Driving Digitalisation in SMEs
A Case Study conducted with Made Smarter Adoption - North West
Case Study Authors
Claire Scott (Made Smarter Adoption North West), Dr Karen Lancaster (University of Nottingham), and Dr Susan Lattanzio (University of Bath)
Context
Digital technologies have the potential to deliver significant economic, societal, and environmental benefits. However, the challenge is that the UK manufacturing sector is not adopting these technologies as quickly as our competitors. Given that around 99% of UK manufacturing companies are classified as small or medium-sized businesses (SMEs), it is crucial to ensure that these organisations are considered and that research outputs are translated into relevant insights and tools for them.
Objective
The PLD seeks to create impact from its research. To achieve this, we aim to 'translate' each piece of research into a practical and useful artefact - whether an insight or a tool -for industry. The challenge is that organisations face different constraints. The goal of the Made Smarter Adoption and PLD collaboration was to test these artefacts, at scale, with SMEs. Their feedback is then used to refine and improve the tools' usefulness for the SME community.
Approach
Made Smarter Adoption is part of the Made Smarter initiative with the aim of increasing adoption of digital technologies within SMEs. In partnering with the North West Adoption team, we aim to leverage their networks and ensure that these vital connections with SMEs around the country remain strong and useful for all concerned. By sharing our artefacts with the Made Smarter Adoption team, they benefit from our research-based insights and connect with SMEs to ensure they have the tools they need to adopt a people-led approach to the digitalisation of their manufacturing workplace.
The first artefact to be tested were the Dignity Cards. Designed by Dr Karen Lancaster, these cards provide a way for SMEs to begin thinking and talking about dignity at work, and how dignity could be negatively affected if digitalisation occurs without a People-Led approach. The thought is that dignity at work is important and could be threatened by insensitive digitalisation – but that dignity is not a particularly easy subject to think or talk about; the cards facilitate discussion in a useful and engaging way, providing SMEs with food for thought about the importance of considering employees’ dignity throughout the digitalisation process.
The box contains 56 cards (12cm x 8cm). There are 36 Scenario Cards: these cards present players with a scenario where a manager has introduced a digital technology without a people-led approach, and an employee feels that their dignity is being threatened in some way. These cards present both sides of the issue, without suggesting that one party is in the right. Some examples can be found here.
There are also 20 Action Cards, which provide discussion-based tasks, such as “Give 2 reasons why you agree with the person who thinks dignity is being violated”. Players work their way through various scenarios, discussing dignity-related issues of digitalisation.
Insight
The Dignity Cards were field-tested with a group of SME leaders in July 2024, and the feedback was clear:
- 100% of participants believed that dignity at work is important.
- 100% agreed that the Dignity Cards are effective in stimulating discussion.
- 80% reported that the cards raised issues they hadn’t previously considered.
Four out of ten participants expressed interest in using the cards within their own organisations.
The feedback highlighted the cards as a valuable tool for helping SMEs initiate conversations about adopting a people-led approach to digitalisation, ensuring that dignity at work is preserved.
While the overall feedback was positive, our post-event reflections were that the tool may not appeal to everyone, and some SMEs may require a cultural shift to fully embrace the importance of people in digital adoption. Ultimately, the Dignity Cards are a tool for Digital Champions, and for meaningful change to occur, they must be able to demonstrate value.
Impact
“Technology is a tool and without the right people to utilise them, then companies will struggle to realise the benefits of using new technologies. That is why a focus on people is at the core of our adoption service. Having access to new tools which focus on the people aspect of technology adoption, such as the outputs from the PLD team, help our work with SMEs to ensure they can adopt digital technologies to their full potential. I believe this first collaboration has been successful, and I look forward to continuing this work in the future.”
Claire Scott, Technology Adoption Specialist, Made Smarter Adoption North West
For further information on this case study please contact the PLD at P-LD@bath.ac.uk
Acknowledgement
The work reported in this paper was supported by the Made Smarter Innovation: Centre for People-Led Digitalisation, at the University of Bath, University of Nottingham, and Loughborough University. The project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Grant EP/V062042/1.