness and persuasion

stages of adoption and reach the Decision making stage, additional support is needed to help SMEs progress further and ultimately adopt the specific technologies and practices. In particular, the costs of implementing automation practices/ technology and the lack of skills to implement it, have been identified as the barriers to adoption that have become even more acute following the participant’s increased level of awareness and understanding.

ADAPT can therefore be seen as an effective ‘entry point’ intervention for SMEs at the very earliest stage of adoption, where they do not know enough about specific digital technologies and practices to yet be inspired to find out more, or to access the innovation funding and support available. To capitalise on the outcomes and impacts from ADAPT activity though, the project does need to link effectively with the wider innovation support that is available through the ‘Innovate UK family’ and other government initiatives, for example; KTN, UK Smart Grants, Innovation Loans, Digital Catapult, Made Smarter Pilot, Growth Hub Grants etc.

Stage of Adoption Description Participants Stage BEFORE the project Participants Stage AFTER the project

1. Knowledge & Awareness

Firm lacks information about the innovation. During this stage the firm has not yet been inspired to find out more information about the innovation.

This is the stage that most of the SMEs were at before participating in the best practice learning visits. Some were aware of the two types of digital automation practices but were not yet inspired to actively seek out more information.

Survey results show that participant’s level of awareness and knowledge has considerably increased. All the participants are now more interested and motivated to continue learning about Marketing Automation or Manufacturing Automation.

2. Persuasion

The firm is interested in the innovation and actively seeks related information/details.

Most of the participants were not yet at this stage. They were not actively seeking related information and had not yet been persuaded of the benefits of automation practices and technology.

The surveys and interviews demonstrate that the best practice visits were successful at raising the level of interest in Marketing and Manufacturing Automation Practices. Respondents report an increase in their perception of the usefulness of the practices/ technology in achieving their business objectives. The majority of participants are now at this stage.

3. Decision

The firm takes the concept of the change and weighs the advantages/disadvantages of using the innovation and decides whether to adopt or reject the innovation.

Most of the participants were not at the stage where they could weigh the advantages/ disadvantages of using digital automation and were not in a position to decide whether to adopt or reject the technology and practices.

Most participants now report feeling more confident and capable of deciding whether to adopt or reject the automation practices and technology for their business and confirm that the visit has changed their plans. They are able to articulate their long term plans but are not yet in a position to commit to a decision until they complete further research and evaluation.

4. Implementation

The firm employs the innovation to a varying degree de-pending on the situation. During this stage the firm also determines the benefits of the innovation and may search for further information about it.

None of the SMEs engaged in the project were employing marketing automation or manufacturing automation practices and technology.

Although none of the participants have yet started to adopt the automation practices, several have articulated clear plans to start trials with a view to rolling out elements of automation in the medium term.

5. Confirmation

The firm finalises its decision to continue using the innovation. It may also seek to optimise or expand its use of the innovation.

None of the businesses are at this stage. None of the businesses are at the stage to confirm expansion in the use of automation.

6. OpennessThe firms ‘absorptive capacity’ is increased and now actively seeks information on other innovations.

None of the businesses were at this stage. None of the business are yet at this stage.

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9. Recommendations

1. Expanding the delivery area from a Cheshire & Warrington sub-regional level to a wider ‘Northern Powerhouse’ geography.

• This would require collaboration with the LEPs and Growth Hubs in other LEP areas. During the Proof of Concept, the project team worked closely with the Made Smarter Pilot team at The Growth Company and have already referred businesses to the Made Smarter Pilot. An expansion of the project into Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region would be welcomed by the local Growth Hubs there.

• This would also require the identification of more ‘exemplar’ companies to host best practice visits in participating LEP areas. Through partnership with the LEPs and Growth Hubs in each area it should be possible to drive recruitment in a similar way to what was achieved in Cheshire.

2. Increasing the number of best practice visits by broadening the focus to include different digital automation practices and technology. Examples of other digital automation practices and technology that could be the focus for future best practice visits, in addition to Marketing Automation and Manufacturing Automation, include:

• Blockchain – i.e. using distributed ledger systems, cryptocurrencies and digital apps to improve the speed and cost efficiency of business transactions.

• Collaborative Tech – i.e. Cloud, Sharing and Workplace Tools to allow people to collaborate remotely in a safe and efficient way. This would be applicable to many SMEs that collaborate with external partners on projects.

• Lean Office/Business Process Automation – i.e. using the principles of Lean to eliminate inefficiency and standardise back office functions. This can include value stream mapping business processes and identifying opportunities to move from paper based to digital systems for standard business processes.

3. Enhancing the delivery model to include an effective referral mechanism to the wider innovation ‘ecosystem’ to support with implementation planning.

• This would require close partnership working with the wider Innovate UK family, so that the most appropriate follow-up support can be identified and referrals can be made to the correct organisation.

The recommendation of this report is that ADAPT should progress from a proof of concept to a full scale trial.

A full scale trial would seek to test if the success of the best practice visits at proof of concept stage can translate to other digital practices & technologies and if it can be effectively expanded into other geographic areas. A full scale trial would also seek to assess how peer-to-peer best practice visits compare to alternative approaches such as online ‘best practice’ guides and one-to-one consultancy. A full scale trial could incorporate:

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The Skills & Growth CompanySandbach Enterprise Centre, Wesley AvenueSandbach, CW11 1DG

Email: [email protected]: 0300 123 5001www.skillsandgrowth.co.uk

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