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Brian Condell
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UNLOCK FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING WITH INTELLIGENT EDGE SOLUTIONS
Industrial manufacturing exemplifies incredible human progress, but it accounts for more than 1/3 of global energy use, creating significant energy-efficiency challenges.1 Fortunately, a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) offers a viable solution by integrating automation and data insights from the Intelligent Edge to enhance energy efficiency and productivity.
However, realizing the full potential of an FMS requires capturing and utilizing the vast amount of data generated on the shop floor—currently, only a small portion is used, leading to missed opportunities for efficiency and optimization.2
Increasing this data capture requires more sensor technologies, which in turn requires flexible and dynamic connectivity and integrated intelligence for smart-edge sensing.
Adding sensorization, flexible IO modules, and real-time aware robotics will empower factories to adapt flexibly, adjust to any demand, and minimize energy use. Additionally, integrating cybersecurity measures will protect these advanced systems, ensuring secure and reliable operations.
"Flexible manufacturing revolutionizes modern industries by enhancing production flexibility, reducing setup times, and boosting efficiency and productivity. It reduces costs through advanced quality control and resource optimization, enabling rapid adaptation to market changes and delivery of customized products, ensuring competitiveness in a dynamic environment."Fiona Treacy
シニア・ディレクタ、産業オートメーション | Analog Devices
RISE OF ROBOTICS: BRIDGING THE LABOR GAP
When discussing the emergence of an FMS, it is essential to consider the role of labor in operating these systems. Unfortunately, by 2030, the manufacturing industry is expected to face a shortage of approximately 2.1 million skilled workers.3 One solution to this challenge could be smaller, easier-to-program, reconfigurable robots that add flexibility and allow quick tool changeovers, such as switching from riveting to cutting. Advanced AI and control can make these robots safer and more flexible to work alongside humans as cobots.
EST. SHORTAGE IN SKILLED MANUFACTURING WORKERS BY 20303
While mobile and fixed robots fill labor gaps, reduce costs, and help improve efficiency, manufacturers must carefully select motor drives, vision sensors, connectivity, and power sources while planning their placement in the factory.
THE DIGITIZATION WAVE IS SHAPING OUR WORLD
Digital transformation—which encompasses an FMS—is rapidly advancing across the factory world, with 92% of industrial companies on their digital transformation journey.4 This shift has the potential to create 30% to 50% reductions in machine downtime and increase throughput 10% to 30%,5 enabled by access to real-time insights on the factory floor via advanced sensing technologies.
Capturing real-world (analog) signals and converting them to digital signals will help manufacturers enter this digital transformation wave. However, a critical component to success will be harnessing the power of real-time connectivity, leading to a shift towards Ethernet and multiprotocol support to ease adoption for manufacturers.
REAL-TIME CONNECTIVITY, REAL BENEFITS
The connected factory epitomizes flexibility with its edge sensing and analytics capabilities. Leveraging Ethernet, wireless sensor networks, and 5G connectivity helps manufacturers gain insights into extremely remote locations like oil refineries in the middle of an ocean, wind turbine farms in deserts, million-square-foot warehouses, or miles-deep coal mines.
It’s critical to be able to transmit and share actionable insights from far-reaching places—where wiring isn’t possible or practical—back to a command center for intelligent analysis. OEMs and manufacturers aren’t necessarily tied to their networks on the factory floor. If they need to connect to equipment in a remote location, those physical barriers disappear through connections that enable greater flexibility.
SMART FACTORIES REQUIRE SMART DATA SECURITY
In 2023, manufacturing was the most targeted sector, accounting for nearly 25% of all cyberattacks on industries.6 As a result, manufacturers using smart factory technologies to enhance an FMS must prioritize IT and OT resilience to adapt to change, recover from breaches, and address disruptions.
Building future factories requires secure edge devices capable of quickly recovering from attacks and implementing cybersecurity at the Intelligent Edge, where data is first captured and processed.
In fact, the rise in cybercrime has led to the creation of the European Cyber Resilience Act, which mandates secure-by-design digital products and services with consistent cybersecurity standards.7 Data encryption, secure storage, and key exchange are all critical elements to help secure communications and provide operational integrity.
of all cyber-attacks were against manufacturers in 20236
THE PERSONALIZED FUTURE, TAILORED FOR YOU
A crucial goal for manufacturers when deploying a flexible environment is to adopt enhanced personalization, the benefits of which are many, including:
- Faster time to market with reduced setup and production time, ensuring personalized products reach customers more quickly.
- Improved quality and precision as automated systems ensure consistent quality even for highly customized products, enhancing customer satisfaction.
- Reduced waste as an FMS produces items on demand, reducing overproduction and material waste.
- Customer-centric production quickly addresses customer preferences enhancing relationships and loyalty, by meeting consumer needs effectively.
In fact, personalization plays such an important role to the success of business that a McKinsey study confirmed that “organizations that grow faster generate 40% more revenue from personalization than their slower-growing counterparts.”8
The big challenge here is how manufacturers can reconfigure assembly lines efficiently for small-batch sizes. To address this rise in customization, manufacturers must adopt an agile or flexible manufacturing operation whereby they can easily reconfigure their assembly line to embrace this new demand. One central element of this reconfigurability is using software-configurable input/outputs (SWIOs).
THE POWER OF SOFTWARE-CONFIGURABLE SYSTEMS
While smaller batch manufacturing demands a highly flexible solution, it also introduces more production challenges, potentially reducing fill rates. Stopping production lines intermittently to change parts for specific batch needs can lead to lost efficiency and productivity, resulting in higher turnaround times and increased expenses.
Software-configurable systems offer a proven solution to streamline changeovers and help boost productivity while providing industrial OEMs with unmatched flexibility and simplicity. With new software-configurable input/output (SWIO) capabilities, any industrial I/O function can be accessed on any pin, enabling on-the-spot customization during installation. This results in faster time to market and fewer design resources, while supporting universal product deployment across projects and customers.
A FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM BUILDS A RESILIENT FACTORY OF THE FUTURE
To thrive in today’s rapidly evolving manufacturing landscape, manufacturers must adopt a more flexible, agile manufacturing environment. Leveraging Intelligent Edge technologies will allow manufacturers to embrace automation, robots/cobots, and advanced AI solutions, helping them to build a resilient factory for the future.
References
1 “World Energy Outlook 2023.” IEA, 2023.
2 “How Big Data Can Improve Manufacturing.” McKinsey & Company, July 2014.
3 “Creating Pathways for Tomorrow’s Workforce Today: Beyond Reskilling in Manufacturing.” Deloitte Insights, Manufacturing Institute, May 2021.
4 “The State of Industrial Digital Transformation.” PTC, 2021.
5 “Capturing the True Value of Industry 4.0.” McKinsey & Company, April 2022.
6 “Distribution of Cyberattacks Across Worldwide Industries in 2023.” Statista, 2023.
7 The European Cyber Resilience Act.
8 “The Value of Getting Personalization Right or Wrong Is Multiplying.” McKinsey & Company, November 2021.
