News Ticker

Industry 4.0 transforming manufacturing processes for increased efficiency

Frank Baldrighi, business development manager – ANZ, GETAC Thanks to digital transformation powered by artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and machine learning (ML), manufacturing processes are becoming smarter, more efficient, and safer. This transformation is often referred to as industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, and marks the beginning of a new era of digitalisation, data-driven decision-making, and smart automation. In the manufacturing industry, digitising certain crucial key performance indicators (KPIs) has long been a challenge. Among these persistent issues is the need to reduce downtime and enhance worker productivity. Industry 4.0 promises to change this for both process and discrete manufacturers. By leveraging data as its core resource, Industry 4.0 delivers a ‘smart’ factory that is not only efficient but also capable of self-correction and self-optimisation. Mobile devices on edge have a crucial role to play in this modern data-driven landscape. These devices serve as a central access point for all data-driven decision-making processes. Their sturdy build and portability also make them highly reliable tools on the plant floor of a smart factory. Here are some ways in which Industry 4.0, through edge devices, can deliver results: Improve worker productivity To enhance the productivity of workers, mobile devices can serve as a valuable tool for completing administrative tasks effectively. This includes clocking hour sheets and signing off on completed tasks, which can be easily accomplished through the convenience of a digital device compared to manual and paper-based processes that often lead to inaccuracies and lack real-time visibility into production processes. Through the use of a mobile device, workers can access the company’s manufacturing execution system (MES), which offers centralised information and real-time updates. This delivers a more collaborative approach to work, ensuring that every worker is on the same page and working towards common goals. And, the ability to […]

Propelling Smart Manufacturing in APAC to the next frontier with AI

Attributed to: Leonard Lee, President APAC, Beyond Limits As one of the global hubs for manufacturing, Asia Pacific (APAC) accounts for about 48.5% of the worldwide manufacturing output. In the region, opportunities are ripe for smart manufacturing to move to the next level, largely due to the well-developed manufacturing ecosystem and government support. Spending within the artificial intelligence (AI) market is also expected to grow to US$49.2 billion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.5% from 2021 to 2026. The increased investments are expected to fuel the growth of automation through the use of technologies such as robotics and control systems, thus enhancing the performance metrics of the production processes. For APAC manufacturers, the most pressing challenges in the implementation of Industry 4.0 include the reluctance to embrace new technology, a shortage of skilled personnel to oversee its implementation, as well as difficulties in measuring the ROI of smart manufacturing digital solutions. There is also a sense that competitive differentiators are rising in importance. Manufacturers know they must step up on their digital investment, as those companies with higher digital maturity have shown greater resilience and are better able to adapt to supply chain challenges with increased supply chain visibility. Providing manufacturers with a competitive advantage AI has already transformed many enterprise processes, and the use of AI technology is now treated as a business imperative. Manufacturers are exploring ways to effectively utilise their existing data and insights, boost efficiency, reduce expenses, and achieve operational advantages. However, conventional AI technology that manufacturers still rely on acts as a “black box” that creates models from data without providing any explanations. To allow manufacturers to reap the full benefits of technology, they must pivot to Cognitive AI. Cognitive AI acts as a “glass box”, providing detailed justifications for […]

New cloud-based solutions bring speed and feline agility to unlock the power of manufacturing data

