Firms get digital cash boost

BUSINESSES in Macclesfield have received funding to invest in digital technology.

Plastic Card Services, based in Tytherington, Art Graphics, in Bollington, and Lowlife Products, in Macclesfield, have received grants from the Made Smarter North West Industry 4.0 adoption pilot.

The money will be used for developing or installing systems to unify data from different sources.

Plastic Card Services have invested in digital printing technology for the photo ID cards sector.

The technology can read a card, check against a data file in real time, and then encode it, while new software interrogates its customer’s database for the personalised data for the card and organises print jobs for the day.

Off the back of this new system the company has secured a new contract worth £500,000 over the next three years.

Adam Unsworth, managing director, said: “Quite simply, without funding through Made Smarter for the new equipment, PCS would not have been able to win the contract.

“The increase in turnover is huge for us. It’s a game-changer for our company.”

Donna Edwards, from the Made Smarter North West, said: “Capturing the data from across their processes and bringing it all together in one place is a vital first step for many manufacturers looking to solve problems and recognise opportunities.

“The next step, one which some forwardthinking firms are already taking, is to analyse the data using artificial intelligence and machine learning.”