SPECIAL REPORTS 42 HYDRAULICS & PNEUMATICS February 2026 www.hpmag.co.uk Digital transformation in UK manufacturing is no longer an abstract idea, yet it remains unevenly embedded in day-to-day operations. Many organisations can point to individual initiatives that promised better visibility or efficiency, but far fewer can demonstrate sustained improvement across sites or production lines. The difficulty lies less in access to technology than in translating fragmented data, ageing assets and limited investment headroom into decisions that consistently improve performance. Much of this challenge stems from the way manufacturing systems have evolved. Layered architectures separating sensors, control systems, supervisory platforms and enterprise applications remain technically sound, but they have also reinforced organisational and technical silos. Operational technology and information technology have historically developed in parallel, and although convergence has been discussed for years, delivering it in practice has often proved slow, disruptive and costly. There is growing acceptance that progress does not always require wholesale architectural change. Daniel Winter, Manufacturing & Supply Chain System Manager at Accenture UK, points to a shift towards more pragmatic data strategies, describing the value of “getting raw data from the shop floor straight to the cloud … without having to go through all that complexity”. Rather than removing control systems, this approach selectively bypasses parts of the traditional automation stack when the objective is to surface insight for higher-level systems, not to interfere with machine control. That distinction is particularly relevant in brownfield environments, which account for much of UK manufacturing capacity. Many plants rely on legacy equipment with limited connectivity, restricted access to source code or controllers never designed to feed modern analytics platforms. Winter characterises the opportunity as a retrofit challenge, noting the role of “overlaying additional hardware” to connect assets that are “obsolete or don’t even have the capability” to expose usable data. The appeal lies in improving visibility while leaving established production systems untouched. A similar emphasis on pragmatism underpins the position taken by Tony Coghlan, Managing Director at Turck Banner. He is clear that digitalisation should not default to replacing existing systems or rebuilding control architectures. “We are just not that hardware supplier,” he says, framing Turck Banner’s role around enabling outcomes rather than simply providing components. Central to that position is the ability to deliver “actionable data” while avoiding unnecessary complexity, particularly at a time when, as he observes, “people are really struggling to get capex approved”. Full lifecycle In practical terms, Coghlan describes a scope that extends well beyond device supply. Turck Banner positions its involvement across the full lifecycle of shop-floor data enablement, beginning with the selection of appropriate sensing and connectivity hardware from its industrial IoT portfolio, often working with equipment already installed. That is followed by early definition of requirements and system architecture through a Functional Design Specification, intended to establish clarity before technology is deployed. Deployment itself is treated as a critical phase rather than an afterthought, particularly in brownfield environments where installation, connectivity and software configuration must coexist with live production. The integration focus is deliberately aligned with standard industrial and enterprise interfaces rather than bespoke automation solutions. Coghlan points to the use of widely adopted protocols such as REST APIs, MQTT and OPC UA, alongside other established industrial communication standards, as a way of ensuring that operational data can be consumed by IT systems without introducing unnecessary complexity. The objective of this endWhy shop-floor data still falls short UK manufacturers face growing pressure to turn shop-floor data into measurable value, yet legacy systems, brownfield sites and fragmented architectures continue to hold progress back. Aaron Blutstein spoke with Tony Coghlan of Turck Banner and Jonathan Parr and Daniel Winter of Accenture UK about what is beginning to change, and what remains stubbornly unresolved.
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