Problem
GLRDSC identified that its members wanted to improve their digital skills, focusing on low-cost digital technologies. Their manufacturers came from various backgrounds, including manufacturing, consulting, IT and government organisations working in the defence industry.
Solution
A hackathon was conducted for GLRDC. The objectives of the hackathon were to support networking, introduce low-cost digitalisation, build digital knowledge and confidence and lay the foundations for delivering a future technical hackathon.
As part of this hackathon, attendees identified potential digital solutions areas. Participants were split into groups and guided through developing a specification for a low-cost digital solution. Five different teams developed five specifications for solutions specifically for the defence industry.
The hackathon was broken into four key parts based on industry workshops the University of Cambridge team conducted previously. These included:
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Digital needs awareness workshop
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Solution areas chosen by groups
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Key improvements and challenges expected
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Specified solutions
Some key challenges related to defence became apparent from the hackathon. There is a need to meet data security and certification requirements that are not present in the manufacturing industries. Generally, most of the benefits expected from deploying digital solutions were the same as other industries (improved efficiency and customer delivery). However, there was more of a focus on speeding up the introduction of new products and operational efficiency within the defence companies present.
The workshop structure used has been updated based on participant feedback and reviews of the results to use it with other companies to design new low-cost digital solutions.