Historically, manufacturing data has been gridlocked, trapped in the devices, or the applications where it was created. “Today, owners of that data want to be a cheetah, a business cheetah,” said Brian Shepherd, senior vice president of software and control at Rockwell Automation. In the current global climate, a business cheetah needs to be able to pivot with speed and agility, he says, which is why the world’s largest company, dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, is introducing its latest cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. The new suite of cloud-based SaaS products is part of the FactoryTalk Design Hub software, which provides on-demand design tools. SaaS delivers software via a licencing and delivery model, whereby hardware and infrastructure are centrally hosted. Users subscribe and receive the benefits of the software on-demand over the web, freeing themselves from large upfront investment and ongoing hardware and infrastructure maintenance. SaaS solutions were developed in partnership with Microsoft on the Azure platform to help business to digitally transform with confidence using the cloud. “The cloud is tried and tested. It’s proven,” Shepherd said. “SaaS in the cloud provides the speed and agility that customers are looking for to meet their key business outcomes. The cloud enables those business outcomes by changing the way you work,” said Shepherd. The cloud can also accelerate time-to-value and reduce the need for expensive on-site experts and teams for deployments, patching, and upgrades. “That’s good, because you can’t find those people anyway.” Adopting the cloud also eliminates large upfront purchases for hardware and software licenses. “You can start small and scale up fast,” Shepherd said. “That’s real agility. You can scale back down as business conditions change.” There’s no question that the cloud is here to stay. We see what cloud computing is capable of and […]

Embracing equity for women in STEM

This year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) follows the theme of “embracing equity” — focusing on giving fair opportunities for everyone to succeed. An example of a business invested in its people is, Sandvik Coromant, here highlighting the experience of their President, Helen Blomqvist. One of IWD’s key missions is to forge inclusive work cultures where women’s careers thrive and their achievements are celebrated. This year, the campaign centres around equity and how providing equal opportunities is no longer enough. So how do we achieve equity? At Sandvik Coromant, the number of females in functional management roles currently sits at 43%. This is above the estimated industry average, which is considered to be 38%, according to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). However, if we’re to look across the manufacturing industry, it’s clear there’s still a lot to be done to truly achieve equity. A recent report by the Manufacturing Institute found that females make up just 29% of the manufacturing workforce. Staggeringly, it also finds that 63% of women struggling to get into the field face challenges due to the sector’s lack of flexibility and almost half are deterred due to childcare issues, compared to just 8% of males. It seems, therefore, that females wanting to succeed in the manufacturing industry still face challenges that rarely affect their male counterparts. If the industry is to truly reach equity, it must be aware of the unconscious bias certain groups face and find ways of managing that bias. But first, businesses must realise that hiring diversly does not just help fulfil a quota. In fact, it can bring real, measured business benefits. Time to act According to a Wall Street Journal report examining diversity and inclusion among S&P 500 companies, “diverse and inclusive cultures are providing companies with a competitive edge over either […]

Operational technology security in smart manufacturing

By Alex Mosher, Senior Vice-President of Global Enablement at Armis The business needs of Operational Technology (OT) environments are rapidly evolving where systems are increasingly connected to both enterprise networks and externally to the internet, exposing them to new and emerging cyber threats. This means that security becomes strategically important for OT, IT, and business stakeholders in the manufacturing sector. According to a study conducted by Forrester Consulting, 66% of manufacturers have experienced a security incident related to IoT devices over the past two years. Believe it or not, OT devices in industrial and manufacturing environments often have no built-in security, nor can you install a security agent on them. They were designed this way by manufacturers operating on the now invalid assumption that these devices would not be installed on a network that conveys any type of threat. The same devices are now exposed to many types of cyber threats leaving the manufacturing sector vulnerable. The fact that OT devices cannot accommodate security agents robs security managers of visibility to what the device is, what risks it harbors, and whether it is behaving outside the norm. Not only are OT devices increasingly vulnerable to attack, but they typically are not able to accommodate a security agent that could monitor and protect the device from attack. This design choice allows the device manufacturer to maximise economy and power efficiency, which in the past (and arguably still) have been seen as more important than security. Alex Mosher, Senior Vice-President, Global Enablement at Armis, talks to NZ Manufacturer about the strategies involved in managing IT/ IoT/ OT device security in the manufacturing, advanced manufacturing, and smart manufacturing space. Andrew, thank you so much for your time. What are the challenges manufacturing companies face when managing OT devices? With automation and smart devices […]

Is low-code the future of manufacturing?

