Theme $-$ Digitalisation

$$Together$,$ digitalisation and sustainability are the two most powerful forces that we are going to see in manufacturing over the next decade$.-$The Institution of Engineering $($IET$)$ and Technology, $2022$

$$The increasing digitalisation of all aspects of engineering requires the up$-$skilling and re$-$skilling of engineers and technicians.$-$ Royal Academy of Engineering, UK

$$Data and digitalisation came through as an important challenge for industry, which needs to deliver industry $4\mathrm{.}0,$ including digital twins$-$ UK Research and Innovation $($UKRI$),2022$

$$ Digitalisation means "Transforming business processes by leveraging digital technologies, ultimately resulting in opportunities for efficiencies and increased revenue" $($One of the online definitions$).$ In contrast, digitisation tends to be used in a narrower scope of converting analogue data to digital data which supports the bigger digitalisation picture.

$$ A typical digitalisation strategy is built upon underpinning elements such as improved data management, increased network insight and operation and delivering for stakeholders. Perceived benefits include furthering business efficiency, driving enhanced performance, creating new business propositions, saving of costs and time, and improved utilisation of data and its management thereby improving the transparency of the overall process.

$$ Digitalisation of engineering firms and their business markets is seen as an evolving phenomenon. Under the slogan "Digital Enterprise $$ Thinking industry further!" irrespective of the size, engineering and manufacturing companies can benefit from digitalisation of processes as these can be linked seamlessly to create new solutions and thereby new business models for the future to achieve increased flexibility and productivity. With digitalisation becoming crucial to the way economies operate in a post$-$pandemic future, Gartner surveys show $91\%$ of businesses engaged in some form of digital initiative, with $87\%$ of senior business leaders saying that digitalisation is a priority.

$$ However, for a significant number of small to medium scale engineering and manufacturing companies around the globe, full digitalisation is still a long way to go$.$ To obtain necessary assistance, companies often face lengthy, difficult processes to select new digital technology solutions from the available options. Several governments offer incentives. For example, UK$$s $$Help to Grow: Digital$$ initiative supports digitalisation with a dedicated online support service and gives a financial discount of up to $50\%$ of the cost of an approved technology solution, up to a maximum of $5,000$ for the eligible businesses. In $2022,$ UK government announced a further $260$ million to boost manufacturing in the medical research sector to specifically build up Britain$$s manufacturing base in the process.

$$ A key aspect of digitalisation is its heavy reliance upon the availability of data. For example, digital twins. These can be used to create dynamic data repositories through mapping and linking all the industrial manufacturing stages in a virtual world.

$$ In an increasingly digitalised data$-$heavy engineering environments, latest technologies and computational power are essential in the design and manufacturing processes. For example, generative design which requires massive computational power to build designs that were not possible with traditional manufacturing methods. Generative design leverages digitalisation in driving sustainability elements such as value chain optimisation, energy efficiency, material efficiency among others.

$$ Standards: Digitalisation being a significant commitment to safeguard the future of engineering and manufacturing businesses and their customers, international standards have been refined to address emerging issues and risks. Newly recognised ISO standards within the ISO $41000$ series support sustainable digitalisation. ISO $27001,$ the Information Security Management System Standard, consolidates best practice in enforcing stricter regulations on data protection in information security management that can align with any other ISO Management System. ISO $19650$ assists the pursuit of greater digitalisation including standardising the legal or contractual rights and duties.

$$ Example emerging trends related to digitalisation include $($a$)$ digital tools and technologies $($e$.$g$.,$ digital twin, edge to cloud solutions, reimagined user interface UI$/$UX for Operational Technology environments, seamless integration and so on$),($b$)$ analytics $($i$.$e$.,$ predictive analytics and cloud solutions to access data from the past, the present and predict the future of engineering assets$),($c$)$ security $($i$.$e$.,$ understanding and application of standards and directives, trusted partners as suppliers to protect customers etc.$),$ and $($d$)$ skills development and community building to future$-$proof engineering education to match sector needs, and to create a pro$-$active a