w FEATURE Smart Factories
[Image: Lalit Kumar for Unsplash] What makes a factory smart?
Market research company, IoT Analytics, recently launched its “Smart Factories Insights Report 2021”, focusing on smart factories and discovering 80 of them
T
here are seven main misconceptions about smart factories:
1. Smart factories must be started from scratch (greenfield projects). WRONG. Greenfi eld smart factory projects, i.e., new factories that are built from scratch, are certainly easier to create because there is no existing infrastructure to upgrade and no existing processes that could be disrupted, making planning and implementation much easier. Our research, however, shows that many existing (brownfi eld) facilities are also becoming smarter, in some cases with worldwide recognition. Examples include: • Schneider Electric is using its own technologies, like EcoStruxure and AVEVA platforms, in its factories. The Schneider Electric facility in Lexington, US, was recognised as an advanced lighthouse factory by the World Economic Forum in 2020. • Siemens Electronics Works plant in
Amberg, Germany, was also recognised as an advanced lighthouse factory by the World Economic Forum in 2021. Using Siemens’s own solutions, such as cloud infrastructure and digital twins, the plant has achieved a 50% increase in effi ciency and now serves as a guide to others.
16 April 2022 | Automation
2. Only large organisations can make smart factories. WRONG. Although big companies are further along and less budget-constrained, there are ways for smaller companies to realise smart factories: • For fi nancial support, there are several industry associations, like CESMII in the US or the Gaia-X community in Europe, that help with subsidies for SMEs who are looking to make their factories smart. • Determine viability: Non-profi t smart-factory initiatives, like Smart Factory OWL and Smart Factory KL, allow manufacturers to witness and test certain technologies off -site and discuss them with like-minded professionals before spending on them.
• Pay per use. A notion exists that smart-factory initiatives involve a lot of CAPEX, infrastructure and data upgrading and hence not being suitable for SMEs. The rise of as-a-service business models (mostly for software but also increasingly for everything else, including equipment), pushes those costs to OPEX, bringing smart factories within the reach of SMEs.
3. There is a one-size-fits-all blueprint for realising a smart factory. WRONG. Unfortunately, no two smart
factories are the same because of their diff erent production characteristics and performance/business goals. We identifi ed eight typical
performance/business goals that can be grouped into three types: operational, commercial and R&D:
• Moderna (operational goal,
improving agility). Vaccine maker Moderna proves how increased agility created by a smart factory off ers tremendous value. • TRUMPF (commercial goal, new
off erings) with its €30m smart factory in Chicago is a networked production, acting as a showcase for TRUMPF customers.
4. Smart factory initiatives are mostly about technology. WRONG. Whilst new technology helps transition to smart factory, it is neither the only nor the most important part. Our research shows that the less tangible aspects are more important, mostly related to people and processes within an organisation – only one of the top- ten success factors revolved around technology.
Particularly important points are to make the transformation process transparent and to include front-line
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