Smarter Factory Gateway

The Smarter Factory Technology Gateway is a centre of excellence for Industry 4.0/5.0, driving digital and green transformation to support innovative enterprises and shape the future of manufacturing.

Smarter Factory Core Expertise

Digital Business Tools: Supporting Operational Excellence and Data-driven Decision making

Data-driven Energy Efficiency. Supporting Sustainable Manufacturing and Product lifecycle management (PLM).

Smart Manufacturing: Supporting improvements in design, productivity and maintenance.

Cognitive Robotics and Vision Systems: Supporting adoption of Industry 4.0, automated and zero-defect processes

Simulation Models for Production: Supporting Digitalisation of Processes and Business Intelligence

Engineer working on a tablet with 8-axis high precision scanning arm in the background

Working in close collaboration with Enterprise Ireland, the Gateway will partner with all of industry in the manufacturing value chain, in research projects leading to impactful innovation.

At the core of these research partnerships lies a shared belief in the power of data. The Smarter Factory’s emphasis on harnessing data, through cyberphysical systems (CPS), the Internet of Things (IoT) and edge devices, lays a foundation for the effective deployment of intelligent systems, cognitive robots, computer vision systems and artificial intelligence (AI).

The University’s Researchers bring deep expertise in industrial automation, manufacturing systems, control systems, data acquisition, machine learning, simulation, digital twins, algorithm development, intelligent business tools and the industrial data space.

A core priority of the gateway will be the practical applications of these advanced digital technologies through demonstration in real-world industrial scenarios, where new insights from smarter data can drive improved quality, predictive maintenance, increased capacity, cost reductions, improved efficiency and more sustainable operations.

Supported by an Industry Advisory Board, industry partners and regional stakeholders, the activities and strategies for the Smarter Factory Technology Gateway are focused on enabling industry to address the opportunities arising from Industry 4.0/5.0, the digitalisation of manufacturing, and advanced in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support the development of agile, sustainable and resilient manufacturing operations and exploit the innovation and funding potential of National and European Research Programmes.

Supports available in the Smarter Factory Technology Gateway

The Smarter Factory Technology Gateway provides dedicated Digital Strategists to support and connect with companies. They will assess business models, metrics and challenges; identify digital maturity; address knowledge gaps; and guide value-driven business transformation.

Specialist training programmes are available to nurture the talent needed for industry-wide digital and green transformation, including;

Masterclasses in Data Analytics & Machine Learning, Cyber-physical Systems & IoT, Databases and Data Visualisation, and Digital Twins in Production Systems
Specialist Skills Modules in; Industrial Control Systems (DeltaV, Siemens, Allen-Bradley, Mitsubishi), Machine Vision systems (Cognex, Keyence), Robotics (UR, Kuka, ABB, Mitsubishi, Comau), and in many areas of instrumentation, supervisory control and data acquisition
Certificate in Leadership in Digitalisation of Manufacturing
Masters in Digitalisation of Manufacturing (Collaboration with Irish Medtech Skillnet)

Specialist Research and Training Labs are available at the TUS Moylish and Coonagh Campuses in Limerick to enable Companies to ‘Test before they Invest’ – completing development and experimentation on software tools and/or equipment in a pilot lab or testbed before deploying to the factory environment.