To protect UK industry from rising global disruptions, the University of Sheffield AMRC is investing in supply chain research to ensure the sector remains agile, innovative and operationally secure.

Victor Shi, supply chain theme lead at the University of Sheffield AMRC, sets out the current state of the UK’s supply chain infrastructure and some of the strategic projects driving the AMRC’s work for 2026.

“Increased threats we are currently seeing across the world is exactly why the AMRC is investing resources to build ground breaking supply chain research,” said Victor. 

“The UK government has identified 13 supply chains which are critical to the national infrastructure. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) within these groups are facing massive capacity constraints, driven by surging commercial demand and ambitious government initiatives. To meet these challenges, the UK supply base must significantly increase both its capability and capacity. If it fails to keep pace, we risk seeing yet more manufacturing capability drift offshore.”

To tackle these industrial challenges, the AMRC is taking a two-track approach:

•  “Increased threats we are currently seeing across the world is exactly why the AMRC is investing resources to build ground breaking supply chain research,” said Victor. 
•  “The UK government has identified 13 supply chains which are critical to the national infrastructure. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) within these groups are facing massive capacity constraints, driven by surging commercial demand and ambitious government initiatives. To meet these challenges, the UK supply base must significantly increase both its capability and capacity. If it fails to keep pace, we risk seeing yet more manufacturing capability drift offshore.”

As the AMRC looks towards the future, supply chain, start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs represent the four critical pillars of the manufacturing ecosystem that the organisation is dedicated to supporting. 

Victor said: “The strategic alignment of what we call the ‘4S framework’ helps to provide the operational blueprint to support businesses at every stage of their journey. The AMRC is uniquely positioned by translating technical capability assessments into compelling investment cases that is a vital driver of UK manufacturing landscape transformation.”

In 2026, the AMRC is working on a number of projects related to supporting and strengthening the UK supply chain. 

Its Factory+ IoT platform was showcased as a case study at the World Economic Forum, as part of it Transitioning Industrial Clusters Initiative - which looked into how its scalability and open-data architecture and how it’s able to support full supply chains -  moving away from a heavy document past to a data-based future.  

AMRC spotlight moment with the World Economic Forum 

The AMRC was featured by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a case study in its latest report, ‘Five Steps for Digital Collaboration in Industrial Clusters,’ highlighting how open data and visualisation overcome collaboration barriers.

Jon Hall, lead engineer in the AMRC’s integrated manufacturing group, presented at a WEF workshop on intelligent data collaboration, showcasing Factory+, the AMRC’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform.

He explained how Factory+ replaces fragile, point-to-point integrations with a scalable, unified namespace architecture capable of supporting full supply chains. Jon emphasised that the next challenge is establishing shared trust and standardized structures across company boundaries. This collaborative effort helped shape the WEF’s new data collaboration framework for industrial impact.

Looking at tackling fragmented industrial data, the AMRC is developing standardised interoperability practices to transform the UK supply chain from a document-heavy past, to a seamless, data-centric future.

Enabling supply chain interoperability

Fragmented data and information practices are hindering collaboration. As manufacturing shifts from document-centric to data-centric, information needs to be discoverable, understandable, interoperable and fit for purpose.

The AMRC is exploring interoperability practices to streamline data sharing and reduce integration efforts across the supply chain - with the aim to shape practices for industry.

Alongside this, Jonathan Eyre, an AMRC senior technical fellow, has secured a four-year UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to solve the critical challenge of enabling interoperability - the ability for systems to exchange resources to work together seamlessly.

Over the next year, Jonathan’s fellowship programme will on focus on three areas:

• Diagnosing real industrial need — gathering cross-sector insight from suppliers, manufacturers and technology providers to identify where system incompatibilities have the greatest operational impact.
• Developing a core interoperability approach — integrating existing methods with new techniques to establish robust foundations that support AI tools and effective system communication.
• Gap analysis and pilots — delivering targeted, small-scale pilot activity to enable purposeful organisational information sharing, reducing errors, boosting efficiency and supporting sustainability practices.

By integrating AI-driven mapping, risk-assessment frameworks and digital-twin simulations, the AMRC is transforming static supply chains into dynamic systems that automate visibility and optimise decision-making across the aerospace and nuclear sectors.

Data-driven decision making 

The manufacturing intelligence team at the AMRC — which spans sites in South Yorkshire, Wales and Lancashire - is developing digital thread-based decision-support tools to transform supply chain visibility. In collaboration with the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, which the AMRC is a member of, the team using AI to automate supply chain mapping, integrating product and logistics data into a single, coherent flow.

Key advancements include a supplier assessment framework that ranks partners on risk and sustainability, even with partial data. This is supported by capacity modelling to improve resilience in the aerospace and nuclear SMR sectors. 

Using discrete event simulation, the team also tests ‘what-if’ scenarios to weigh cost, risk and emissions trade-offs. A recent case study applied these methods to aerospace circularity, using digital product passports to track aircraft seat recycling. Ultimately, the team is moving supply chain design from static assessments to dynamic, evidence-based decision-making.

In addition, the AMRC is developing an AI-powered portal that transforms fragmented datasets and reports into a dynamic, conversational search platform.

AI enabled supplier analysis

AMRC North West has been working on demonstrating an AI-powered portal to revolutionise supplier discovery. By taking in both structured datasets and unstructured reports, the system builds a dynamic database enriched with metadata on capabilities, location and performance.

The platform features natural language search, allowing users to find suppliers conversationally - for example, searching for ‘UK-based EV battery enclosure manufacturers.’ The system instantly filters results and provides key performance indicators like financial stability and market share to assist in shortlisting. This too resolves a lot of challenges in the supply chain as it digitises supply chain mapping, enhancing visibility and resilience across the UK industrial landscape.

Discover how the AMRC can solve your supply chain challenges and scale your business here.