The manufacturing industry is undergoing a seismic shift driven by digital transformation. No longer a futuristic concept, digital transformation is essential for manufacturers operating in today’s competitive landscape. This article provides an overview of this critical initiative – exploring its focus areas, emerging trends, and potential challenges. For a complete understanding, watch this webinar alongside reading it.
What is Digital Transformation in Manufacturing?
Digital transformation in manufacturing is the strategic integration of advanced technologies across all aspects of operations. It harnesses the power of data and connected systems to optimize processes and gain a significant competitive edge. Fundamentally, it is about sharing data among the various applications that today suffer from being “data silos”, where valuable data are created, but stay only within the system that created it. Imagine a factory floor where machines communicate seamlessly, production is intelligently planned, and that plan can be modified on the fly when customer needs are anticipated in real-time or operational priorities change. That’s the power of a digitally transformed manufacturing environment.
Focus Areas for Smart Manufacturing
• Production Optimization: Leverage cutting-edge tools like Industrial IoT (IIoT) and machine learning. IIoT sensors monitor equipment health, allowing for predictive maintenance, predictive quality, and streamlined production. Machine learning algorithms continuously analyze data to identify patterns, improve predictive models and enable further process optimization. And with free-flowing data, new technologies for front-line operators like augmented/virtual reality (AR and VR) help to mitigate the loss of experienced personnel while everyone – from the shop floor to the top floor – has access to the same KPIs in real-time.
• Supply Chain Symphony: Real-time visibility into your supply chain comes from the power of digital transformation in manufacturing. Thoughtful implementation of cloud-based architectures enables broader insights from system-wide data analytics. This empowers proactive inventory management, can include suppliers for improved collaboration, and provides value chain flexibility for greater resilience to disruptions.
• Product Development Revolution: Digitalization can start with modern approaches to product development. Embracing and integrating technologies like computer aided design (CAD) and product life-cycle management (PLM) can get the newest information directly to the shop floor, so products get into production faster and more efficiently. Digital twins of both the production process and the product itself allow for virtual pre-production testing, reducing costs and cycle times. Further, implementing 3D printing accelerates prototyping and allows for faster design iterations.
• Customer-Centric Experience: Customer interactions can be personalized with digital tools like customer portals and product configurators. This real time communication makes the value chain more responsive to customer needs and can help to optimize plant operations and inventories at all levels.
Implementing Digital Transformation with MES (Manufacturing Execution System):
A MES acts as the central nervous system of your factory, providing production planning, real-time data collection, process orchestration, and performance analysis. An MES plays a vital role in digital transformation by helping you:
• Optimize production scheduling and resource allocation: The production plan and schedule are often impacted because of order changes, parts availability, machinery condition or staffing issues. A well-integrated planning and organized system can allow for faster, better accommodation of those circumstances with rapid understanding of the impacts.
• Ensure quality control and product traceability: Real-time data acquisition and analysis will let your front-line operators know when issues occur, letting them act quickly and limiting scrap and rework. If non-compliant product did go downstream, better traceability from improved, faster data collection helps to define the issue scope and identify the location of product that needs further evaluation.
• Foster communication and collaboration across the manufacturing floor: When everyone is seeing the same information, process status, KPIs, changes to the product or process in real-, or near-real-time, you have better on-shift performance and faster shift-handover.
Emerging Trends in Manufacturing
The manufacturing landscape is constantly evolving, as the following article proves, with several key trends shaping the future:
• Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): Connecting machines and devices through IIoT allows for real-time data collection and analysis and data-driven decision making.
• Common Data Model: Having machine data is terrific but putting it in context quickly and cost-effectively allows creating significant value. Transactional data from MES, ERP, QMS, and other systems provides the background needed to understand what was going on at time the machines generated the sensor data, such as order detail, operators, materials deployed, quality testing results, etc.
• Rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI): With the data coming from all these formally non-integrated systems, AI is transforming manufacturing through applications in predictive maintenance, quality control, and production planning – without constant support from data engineering.
• Cobots and Collaborative Robotics: Cobots are working alongside humans to automatize tasks, improve safety, and enhance productivity.
• Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing): 3D printing is revolutionizing prototyping and production, enabling on-demand manufacturing, complex design features, and new levels of sustainability.
Challenges of Digital Transformation in Manufacturing
While the benefits are evident, digital transformation isn’t without its hurdles. Here are some key challenges:
• Legacy Systems: Integrating new technologies with existing legacy systems can be complex and require careful planning. At their core, these integrations require a valid data model that addresses current and future needs.
• Data Security Fortress: With increased reliance on sharing data, robust cybersecurity measures are crucial to protect sensitive information, but must be implemented with attention to issues created from data latency.
• Cultural Shift: Digital transformation requires a shift in company culture, focusing on embracing new technologies and data-driven decision making. Without key support from top management, change management carries its own challenges.
• Skilled Workforce Bridge: Implementing new technologies necessitates a skilled workforce capable of operating and maintaining complex digital systems. Not having the appropriate data science/engineering team on board can limit the value that digital transformation effort can produce. However, more advanced technology can make a less experienced front-line team more productive, more quickly.
Benefits of Digital Transformation in Manufacturing
The rewards of a successful digital transformation are significant and far-reaching. Here are just a few of the benefits:
• Increased productivity and efficiency: Better planning and faster reaction to issues ensure hitting the production forecast with minimal variances.
• Improved product quality and innovation: Putting new products into manufacturing faster and tracking production system performance in real-time shortens your new product portfolio’s time-to-value.
• Enhanced customer satisfaction: By enabling faster reaction to their needs, digital tools can improve collaboration with customers and provide greater compliance with shipping schedules–all improving customer relationships and retention.
• Reduced costs and waste: With connected systems and real-time data collection and analysis, you’ll know when to intervene, faster and more efficiently reducing scrap, rework and downtime, while minimizing variances and improving the Plant P&L.
• Greater agility and responsiveness to market changes: Faster understanding of customer ordering trends means quicker adjustments to production schedules and supply chain commitments along with making seamless changes on the shop floor.
• A more sustainable manufacturing footprint: Make less scrap and operate more efficiently with a real-time production monitoring system, while you provide the basis for improving sustainability today and tomorrow.
Examples of Digital Transformation in Manufacturing
Several leading manufacturers are reaping the rewards of digital transformation. For instance, Critical Manufacturing provides many of the needed elements to move forward quickly with digital transformation in manufacturing. You can view our offering here.
• Digital Transformation in Medical Device Industry is supporting miniaturization that allows smaller, wearable and implantable devices for continuous monitoring and more personalized healthcare. The application of IIoT to diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices and systems is improving their performance and availability, leading to better patient outcomes.
• Digital Transformation in Electronics Industry includes greater use of automation and robotics for improved costs and sustainability, along with the application of Industry 4.0/IIoT practices in production making the value chain more productive and resilient.
• Digital Transformation in Semiconductor Industry is enabling further levels of miniaturization with EUV lithography and 3D-IC technologies. Technical advancements in semiconductor design and production are helping to support digital transformation in other industries with inclusion of AI accelerators and IIoT integration.
• Digital Transformation in the Industrial Equipment industry is seen in more widespread adoption of IIoT technology for remote monitoring that supports better productivity, service levels and new “as-a-service” business models. On the shop floor, new levels of automation support production to order and “connected worker” systems improve quality levels and greater service levels.
Digitalization is no longer a choice; in fact, it’s a necessity for manufacturers seeking to thrive in the digital age. By embracing these advancements and overcoming the challenges, you can unlock a future of intelligent manufacturing, enhanced efficiency, and a dominant position in the marketplace.
