Digital manufacturing and advanced production techniques have been key levers in helping this to happen.
As this work has been ongoing, the broader environment for manufacturers across many industries has rarely been more challenging: the transparency and performance of each site can be evaluated on a global basis, which drives high levels of competition, along with the need to produce to a consistently high quality, while optimising performance and efficiency
Then, after COVID-19, the need to be ready for disruption suddenly came into focus. In recent years, supply chain constraints fuelled by everything from volcanoes to global pandemics to stranded shipping containers have forced many global companies to rethink how they operate.
To keep the many Irish manufacturing sites competitive and at the top of their game, IDA Ireland stepped in with a range of support initiatives. “Over the past number of years, IDA Ireland has been working with its client companies across all sectors to drive digital transformation to enhance manufacturing operations in Ireland and help those clients to become more competitive,” says Breda O’Toole, head of talent development and digitalisation at IDA Ireland.
Together with industry partners, IDA Ireland developed an advanced manufacturing diagnostic to enable clients to assess the manufacturing maturity level of their Irish site, and where they are on their journey towards digital transformation. Once the company goes through this assessment process, it can avail of tailored programmes that encompass digitalisation, talent development, and sustainability and innovation. The ultimate goal of the programme focuses on what additional value the Irish site can create, or ways it can expand.
Towards the digital factory
One of its key partners in this effort is Digital Manufacturing Ireland, an industry-led organisation that enables Irish-based manufacturers to access, adopt and accelerate new digital technologies solving real-world challenges and driving future competitiveness. DMI differs from academic centres that focus on researching new or breakthrough products. Instead, it targets its focus towards improving manufacturing processes through the successful adoption of transformative digital technologies. Its approach is industry-led and is grounded in practical applications that industries can apply today.Its digital factory facility, located at DMI in the National Technology Park in Limerick, showcases new technologies that visitors can see in an industrial environment. It complements this factory with an experienced team that worked in industry and are familiar with its challenges. “We have very senior leaders from industry, senior technologists who are really experienced in deployment of advanced manufacturing techniques and technologies inside a manufacturing environment,” says Domhnall Carroll, DMI’s CEO.
Skills transfer assists transformation
“Typically, what we try to do is work with a company on their digitalisation journey, and then leave as many of the skills as we can in the company after we're finished, so that they don't need to come back to us all the time to do the next version of what they're doing. Those skills are built inside the company, as we do a project,” Carroll adds.One of its working groups is focused on visual cognitive manufacturing, which has 75 organisations working together to develop next-generation machine vision technology that allows industrial equipment to ‘see’ what it’s producing. The group gathers manufacturing companies, some academic institutes, technology companies and specialist vendors under DMI’s roof.
And the Institute’s remit doesn’t just focus on technology itself. “When we talk to manufacturing companies, it is clear their biggest challenge is not the technology; it tends to be in the culture of the organisation,” Carroll explains.
DMI’s answer was to develop a Centre of Excellence focused on the workforce of the future. It carried out research with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the International Academy of Automation Engineering, around the ideal factory of the future and human-centred manufacturing, which investigated ways of developing a culture that’s open to absorbing new technologies while also ensuring that organisations improve their resilience to forces outside their control.
Ireland’s culture of collaboration
Another interesting aspect that DMI’s study in collaboration with MIT and IAAE uncovered was an innately Irish phenomenon which the researchers dubbed ‘clan culture’. Carroll explains: “That’s quite a unique culture in Ireland, around how people get together and are willing to work together in a very open way. That gives us a head start on how to collaborate without compromising anyone’s IP or their own company integrity in terms of how they manage their own activities. And because we’re independent at DMI, we’re not aligned with any technology company or any manufacturer, so we become quite a good neutral ground for seeding some of these discussions.”Carroll says these discussions tend to cover foundational or fundamental technologies, or approaches to manufacturing, rather than specific products. This environment allows competing companies to be in the same room.
One example of DMI’s work is with BioTouch Global, a single-source healthcare logistics and supply chain provider for healthcare organisations worldwide. Partnering with DMI, it conceptualised an automated kitting line for producing diagnostic laboratory kits, which are crucial in healthcare. DMI provided state-of-the-art technology insights, focusing on 2D and 3D simulations to visualise and optimise the production process within BioTouch’s facility. This collaboration enhanced BioTouch’s ability to maintain regulatory compliance and quality standards, ultimately improving patient outcomes.
Leading the world in cutting-edge bioprocessing
The National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT), specifically aims to improve the process of manufacturing biologic-based medicines, where Ireland already has a strong story to tell with 14 of the top 15 names in the industry already with operations here.NIBRT was set up in 2007 with funding from the Irish Government, and now operates as an independent organisation that partners with the biopharma industry and with national and international universities. It focuses on enhancing the manufacturing processes for biologics, offering cutting-edge training and research solutions for the biopharma industry.
