Manufacturing intelligence the next phase of your shop floor

Manufacturing in India is experiencing a digital revolution. With the technologies driving Industry 4.0 – IIoT, AI, and cloud at the forefront – manufacturing has reached a critical tipping point. It’s high time for manufacturers to either embrace the digital transformation of their operations and processes now or fall behind their competitors. As the Digital Transformation in Manufacturing Market is expected to register a CAGR of over 15.59% during the forecast period 2019 – 2024.

With the advent of industry 4.0 in the manufacturing industry, various plants are fostering digital technologies to enhance, automate, and modernize the whole process these technologies will be added to the systems that will improve the factory’s manufacturing intelligence (MI).

Manufacturing intelligence the term refers to the software systems that integrate manufacturing operations data for deeper analytic. These systems rely on big data analytics compiled from IIoT and other technologies. While some may compare MI with Business Intelligence (BI), there is a difference – manufacturing has different needs and goals than a business front office. Basically, BI measures sales and revenues and other Key Performance Indicators that are of a corporate nature. Whereas MI measures the productivity of both humans and machines on the factory floor. It can be plugged into BI to add more value to the enterprise, but, by itself, it is an independent stream of insight into Manufacturing operations using tools that were hitherto in the IT domain.

For manufacturing, production is everything. It is crucial that each machine on the production line is operating properly and manufacturing products to an exact specification. Each machine generates data regarding its production, but that data is meaningless if it is not correct. With data analytics, MI can monitor the factory’s entire infrastructure, workers have the access to this information in real time so issues can be addressed as they occur during production. Historical data is also produced to track past performance and outcomes and compare them to current or for future needs. 

When computer technology on the factory floor is not new, so why does MI matter now? It is nothing but the modernization of analytics tools for manufacturing data. It is all about taking advantage of modern computing technologies like Big Data and make them accessible to the factory floor both in real time and for enhanced outcomes using machine learning. 

Trends in MI

Some trends that have emerged since the manufacturers adopted Industry 4.0 technologies:

• Adoption of IIoT
• Augmented and virtual reality
• Digital twins
• Cloud computing

IIoT is at the heart of MI and the manufacturing digital transformation. Unlike other types of IoT devices, IIoT must always be available, must highly reliable, and have low latency. As data plays a major role in the manufacturing process under MI, manufacturers need to protect their data. Cybersecurity comes to the rescue. It is a vital piece for the manufacturing processes in factories.

The smarter the factory, the more at risk it is!

The Industry 4.0 encompasses a wide array of technologies across the value chain, wherein it is an information and automation hub. However, the rapid adoption of automation and digital transformation in the manufacturing industry demands high skilled labours to handle big data and operate required machinery. Indian manufacturers have a great opportunity to blend in the availability of advanced manufacturing technologies with low cost of labour to create extraordinary competitive advantage.

The production methods deployed at the plant are to be a standard for small and medium-sized manufacturing units in India, achieving a visionary model for the future of manufacturing: creating an end-to-end digitalisation where the real and virtual worlds merge in “Digital Factory”.

To conclude digitalisation of the process through MI promises lower costs, improved production quality, flexibility and efficiency, shorter response time to customer requests and market demands, and also opens up new and innovative business opportunities. It will majorly redefine and impact the  criteria of ‘productivity’ that measures to digital real-time supply chain, digital product definition and digitally crafted and run production lines.

Author- Rachita Shukla

Senior Conference Producer

Exito Media Concepts Pvt Ltd.