logo
logo
Sign in

Smart Tools will Drive Efficiency in the Factory of the Future

avatar
rasika joshi

From the beginning of 2020, the industrial and manufacturing sectors have been suffering from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Factories strive to handle production due to lockdown concerns, harsh safety protocols and the resultant insufficiency of the workforce. The strives of the past few months have enlightened the requirement for machine automation, optimized performance and data-driven decision making. In such a case, smart manufacturing technologies are improvingly being embraced and are acquiring traction.

These technologies assist industries to minimize risks related to the non-availability of the human workforce, boost overall efficiency and drift via the challenges produced by variabilities and unusual events. AR and VR technologies are shortly assumed to support humans execute complex tasks precisely and hence prove their worth.

Besides assembling and manufacturing, the technologies will also take part in a key role in the manufacturing design and process simulation segments. The digital twin technology allows modeling of product designs, production processes as well as operations. Several abilities, likewise root-cause analysis or what-if analysis provided by the digital twin technology, assist industries to utilize efficiently and better sustain their physical assets.

Components of a Smart Factory: Connect, Integrate, Monitor

Digital technology on the shop floor, as well as the supply chain, are already familiar with us. The new thing is that the way these technologies smartly connect to the respite of the business and are capable to deal with quick change. Enough machines are already filling up with sensors but still work autonomously. Industry 4.0 is about connecting such sensors and making utilization of IIoT so that they cooperate.

For instance, a machine could notice that a drill bit is trying out and automatically order a new one, notify the technical service department and forward the taking request to the ERP system. This boosts efficiency and minimizes the requirement for an employee to take these steps.

Software integration is an essential factor for taking benefit of IIoT within a smart factory. Some software integration is appearing at the solution provider level. For instance, warehouse robots combined into a Cloud platform are assisting manufacturers to estimate predictive maintenance scenarios and analyze factory floors, directing closer integration of the top floor as well as the shop floor.

When software is incorporated, all the data accumulated within the factory and supply chain can be accumulated and monitored in real-time. This creates thorough reports on production status, machine maintenance, energy utilization and more, all of which can be utilized to optimize processes.

When it is about asset management, this level of data analysis can assist manufacturers to remain competitive by reassuring uptime and minimizing wasted resources that amplify maintenance costs. By combining asset management systems, manufacturers can actually improve asset returns by near 17%.

Smart tools are an essential element in the process, interacting with both the factory-wide infrastructure, with the individual worker as well as with other tools. These interconnections improve the capacity of the individual and give support for performing the right job — assisting to recognize required tasks, recognizing which tools are required for each job as well as assuring that mistakes are ignored. Information required for assembly operations is always accessible in context and as required.

And the system boosts decision-making on the factory floor and for the business as a whole. One of the clearest advantages for staff is minimizing and eliminating the utilization of physical logs and manuals, which are an essential part of testing aerospace manufacturing.

Performing together, the tools and the IT infrastructure reserve the information to a central manufacturing execution system (MES) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Instead of just record keepers, workers can now focus on the tasks at hand knowing the data will be captured and preserved.

Smart factories are the strategy of the future for manufacturers as well the future isn’t that far off. As machinery and software providers resume to work together, there will be simpler integration across the manufacturing industry.

collect
0
avatar
rasika joshi
guide
Zupyak is the world’s largest content marketing community, with over 400 000 members and 3 million articles. Explore and get your content discovered.
Read more