Industry 4.0: less talk and more action

How prepared are manufacturers? As the concept of Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, smart factories, big data and digitalisation makes headlines, will manufacturers realise the full potential of the available technologies, and use them to their full advantage?

How prepared are they to invest in Industry 4.0 capabilities designed to deliver these benefits? Or will they be put off by the associated challenges and perceived cost and complexity of Industry 4.0 implementations?

Being at the forefront of Industry 4.0 and taking advantage of the potential oportunities will allow manufacturers, big or small, to achieve business outcomes that weren’t possible 10 years ago, such as improving cost-effectiveness and product quality.

As supply chains become more complex and the need for manufacturers to operate globally increases, it is important that manufacturers embrace the available software technology to meet these demands. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which connects equipment, people, processes and supply chains is becoming more accessible to manufacturers of all sizes.

According to the results of The Manufacturer Industry 4.0 UK Readiness report, 69% of respondents stated that Industry 4.0 was going to have a significant impact on their business and 56% of respondents reported a firm intent to invest in Industry 4.0. 64% of these firm respondents are planning to invest in the next 12 months, of which 71% plan to invest in production, following by 44% in R&D, and 42% in IT.

The research suggests that over two thirds of manufacturers are well aware of the impact of Industry 4.0, but only half are actually intending on taking action. Read The Manufacturer Industry 4.0 UK Readiness Report.

Why might this be? Is there a lack of knowledge about how Industry 4.0 can be applied into the production environment? The biggest challenge is ‘where do I start?’ and ‘where should I invest?’. Initially manufacturers should look at where they could gain real value, and fully understand their key business drivers such as reducing downtime, increasing output, and improving quality.

www.cimlogic.co.uk

www.cimlogic.co.uk

Establishing this will form the core of a phased approach to implementing Industry 4.0.

The recently published Industrial Strategy by HM Government, presents the 10 Pillars to building an Industrial Strategy, which includes ‘investing in science, research and innovation’ and ‘driving growth across the whole country’. Investing in innovative technologies such as Industry 4.0 will no doubt drive this long-term growth in productivity that the government is striving for.

Read the Building our Industrial Strategy green paper.

Connecting the dots At Cimlogic we believe that connecting technologies, people and processes is at the heart of improving productivity and the core of implementing an effective Industry 4.0 strategy.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says that improving productivity results in improved living standards ‘because an increase in productivity translates into an increase in output (amount and quality) without any increase in input (labour and materials)’. They also suggest that there are generally two ways to improve productivity. One is the purchase of better machinery, the second involves a new process, which allows a worker to increase the speed or quality of what they are doing.

Feeling the pressure? There’s pressure on manufacturers to increase operational efficiency to remain competitive and innovative, as market conditions remain challenging and are changing faster than ever before. To react to changing market conditions, quickly and effectively manufacturers need to start adapting to Industry 4.0 technologies now.

Not big enough to adapt? However, some manufacturers feel that their operations are not big enough to adapt, others feel overwhelmed with the pace of change, anticipating large capital expenditure, for which budgets do not exist. So where are SMEs currently in their technological journey? Historically, the limiting factors for SMEs adopting new technologies, such as cost and maintenance has held them back. However, the Industry 4.0 technologies that are emerging can be viable for small and medium manufacturers.

Small changes, BIG improvementsIndustry 4.0 doesn’t have to mean implementing large scale projects involving costly IT expenditure. Carrying out even the smallest of changes can help achieve siginificant gains in efficiency, and can be implementing straight away with minimum effort. Perhaps manufacturers need to think small first and treat Industry 4.0 as a journey of transformation, one that doesn’t happen over night.

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Industry 4.0: Planning Your Strategy Before manufacturers start to connect their enterprise, they must ensure that they: have a reliable, robust, secure infrastructure; understand the key business drivers, and use this information to gain full optimisation of operations. Ensuring that the organisation, its people, processes, and technology all talk to each other is key to having a connected value chain and establishing a phased approach to Industry 4.0. Cimlogic are ideally placed to help manufacturers move forward with Industry 4.0 technologies. Industry 4.0, is not just for multi-national organisations, and whole IT systems do not need to be redesigned to accommodate this new technology. We can assist all manufacturers, including SMEs identify and evaluate all existing IT and OT (Operational Technology) infrastructures within their manufacturing operations, assessing where their current capabilities lie and where the opportunities to improve exist. The four phased approach to implementing Industry 4.0 technologies includes:

Step 1: Industry 4.0 Benchmark Assessment

Step 2: Performance & Infrastructure Audit

Step 3: Insight and Capability Analysis

Step 4: Manufacturing Transformation Strategy

Cimlogic will access and evaluate all existing IT and OT (Operational Technology) infrastructures within the manufacturing operations. Taking a good look at the current state of operations, and considering the future state, whilst always keeping in mind the key objectives that need addressing, such as: reducing downtime; improving productivity; reducing waste; increasing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), and so on.

Cimlogic will collect data from existing disparate systems, and where necessary deploy a temporary monitoring solution to give an accurate overview of the operations – without changes to existing infrastructure. As well as gathering information from the manufacturing production, Cimlogic will evaluate the complete organisational structure, including processes and resource framework in order to create full visibility of operations.

Following on from step two, Cimlogic will evaluate what level of operation the organisation currently falls under, whether it is adhoc and reactive, planned and consistent, or if standardised processes are in place. Cimlogic will then recommend what steps can be taken to improve on the current level of operations, taking advantage of the opportunities highlighted in the data collected in step two. Carrying out these recommendations will not only increase performance and ultimately the bottom line in the short term, but will also be the building blocks of the Manufacturing Transformation Strategy.

The Manufacturing Transformation Strategy will enable the manufacturer to plan, strategise and implement Industry 4.0 technologies, that are appropriate, timely and scalable for the business. The Strategy will enable the manufacturer to achieve Operational Excellence and integrate Industry 4.0 capabilities over a realistic and managed time scale, ensuring any infrastructure expenditure is planned and connects not only technologies, but also people and processes, ensuring the plant is a factory of the future.

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About Cimlogic

Reaching Operational Excellence and World Class Manufacturing status is the goal of many modern manufacturers. Manufacturers need the ability to adapt manufacturing processes and systems quickly to ever-changing market conditions in order to achieve objectives such as: improving supply chain visibility; improving efficiency; increasing quality; meeting regulatory compliance; improving product genealogy and traceability; reducing energy costs and becoming an enterprise wide ‘LEAN’ manufacturing operation.

Cimlogic provide a wide range of solutions that help our customers achieve the many challenges faced by today’s manufacturers. Our experts here at Cimlogic offer a complete Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) consultancy, design, implementation and analysis service, providing considerable benefits to your manufacturing processes and providing simple solutions to ensure optimum performance.

MOM (Manufacturing Operations Management) provides in-depth information to allow businesses like yours to improve their productivity. This makes your manufacturing processes much more efficient, saving you money and putting you in total control of every element of your production. Among its many advantages, data analysis from your MOM system provides great opportunities for measuring and improving KPIs such as OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), allowing you to monitor vital components of your manufacturing unit, such as quality and availability. The data you collect from your improvement activities means that you can focus on changes that will bring your production line up to optimal performance levels.

Call: +44 (0)1274 599955 Email: enquiries@cimlogic.co.uk

Are you ready to set Industry 4.0 in motion? Our experts here at Cimlogic offer a complete Industry 4.0 solution, from an initial benchmark assessment, performance audit and capability report, to the creation of a comprehensive Manufacturing Transformation Strategy that is both realistic and achieveable. For more information about Cimlogic’s Industry 4.0 technologies, please visit our website.