Industry 4.0

One of the most common concerns when it comes to the implementation of IIoT and Industry 4.0 for manufacturers is the risk to data security and maintaining requisite level of data integrity throughout the value chain. Let’s understand why security is a concern.

How to start an Industry 4.0 project? It seems rather direct—start small, prove the concept, and then scale. The problem is more than two-thirds of these projects fail. Why—because there wasn’t an overarching strategy set for the transformation.

Industry 4.0, the fourth Industrial Revolution, is the promise to manufacturing companies of lower costs, higher quality, faster processing with theoretical ‘lots of one.’ It is a marketplace, where smart products and smart equipment can interact autonomously for dynamic optimization on the fly.

To meet the strenuous requirements of Current Good Manufacturing Practice, if there were ever an industry segment which needs Industry 4.0 implementation, it would be the pharma industry. Let’s examine how a modern MES is able to help manufacturers in the pharma segment better manage their production and their supply chain to unleash Industry 4.0 benefits.

Establishing the need for an MES at the C-suite level is perhaps the first and most significant step in the long but highly rewarding journey of MES implementation. From that moment to the time an MES is deployed across the value chain, there will be a time lapse of at least 2 to 3 years.

Is an ERP as a standalone solution enough to get manufacturers Industry 4.0-ready, without using a MES or another operations management solution? Can an ERP system replace a MES in a digital transformation project, and still provide the same benefits?

There is a lot of debate and discussion pertaining to the way a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) should function from an IIoT and Industry 4.0 perspective. The words ‘open’ vs. ‘closed’ application are also encountered in such debates; I will focus on the basic difference between an open and a closed MES, and which one is suited for the times to come.

The need for an MES is strategic and its returns multiple and span across the entire value chain. Capture each gain individually, and then view as a whole to truly determine the benefits the MES application brings.

Everyone seems to have a vision on Industry 4.0 but the big question remains: how the associated digital technologies can be effectively and efficiently implemented for quick time to value. We think we have the answer, and it encompasses combining technologies such as Digital Twin and Augmented Reality (AR) with modern operations management systems such as MES.