5 reasons to embrace digital manufacturing
Digital manufacturing is becoming an attractive concept with the development of digital technology. It is uniquely designed for the improvement in operational efficiencies, inventory control, supply chain planning, operations, compliance requirement and industrial internet of things (IIOT). Digital manufacturing enhances productivity, consistency, quality, connectivity, and automation intelligence. Additionally, it is efficient in lower manufacturing cost and makes companies competitive. Here we will discuss 5 reasons to transform the industrial operations with digital manufacturing.
1. Improved processes enhance the operational efficiency
Instead of traditional manual processes, it is better to utilize automated and cloud-based solutions that help in streamlining the process flow, performance, decision-making capabilities, cost rework conditions, and performance monitoring. These methods help in improving the quality of services with a reduction of waste;
2. Innovative methods with the usage of state of the art technology
It is worth to invest in digital infrastructure with the usage of predictive analysis, employee collaboration, 3D modelling, and machine learning. The most important consideration is to invest in the right software as digital manufacturing approaches are used for the development and planning of new technology;
3. Empower and attract the workers next generation
Digital manufacturing help in identification of appropriate job fills. The usage of digital manufacturing technologies enhances the ways to retain new workers with increased efficiencies and improved processes;
4. Improved customer satisfaction
Digital manufacturing provides an advantage to increase brand awareness and solutions specified by customers. The digital manufacturing process retains process consistency over time and yields a higher output with effective significance;
5. Reduced cost
Digital manufacturing reduces working cost and manufacturing cost. It gains better insight into supply chain issues for instance delivery status, inventory levels, and demand cycles. the increasing visibility provides an opportunity to reduce the cost issues and unnecessary risk associated with excessive inventory.
Benefits of digital manufacturing
Manual thinking methods for new ways to increase revenues are hard as compared to utilizing digital technology. Global demand for manufactured products has been increasing since the first use of digital and innovative technology. Statistics of 2017 shows 3.4% increase in the international monetary with limited dampening expectations. Firms focused on delivering accurate and worthy services consider new and innovative manufacturing methods. Digitalization improves processes with an effective saving of money and time. It is changing the future of manufacturing companies with the rapid implication of digital services. Summarized benefits of working digitally are listed below:
1. Work more efficiently
Digital technologies help in improving manufacturing operations. The efficient implementation improves automating processes, pre-testing new ideas, production chain, money savings and time savings. Other initiatives are KPI monitoring, automatic stock replenishment, e-sourcing, and predictive disruption analysis;
2. Innovative methods
Digital designs provide flexible workplace instead of linear approaches, traditional development and another tandem. New technologies such as data connectivity and 3D modelling system provide faster reconfiguration;
3. Specialist knowledge
Well-engineered machinery can be used to reduce the complexity and to upgrade the manufacturing process. In the digital world, digital connections provide collective and collaborative work;
4. Advanced analytics
Digital system is intuitive and provides a better manufacturing process under the advanced analytics. Digitally optimized strategies are developed to build intelligence and new machinery.
The digitization of production needs a standard
High definition sensors can be used to monitor the production parameters of the product along with the line process. the tools are mainly designed to use, organize, analyze, and visualize the data from the assets and leverage with better performance and reliability maintenance, predictive forecasting, and conditions of monitoring. Manufacturing industries have always been keen to identify enhanced manufacturing processes. In the 17th century, industrialization was first a buzzword with increased levels of productivity. In the 20th century, industrialization increased with the use of technology to enhance productivity levels. Currently, industrialization has been revolutionized with the use of real-time monitoring and data analytics that derived growth in another dimension (Hartmann, King, & Narayanan, 2015).
The importance of real-time monitoring is increasing in the smart manufacturing industry. Statistical analysis shows that 81% of the manufacturing facilities are highly based on the data analysis for the improvement of productivity. Statistics also highlights the importance of real-time monitoring and data analytics. Real-time monitoring helps the companies to tackle the old issues, for instance, increasing efficiency of equipment, downtime issues, and logistics management. The ability to provide actionable intelligence and business insights are concern with the manufacturing operations.
There are several types of the innovation services which can be used as the data production monitoring. Several companies and different industries are currently using these digital services because these services provide support them for better management and run their businesses. Many industries are effectively using the digital innovation services to insert their data into the electronic record system with improved and organized way. As companies need a lot of data for their research and business purposes, a risk a losing the data is also present every time. But the digital technology makes them to keep their data secure as well as they can also use that data for analysis purposes. Furthermore, they are also to monitor the data production process under efficient production plans and feasible processes. The results with the usage of monitoring process improved process efficiency and helped the different companies to reach the production goal.
The intelligent manufacturing have different types. The market industrial systems are saturated with the new concepts as well as new term which have different types of concepts that vary in different industries such as intelligent devices, smart grids, intelligent systems, intelligent machines, IoT, smart manufacturing as well as IIOT, and 4.0’s cyber-physical industry. In context of the engineered responses context, the some actionable things are required for the intelligent manufacturing which are: data, information, knowledge and understanding. The data is required for understanding of the relations of the reasons. On the other side, the meaningful information is for understanding the complex patterns in which root cause analysis is performed to identify the root causes. For the engineered workflow responses, the knowledge is required for better understanding of the corrective actions. The last thing is understanding which refers to the predictive models to understand the preventive actions.
I am deeply convinced that the approach to digitize the production must pass through the use of a framework recognized as a standard by the industry in which we operate. The multiple processes that can be computerized and the countless services that can be added in the future must rely on a logical structure recognized by any SW Implementation Partner that the company will use. For this reason I find the study of the MOM framework (ISA95 standard) indispensable for any company that wants to start or improve its computerization of production processes and move from Industry 3.0 towards Industry 4.0.
References
Border States. (2019). Advantages of digital manufacturing | 5 reasons to transform your facility. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://solutions.borderstates.com/advantages-of-digital-manufacturing/#:~:text=Digital%20manufacturing%20is%20an%20attractive,and%20helping%20companies%20remain%20competitive.
Coetzee, M. (2019). Thriving in Digital Workspaces: Emerging Issues for Research and Practice. Springer Nature.
Cohen, Y., Faccio, M., Pilati, F., & Yao , X. (2019). Design and management of digital manufacturing and assembly systems in the Industry 4.0 era. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 105, 3565–3577.
Engineering, Software Conversion and Rapid Prototyping. John Wiley & Sons.
Hartmann, B., King, W. P., & Narayanan, S. (2015). Digital manufacturing: The revolution will be virtualized. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/digital-manufacturing-the-revolution-will-be-virtualized#
IMMERMAN, G. (2020). 5 Ways Real-Time Monitoring Enhances Smart Manufacturing. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://www.machinemetrics.com/blog/5-ways-data-analytics-optimizes-productivity-in-manufacturing
Paritala, P. K., Manchikatla, S., & Yarlagadda, P. K. (2017). Digital Manufacturing- Applications Past, Current, and Future Trends. Procedia Engineering, 982-991.
The Manufacturer. (2017). 5 benefits of digital manufacturing. Retrieved June 18, 2020, from https://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/5-benefits-digital-manufacturing/