COMMENT u Industry 4.0 The rise of digital transformation
within industrial manufacturing By Marc Garner, VP, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric UK and Ireland
T
he industrial world has come a long way from the early days of steam power and the advent of the manufacturing
era. Today, we are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution – a transformation that makes it possible to gather and analyse data across machines, enabling faster, more flexible, and more efficient processes to produce higher-quality goods at reduced costs – where businesses can produce things at high-speed and on a massive scale.
Changes are far-reaching, affecting every aspect of the industrial process, and businesses must be proactive in its adoption. To gain a competitive edge, many companies are looking beyond the developed technologies to emerging, under- utilised technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital twins.
Robotics and automation have been in the
manufacturing industry since the 1950s, but today they are becoming increasingly “intelligent” and versatile. According to McKinsey and Co, using Artificial Intelligence and robotics could lead to an estimated gain of 89 per cent in incremental value over time for the transportation industry. These systems are expected to be able to collaborate with human resources to take on more aspects of a flexible manufacturing process. The deployment of IoT sensors will help to ensure maximum uptime and a reduction in the costs of operation. For example, the revolution is providing a demonstrable impact in the agricultural sector. Traditionally, farmers use herbicide liberally, spraying across a field of crop to destroy unwanted vegetation. However,
new technologies can now identify the difference between a crop and a weed, which provides a range of benefits throughout the value chain. For example, the farmer can reduce the cost of operation and from a sustainability perspective, begin to reduce the use of chemicals on their land.
NEED FOR LOCAL EDGE DATA CENTRES These processes require industrial manufacturers to utilise advanced processing power, with computing systems that offer low latency, are highly connected and secure, and have localised control. As a result, there has been a rapid deployment of edge data centres, which is key to bringing the promise of Industry 4.0 to reality. While the industry is well versed in the benefits of standardisation, at the industrial edge there are some additional key challenges. Data security is a major focus due to the rise of
regulations and the cost of data breaches, which are often caused by physical security issues. In fact, 29 per cent of data breaches are due to physical security, and the average cost of a corporate data breach is $4 million. Furthermore, with new regulations making physical security compulsory, it is not surprising that CIOs often cite security as a major area of focus. Speed of deployment is also a critical consideration, as most companies are working at an incredible pace, with few resources and limited expertise. Gartner predicts that skills shortages are growing, and that 75 per cent of organisations will experience visible business disruptions due to infrastructure and operations skills gaps
Finally, the management of edge infrastructure, which in this environment is critical to ensure maximum performance and business success, remains a significant issue. IT staff in many enterprises are already at capacity, therefore, learning new skills, while balancing deployment and management strategies, and maintaining existing operations is a key challenge.
ACCELERATE YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Recently, Schneider Electric partnered with a large automaker, using edge computing-related software, hardware, and services, to capture massive amounts of test drive data from their autonomous vehicles.
This helped the customer address three main
issues. The need to capture large amounts of test drive data for research and development; to capture a flood of information in real time, which makes low latency critical; and capturing the data in harsh, remote, or rugged environments, such as outdoor test tracks. Schneider Electric’s solution was to provide a
fully integrated, all-in-one, EcoStruxure Micro Data Centre complete with EcoStruxure IT Expert management software. This gave the customer the ability to collect data close to where it was generated, enabling fast and secure data acquisition and real-time decision making. Performance of this kind is something which
can only be achieved through the deployment of pre-configured, fully integrated, and secure IT Infrastructure, and via a standardised design which can be replicated across future sites and in different locations around the globe.
14 September 2022 Irish Manufacturing
www.irish-manufacturing.com
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