Jornt Moerland, Regional Vice President APAC of Mendix. Business leaders have been losing sleep in face of various challenges within the manufacturing industry. Decreasing production output, labour shortages, ongoing supply chain disruptions and inflation are just a few to be named. As noted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, almost a third of all Australian employing businesses are having difficulty finding suitable staff, and more than two in five businesses have been facing supply chain disruptions since January 2022. In the past, low-code application development has been deployed by manufacturing companies as a ‘nice-to-have’, connecting peripheral devices and supporting logistics. However, business leaders are progressively recognising the extended value in low-code, rapidly adopting low-code platforms throughout all core domains and business activities, including engineering, product design, and quality control. According to Gartner, by 2024, 65 percent of all app development functions will use low-code application building, with 66 percent of big companies using at least four low-code platforms at once. But what makes low-code the future when it comes to improving manufacturing and supply chain efficiencies? A method built for agility, mobility and scalability For many IT leaders, there is still some confusion between Business Process Management (BPM) software and low-code. It’s important to note that, while they share some similarities, low-code and BPM have some fundamental differences when it comes to capabilities and application. While BPM models and streamlines business processes and has a less-targeted application, low-code simplifies the creation and delivery of apps and functions, often addressing specific customer needs and allowing for greater flexibility and customisation. While manufacturers are trying to integrate on manufacturing floors IoT devices that can be controlled from anywhere, any time, the rapid adoption of these devices means that they must now develop supporting applications at an ever-faster pace, straining the traditional development […]

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Network Monitoring – The competitive differentiator in manufacturing

By Sebastian Krueger, Vice President APAC, Paessler Every industrial revolution brings along a learning revolution. Digitisation is transforming the world in ways people a few decades ago would have hardly imagined. You hail a taxi ride to take you to the best restaurant in town using your smartphone and get items you ordered just yesterday delivered to your home. The list is endless. At the core of it lie technologies that have enabled these changes, which are also disrupting areas like manufacturing, automation, and energy. All these technologies have one thing in common: data. Data takes center stage in the converged IT/OT era Today, data has become a critical component to optimise your business to be more competitive, or to develop new business models based on analytical insights. One well-known term in this regard is Industry 4.0, which caters to the ultimate goal of optimising the entire value chain of a product including development, manufacturing, usage, maintenance, and even recycling. This is enabled through modern technologies and the intelligent connection between humans, machines, factories, and the end product. Digital infrastructure like cloud-hosted systems, its local production network, or simply a web shop comprises the key technology stack for a company that decides to move into the future. The convergence of Information and Operational Technology (IT/OT), Industry 4.0 and increased digitisation have all reshaped the way the production floor connects and interacts with IT. This interconnectivity makes it pertinent to have a unified overview of your entire infrastructure. These include programmable logic controllers, industrial PCs, smart industrial gateways, sensor technologies, as well as traditional IT infrastructure components like network switches, routers, and wireless devices. Monitoring it all requires an integrated solution that can coalesce OT and IT together into a single view. Why do you need holistic monitoring for your industrial IT? In […]

Delivering supply chain resiliency across the fabricated metals industry with ERP

By Roger Landman, Head of Product Management at SYSPRO The fabricated metals industry inherently runs on very slim margins due to factors like fluctuating material costs, direct and indirect labour and overhead expenses. Global raw material costs are often dictated by the London Metal Exchange (LME), the largest exchange for options and futures contracts for base metals, which includes steel, aluminium, zinc, lead, copper and nickel. Besides the volatility of external global factors, the industry is also expected to meet specific, made-to-order, customer demands. With all these factors at play, it comes as no surprise that the industry is so heavily reliant on specific raw materials suppliers, manufacturing processes, labour and outbound logistics requirements. With ongoing supply chain disruptions, competitive advantage is being lost. According to the recent SYSPRO survey entitled ‘Realigning the links of the disconnected supply chain’, 82 percent of fabricated metal businesses have experienced supply chain and material handling disruptions, further eroding diminishing margins and ultimately customer service. Despite these challenges, only 12 percent of businesses have systems that support in servicing external customers. To build resiliency, metal fabricators should consider the right technology solutions to improve operational efficiencies, enhance external collaboration and meet unique customer demands. Maintaining a consistent supply of raw materials For decades, China has been a leading supplier of raw materials to the fabricated metals industry, partly due to its competitive pricing to match low industry margins. Russia has also been a top producer of materials such as aluminium, steel and nickel. But raw materials don’t just stop at metals. Gasses like Oxygen and Argon are essential in the welding of carbon steel and some high alloy steels. With ongoing challenges like global lockdowns, sanctions and other unavoidable disasters, distribution of these materials has also been severely delayed. Last year, several countries experienced […]

