Internet of Things
Now is the time to establish a digital thread Q
the term ‘industry 4.0’ has been around for a long time, but it is With the pandemic that We have seen a real acceleration in
the uptake of automation tech in the uk. Why is this the case?
it is well known that the pandemic exposed critical business challenges around shortage of skilled workers, supply chain disruption, cyber security, and flexible production. manufacturers are having to quickly scale up both vertically and horizontally, i.e., acquire newer capabilities while creating greater transparency throughout their production and in some cases, pivot to create products they have never worked on before. but this trend is not completely new. over the years, we have seen manufacturers trying
to adapt and adopt, in step-by-step approach, with rapidly changing customer demands. the crisis has simply made this kind of adaptability, and the ability to analyse and track the processes, more important. for example, several consumer goods
manufacturers have recently changed the way they design and produce their product lines, so they can update orders for their customers every three to six months. and those are not isolated cases – across the manufacturing sector, we are seeing manufacturers develop a much closer connection to customers. they are producing more customised products, in shorter runs and smaller orders. and this is only one of the reasons: supply
chain issues, travel limitations and many more side reasons are affecting the industrial world. today, working remotely on a new production line is not only an alternative, but it may also be the only chance you have to get the task done.
Q What is a digital
thread and hoW is it connected to
autonomous factories?
nowadays, digital technologies and capabilities have the power to fundamentally change the way organisations discover, design, create, update, and sell products. the foundation of digital transformation is a connected enterprise production system, a holistic systems approach that unites and integrates all levels of manufacturing, all way from the shop floor to the top floor. bringing the underlying, previously
hidden data to life i.e., extracting it from where it was born (ot) to now be able to put together alongside all layers of manufacturing through the latest advancement in technology (it), is a digital thread. this convergence of information technology (it) and operational technology (ot) results in threading of information that enables better, more insightful, data driven decision making through a centralised hub, placed at the center of the entire value chain. autonomous or “lights-out” factories are
simply a result of a highly automated, interconnected, smart and integrated manufacturing processes that are truly exploiting the available digital technologies (machine vision, iot, cloud computing, edge analytics, and many more) to achieve a higher level of efficiency. both digital thread and autonomous
factories are a living, real-time record of the evolution of your entire value chain – from product design to customer insights, from plant to end user – providing visibility into their past, present, and future state.
38 May 2022 Instrumentation Monthly
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