NIBRT’s work is not tied to a specific product line or medicine; instead it aims to advance the overall efficiency, safety and innovation of biopharmaceutical manufacturing. “We aim to streamline and simplify the process of manufacturing, which in turn increases efficiency, reduces risks, enhances medicine yield, and improves patient safety,” says NIBRT CEO Darrin Morrissey.
“We deliver training to those companies in the latest manufacturing processes to meet industry standards and global regulations, and we deliver research to improve these processes. Our training trains people in the manufacturing standards of today while our research works on potential innovations and standards in biopharma manufacturing years from now. Our research allows us to have a window on, and influence, the future,” Morrissey adds.
Advanced manufacturing at Irish sites
Already, Irish manufacturing sites are getting worldwide recognition for their transformation initiatives. One early adopter of digital technology is Zimmer Biomet, which manufactures joint replacements for knees, hips and shoulders at two Irish sites in Shannon and Galway.Since 2014, as part of a drive to go paperless, Zimmer Biomet, Ireland implemented a manufacturing execution system (MES) that records every shop-floor transaction digitally. The company estimates this has saved 18,355 pages per day, or over 6,600,000 pages every year.
This technology replaces physical job cards that manufacturers in many industries typically use for product traceability. “We have it all digitally. It’s an element to our business that we’re definitely gaining momentum on,” says Tom O’Carroll, Director of Manufacturing Ireland with Zimmer Biomet.
He says having digitally enabled operations have allowed the Zimmer Biomet team to analyse performance, study manufacturing metrics, and even carry out predictive analytics.
“We have full visibility and supervisory control of all the manufacturing processes at a granular level and that gives us massive insights into our business. It helps us with consistency and quality and facilitates a Lean environment,” O’Carroll says. The Irish operation pioneered this approach and now other parts of the group are looking to emulate its success, he adds.
Digital twins and sustainability projects
Another way that technology is enhancing operations is in digital twins: virtual replicas of production lines, systems or processes, based in a separate location to the physical site and updated in real time. In 2024, Sanofi collaborated with DMI to deploy the technology in its operations in Waterford. Amy Brennan, Sanofi’s site head at the time, explained the benefits: “This gave us the freedom to zoom out to better understand the bigger picture, and at the same time test what-if scenarios and solutions to address issues that might arise along the way, without having to interrupt the production process and without any downtime,” she said. Also in Waterford, the biotech company Amgen is known to be using digital twins at the site it acquired in 2023 from Horizon Therapeutics.The World Economic Forum’s Global Lighthouse Network is a community of manufacturers showing leadership in using technologies to transform factories, value chains and business models. Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Sciences Ireland company in Cork is part of this network. It uses industry 4.0 technology to optimise its processes and reduce its carbon emissions through real-time release, adaptive process control and other sustainability efforts. Even as the site grew by 34%, it lowered its emissions per kilogram of product by 56%.
In a separate project also recognised by the WEF, Janssen digitally connected the internal and external nodes of its supply chain, developing advanced process controls for its logistics and manufacturing processes. This resulted in faster delivery to patients while reducing costs.
Digital centres of excellence
Other ways that Ireland is strengthening its manufacturing base were on show at a recent event for industry leaders at Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR) in Mullingar in the Midlands. Bijur Delimon is working with IMR to develop a digital centre of excellence at its operations in Ennis, county Clare, where it manufactures fluid dispensing systems and products.In 2025, the medical device maker Hollister Ireland invested €80 million in a R&D initiative that will combine novel device design and extensive site-wide training. The investment is intended to position the company’s site in Ballina as a global centre of expertise within its manufacturing network.
Advanced manufacturing will also be a key part of the newly opened European Space Agency Phi-Lab, based on IMR’s campus in Mullingar. This is a six-year programme to help companies develop new generations of space technologies, and to create closer links between industry and research groups. IMR’s chief executive Barry Kennedy said: “There is still a lot of work ahead but this feels like the start of something very special for Ireland, the Midlands region, and the companies who will build the technologies of tomorrow - watch this space.”
What’s next for industry and manufacturing
Progress is relentless, and the next phase of industrialisation is fast approaching. It emphasises human-machine collaboration, prioritising human-centric, sustainable, and resilient approaches beyond the Industry 4.0 which focused on automation.The Visual-Cognitive Manufacturing Group (VCMG) centre of excellence will focus exclusively on applying Computer Vision and AI technologies in manufacturing. Coordinated by DMI, the group members include academic participants along with partners from the pharma, medtech, manufacturing and technology sectors.
What this group has in common with current efforts is a spirit of collaboration and collective effort. Members will contribute best in practice and trade-agnostic insights to enable the improvement of frameworks, to promote the advancement of technology and to enhance voluntary standards relating to sustainability, efficiency and productivity via the use of digital technology and the identification of and upskilling for future talent and skills needs.
The technology may evolve, but Irish industry’s ‘clan culture’ identified by DMI, MIT and IAAE, ensures that all involved are striving together to enable improvements across industry, benefiting consumers and helping to sustain manufacturing operations in Ireland.