How can a manufacturer ensure its IIoT assembly lines are properly connected? Use control- and field-level automation equipment with interfaces that meet the latest communication standards.
If the factory of the future will run on data, new types of hardware will be needed to collect, route, process and display it. That means more than just new PLCs, but gateways, edge computers, tablets and other hardware.
To get an idea of the importance of sensors to the factory of the future, head to upstate New York to General Electric’s sprawling assembly plant in Schenectady, NY, where the company makes sodium-nickel batteries for cell-phone towers and other applications.
As system designers and integrators navigate through Industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI), it is clear that they must balance the best solution for the problem and plan for integration with existing infrastructure and processes.
You can’t accuse Volkswagen’s Dirk Voigt of having his head in the clouds—he’ll take it as a compliment. The head of digital production at VW, Voigt and a team of manufacturing and IT pros are developing an industrial cloud computing system to amalgamate production data from more than 120 factories. The objective: greater efficiency and lower costs.
Automotive OEMs love to show off their automated body-in-white assembly lines. Commercials invariably feature dozens of six-axis robots producing showers of sparks in choreographed routines.
BMW has been at the forefront of Industry 4.0 for years. For example, the company was an early adopter of additive manufacturing, and today prints hundreds of thousands of production parts annually.
Most manufacturers agree that digital transformation is necessary to remain competitive today and thrive tomorrow. Many large companies have already begun initiatives. But, when asked to quantify the impact of those initiatives on the bottom line, they often come up short.