Companies perceive those affairs between customer and revenue stream carries significant benefits. Put it down this way, manufacturing needs to focus on being more customer-centric without diverting the goals from the different values. That requires more robust efforts to handle specific needs with products, parameters, availability, and pricing. Of course, the company must also please other stakeholders, such as shareholders, employees, and communities. Otherwise, this causes friction between the two sides.
The need to change the equation from one of tradeoffs to one where all aspects can gain is leading companies toward digital transformation. One aspect of this is smart manufacturing.
What is smart manufacturing?
It’s cracked up to be Industry 4.0. What is it? MESA International can elaborate: “Smart manufacturing is the intelligent, real-time orchestration and optimization of business, physical and digital processes within factories and across the entire value chain.”
There is quite a bit needed to interpret here.
- Intelligent means a vast array of data all coming together in context. An intelligent system ensures the productive and well-adjusted in the whole roughest situation; it does not just passively record what’s going on but also points out the system automating routine tasks, release employees to do more demanding and innovative work.
- Orchestration points out coordinating various resources and processes, bringing the correct elements together when and where needed.
- Optimization is about achieving peak performance with the best optimized manner within both time and putting efforts.
- Business, physical, and digital processes are seen as indispensable to smart manufacturing. So, beyond the physical making of the product, all the business transactions and the data about the processes are all orchestrated and optimized.
- The concept of smart manufacturing extends beyond the factory floor to encompass engineering, supply chains, distribution, and the broader ecosystem of partners.
What role does IoT play in smart manufacturing?
Why is Internet of Things (IIoT) platform considered critical to industry 4.0? Because smart manufacturing rests on accurate, timely data streams from every process, piece of equipment, aspect of the operation as well.
Industrial connectivity serves as the means to access and deliver data to smart manufacturing systems. By leveraging Smart Manufacturing IoT alongside an IIoT platform, organizations can elorate their connectivity and data utilization for improved operations.
- Collects data that would not be available.
- Aggregates data from heterogenous machines, sensors, and devices and from legacy and modern hardware and software systems throughout the plants and the ecosystem.
- Enriches data with context.
- Envisages the data.
- Converts data to information to generate actionable insights.
IoT plays a pivotal role in connecting brownfield factories by linking various machines through industrial connectivity, which facilitates integrated manufacturing processes. With industrial connectivity and an IIoT platform, organizations can develop real-time dashboards to monitor machine and operational efficiency, offering actionable insights for performance enhancement.
What are the benefits of smart manufacturing?
The definition of smart manufacturing highlights its appeal, but it’s essential to dig in its benefits further. Each benefit will vary in significance depending on the industry, company, and specific plant, with these weights potentially shifting due to changes in economics, strategies, and market conditions.
Greater agility
Companies are discovering that connected, IoT-driven environments can reduce costs by enhancing data availability. This leads to more planned maintenance, less waste in production, and improved overall efficiency.
Cost savings
Companies are finding that connected, IoT-driven environments lower costs by enabling planned maintenance, reducing waste, improving efficiency, and enhancing visibility into operations.
More efficient
With more comprehensive and reliable data in smart manufacturing, efficiency increases. This includes enhanced asset and machine efficiency through reduced downtime and improved OEE, as well as greater worker productivity.
Improved customer experience
Customers seek the best suppliers, and smart manufacturing enables minimal tradeoffs, allowing them to achieve the desired cost, quality, and speed simultaneously—not just two out of three.
Remote troubleshooting
Those in charge of production operations understand the need for swift action during breakdowns. Remote monitoring provides real-time visibility and alerts for abnormal conditions. This allows experts, whether local or remote, to troubleshoot issues immediately, even during off-hours, facilitating quick identification and resolution of problems.
Less downtime
Remote troubleshooting can minimize downtime. With intelligent systems, you can often also predict problems and prevent downtime. Predictive and preventative maintenance can improve cost, efficiency, and customer experience.
Increased product quality
Identifying critical quality points in a product through data from design to production is essential. Digital systems facilitate easier control and assurance of quality in the plant by providing consistency that manual processes cannot achieve.
The importance of industrial connectivity in smart manufacturing
Access to the right data is essential for smart manufacturing, and industrial connectivity plays a crucial role in this process. Many companies struggle with their smart manufacturing IoT initiatives due to the inability to access data from legacy assets and machines. Effective connectivity is necessary to acquire operational technology (OT) data seamlessly and securely at scale.
Smart manufacturing encompasses various levels, from machines to entire enterprises, and two-thirds of top-performing companies are working to integrate their systems. However, machine and IoT sensor connectivity presents challenges due to the diverse equipment and data formats, especially in older plants. This data is often unstructured or semi-structured, making it difficult to translate for use in industrial IoT systems. Therefore, establishing industrial connectivity is vital for the effective operation of smart manufacturing IoT, requiring multiple translations of machine data for secure sharing and comprehension.
Connected production
Connected production is central to many companies’ smart manufacturing initiatives, enhancing the availability of real-time data about factory operations. This comprehensive and timely data provides insights that help optimize and orchestrate manufacturing processes for greater efficiency.
The emergence of smart connected factories and networks is transforming production capabilities and raising expectations around cost, quality, and speed. Reduced manual documentation tasks lead to fewer errors and more engaged employees.
Crucial insights derived from production data enable factories to accelerate progress, adapt to constant changes in products and materials, and foster continuous improvement. With smart manufacturing, workers can make informed decisions in real time, enhancing overall operational effectiveness.
The future of smart manufacturing
Industry is undergoing a digital transformation towards smart manufacturing, where Industrial IoT enables the natural synchronization of business, physical, and digital processes. As wasted efforts and manual errors diminish, smart factories will become central to comprehensive industry ecosystems.
Research indicates that investing in smart manufacturing IoT and industrial connectivity leads to better outcomes. Companies that embrace these technologies will be more agile in adapting to changes, continuously improving, and ultimately benefiting from increased revenue opportunities and cost savings.