The Apollo Forum launched its first ‘hack’ event at the University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), focussing on aligning the value chain across different sectors to explore digital twin opportunities.

The Value Hack investigated one of the four key themes outlined in the Apollo Protocol white paper, and was held at the AMRC’s flagship Factory 2050 facility in Sheffield, attracting professionals working in the field of digital twins or broader information management problems across the manufacturing and built-environment sectors. 

Jonathan Eyre, senior technical fellow for digital twins at the AMRC, said that the Value Hack also served as the inaugural launch of the Apollo Forum, and allowed the built-environment and manufacturing sectors to come together with support of the technology sector to articulate problems and identify the value a solution would have.

He added: “Both sectors currently manage their information differently and as such struggle to articulate the knock-on implications of change, especially through the complex nature of supply chains. 

“Establishing this forum mechanism as an open place to discuss problems together allowed everyone to see the value impact for their own organisation, supply chains and broader remit across sectoral interfaces.”

An artists impression from Natalka Design, capturing some highlights of the interconnected world and value we operate within alongside aspects of three example value chains.

The Apollo Protocol was published by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) with contributions and support from and other organisations, including the AMRC, which is part of the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult, who also contributed to the paper. 

Following the paper’s proposal for a common cross-sectoral framework to aid the development of digital twins, the first Innovate UK-funded ‘hack’ event, intended to identify use cases for better data and information management across the sectors to develop new solutions; and encourage cross-sector learning. 

The hack saw participants bringing in their own experiences to look at practical, real world examples of needs and opportunities around data and information management, before mapping out a value network.

Highlighting the outcome of the hack event, Jonathan said: “The value network that was produced live during the event allowed individual use cases as puzzle pieces in their own right to be captured, whilst also seeing the broader unification of connections building upon each other as a systems-of-systems approach.”

This value network, or Value Knowledge Graph, will act as a working document to identify all types of existing and potential opportunities for cross-sector value chains of digital twins and  will be open-sourced shortly.

The Apollo Forum  initiative is fully backed through Innovate UK as part of the move to develop the UK’s Cyber Physical Infrastructure. 

The next Apollo Forum hack will focus on performance of assets and processes between the sectors, exploring the ‘performance gap’ commonly between what has been designed and what is produced. 

Aimed at manufacturers, asset owners and built environment professionals, the event will be held on Monday, December 12 from 9.30am-4pm at the MTC’s Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre (AMTC) in Coventry, also part of the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult.

Find out more details about The Performance Hack and register to attend the in-person event or for the online call here.