Welcome to Issue 11 of the IfM Review, in which we consider how digitalisation is changing manufacturing and how organisations can best develop strategies to respond.

This issue features an article by Dr Carlos López-Gómez and Dr David Leal-Ayala from the IfM’s Policy Links Unit on the opportunities and barriers to capturing value from digitalisation; a supply chains perspective on incremental vs radical initiatives from Dr Jag Srai and Dr Paul Christodoulou; and an update from Professor Duncan McFarlane on the high profile 'Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring' project.

We bring practical lessons from manufacturing through case studies and examples of research in practice and industry case studies. These include a pilot project led by Dr Veronica Martinez to trial blockchain at Caterpillar; an example in the food sector on improved transparency and traceability with AMT Fruit by Dr Mukesh Kumar and Rob Glew; studies on AI and supply chain analytics by Dr Alexandra Brintup; insights into the connecting digital into the customer experience by Dr Mohamed Zaki; and research using digital twins to manage assets and infrastructure by Ajith Parlikad. We round off with an article from Dr Chander Velu on what the next wave of digital disruption might herald.

We also share insights into student industry projects, and how they help us to provide hands-on education programmes which train the manufacturing leaders of the future.

We hope you find this issue valuable and enjoyable.

Best wishes,

Tim Minshall

Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation, & Head of the Institute for Manufacturing