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The missing link in Industry 4.0’s connectivity chain

While IoT has transformed industry, there are still challenges when it comes to streamlining deployment. Here, Amr Houssein, managing director of eSIM pioneer Mobilise, explains how eSIMs complete IoT connectivity. In short, the industrial IoT (IIoT) enables machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, making manufacturing facilities smart and digitalised. By using sensors to capture factory floor data, manufacturers gain a comprehensive overview of their facility to optimise processes, improve machine performance, reduce waste and energy consumption, and result in less unexpected downtime. Getting manufacturers connected Connecting IoT devices over a mobile network is referred to as the cellular IoT. Using existing mobile networks removes the need for a separate, dedicated infrastructure. Instead, a range of networks can be used — whether that’s 3G, 4G, 5G, or IoT-specific networks. LTE-M and NB-IoT are networks designed specifically for IoT connections. While LTE- M offers a lower price point and voice and SMS support, NB-IoT offers low power, low data usage for long range and reliability. Whichever network is used, connecting devices to the cellular IoT through the traditional SIM cards presents several challenges for manufacturers. Deployment difficulties An IoT SIM card has traditionally been responsible for connecting a device to the network. But it doesn’t come without its challenges. IoT SIM cards typically only allow a device to connect to one carrier network. When deploying devices globally across multiple networks, or working with devices that are involved in the supply chain or logistics that move across the world, this creates a logistical nightmare. Manufacturers must source and distribute physical SIMs for a local network for each device. As SIM cards need to be removable for maintenance or carrier changes, IoT devices cannot be sealed, meaning that harsh operating conditions are more likely to damage a device. There are also the added concerns that having a […]

NX delivers greater cross-discipline collaboration and knowledge capture

The latest release of Siemens’ NX software, brings greater electronic co-design, collaboration, and intelligence capture and reuse capability. These empower engineering executives across every industry to find productivity improvements and greater efficiencies in their engineering departments. Part of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of software and services, NX delivers productivity and user-experience enhancements across a broad range of capabilities. Leveraging leadership and expertise in the electronics/electrical engineering space with Siemens EDA (formerly Mentor Graphics), NX extends its electronic design collaboration capabilities further with a robust workflow for rigid and rigid-flex PCB designs. These are especially important given increased product complexity and packaging constraints. Users will notice a new codeless approach to Feature Templates that enables the reuse of the knowledge embedded into NX data during design. This elevates user-defined features to the next level, extending data reuse from pure parametric geometry features to include PMI, requirements checks and more. The key benefit is a jump start of efficient knowledge reuse and greater collaboration amongst design and engineering teams. NX is renowned for its leadership in complex shape development and whatever the industry sector customers operate within, aesthetic quality is now just as important as functionality, efficiency and performance. The latest release of NX brings new tools to help develop the forms designers need and their customers demand, whether that’s updates to curve creation and editing with parametric features or to NX Algorithmic Modeling which better support convergent modeling workflows enabling more efficient ways to complex patterns and shapes. NX Topology Optimiser now fully replaces and surpasses previous solution capabilities. Part optimisation within the context of an assembly now considers design and manufacturing constraints and makes simultaneous optimisation of multiple design spaces with independent materials possible. The recently introduced NX Design Space Explorer for multi-objective optimization also now offers multi-run support to […]

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