Shoestring is an IfM programme focussing on delivering simple, low cost digital solutions and capabilities to industrial SMEs - especially those SMEs who have had limited experience with deploying digital solutions. As India is home to some 19,000,000 small industrial companies it is a natural region to explore!

Squeezed between the UK Christmas & New Year celebrations and Indian Khumb Mela and Kite Festivals the Shoestring programme went to India.  Organised by Ajith Parlikad and Anand Mukherjee through their collaborative contacts at IIT Indore a week long series of workshop and seminars were run in two destinations - Nashik 100 miles north east of Mumbai and Indore.

IIT Indore's technology incubator and transfer organisation DRISHTI CPS were the main hosts overall while at Nashik the Mahindra Institute of Quality (part of the Mahindra group) provided excellent local arrangements.  The main events were Shoestring awareness workshops which were run in each of Nashik and Indore with 50-60 attendees from local companies at each of the events.

Shoestring founder, Professor Duncan McFarlane, chaired these workshops which helped attendees identify digital priorities for their business. Subsequent single company workshops were also run with a number of the companies attending to help them specify customisations to Shoestrings off-the-shelf starter solution range. Anand Mukherjee ran these workshops before heading off to get married - we wish him all the best! And on the spare day Ajith and Duncan gave seminars to a large crowd of inquisitive IIT students.

So it was a busy week but in the gaps there were opportunities for visits to India's largest winery, a fort and temple at Maheshwar, an all night food market in Indore, a frenzied saree purchasing session and plenty of rather hair-raising road experiences! Fantastic!

Find out more about Digital Manufacturing on a Shoestring.