M4 Intelligent Manufacturing

Factories of the future

Tomorrow’€™s factories will be intelligent, highly responsive units—components will be assembled utilising ‘Internet of Things’€™ technologies to talk to machines and people.

Meggitt Modular Modifiable Manufacturing (M⁴) is leading the revolution, turning traditional factory layout and flow on its head with a ground-breaking combination of present and future technology.

Maximum performance

M⁴ will enable us to make a wider variety of components in each factory, maximise use of all our state-of-the-art equipment and integrate new technologies when they come on stream. Big data, captured at each stage of manufacturing, will feed into improved assembly and design, taking each of our factories closer and closer to performance gold.

Tomorrow’€™s technology today

M⁴ is well under way. Backed by the Aerospace Technology Institute, IBM, the UK’€™s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Coventry, we started work on the three-year initiative in 2014. The first phase is our Closed Loop Adaptive Assembly Workbench (CLAAW).

This pioneering smart workbench will enable operators to build a wider variety of products and drive a quantum leap in output, quality, repeatability and traceability.

• laser and video guides show operators which parts to pick, place and fit in sequence
• built-in cameras connect operators to experts for training and problem solving in real time
• cameras keep detailed records throughout assembly, enhancing traceability and capturing ideas for improvement
• research continues into integrating future technologies such as machine vision and smart glasses