The manufacturing industry is undergoing a digital transformation. Manufacturing has reached a critical tipping point because to the technologies underpinning Industry 4.0, which include IIoT, AI, and cloud. Manufacturers must either embrace digital transformation of their operations and procedures immediately or risk falling behind their competition. According to a PWC report, manufacturers would spend more than $70 billion on technology by 2022 to satisfy the demands of Industry 4.0. They’ll be installing new technology to boost the factory’s production intelligence (MI).
Harnessing the power of data analytics, MI can monitor a factory’s entire infrastructure, know what machines are not performing to the specificity, and improve overall efficiency. MI also provides enterprises the capability to apply analytics and reporting techniques to operations and business data at the site, regional, and global levels. Unlike dashboards, simple reports, and portal solutions, MI allows contextualization of factory floor information by combining data from multiple sources.
Sensor-embedded machinery and industrial equipment are becoming more ubiquitous on the manufacturing floor. These sensors capture data from each piece of equipment and send it to the cloud or software, where it can be evaluated for feedback on the manufacturing process and to improve each step of the supply chain. Manufacturers can use virtual and augmented reality to build testing environments during the manufacturing process, allowing them to make tweaks or try out new design ideas without needing to hold a physical replica of the product in their hands.
Virtual reality works in tandem with physical components to improve data collection and monitoring. A robotic arm, for example, performs its duty while a virtual arm collects data about the equipment, allowing for better predictive maintenance. Cloud computing is growing more powerful. To construct more sophisticated factories, manufacturers are turning to the cloud. They use IIoT sensors in some of this, but they also see the cloud as a method to develop robotic solutions. Smaller manufacturers will be able to outsource parts of the technology as part of a robotics-as-a-service model, lowering their investment costs.
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