How AMRC North West is improving supplier discovery with AI
Discover how AMRC North West, part of the University of Sheffield innovation cluster, used The Data City’s APIs and Industry Engine to support the development of an AI-powered platform designed to tackle supply chain challenges across UK manufacturing.
Overview
The Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), part of the University of Sheffield and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, works between industry and academia to help manufacturers adopt cutting-edge technologies and innovation.
As part of a short innovation project, the digital team at AMRC North West explored how AI could improve supplier discovery and reduce the amount of manual market research involved in identifying manufacturing suppliers.
- Manufacturing Innovation
- Supply Chain Research
- Industry Engine
- APIs
- Company Data
- AI Supplier Discovery
- SME Data Access
- Reliable API Integration
The Challenge
Manufacturers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) often rely on teams to manually identify and assess suppliers for specialist manufacturing parts and capabilities. However, traditional search methods can make this process time-consuming and difficult, particularly when requirements involve detailed technical specifications, industry expertise, or production capabilities.
AMRC North West identified that supplier discovery within manufacturing often relies on time-intensive manual market research, particularly when businesses are searching for highly specialised suppliers or technical capabilities. The team saw an opportunity to use AI and natural language search to make the process faster, more flexible, and easier to scale.
“ The platform was easy to use, had a strong user interface, and the level of support provided throughout the project was excellent.
The Solution
AMRC North West used The Data City’s APIs and Industry Engine platform to support the development of an AI-powered prototype platform focused on supplier discovery within manufacturing supply chains.
The platform was designed to allow users to search for suppliers using natural language queries, with AI automatically identifying relevant filters and returning companies that matched the required capabilities. The users can then shortlist companies from the list using KPIs most relevant to the user.
A key part of the project was ensuring the platform could surface small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) manufacturers, alongside larger organisations and provide KPI measures for them, helping provide broader visibility across the UK manufacturing landscape.
“ The reason why we wanted to use The Data City was because it has the SMEs data we needed around the area.
The Results
Using The Data City’s APIs and company data, AMRC North West was able to quickly develop and demonstrate a working prototype within a short innovation project timeframe.
Key outcomes from the project included:
- Developing an AI-powered supplier discovery prototype using natural language search.
- Integrating The Data City’s APIs directly into the platform to generate KPIs.
- Accessing SME company data to support UK manufacturing supply chain discovery.
- Identifying companies with both existing and transferable manufacturing capabilities.
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