Engineering Magazine – June 2019

ENGINEERING JUNE 2019 25

SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

the right data and applications, while
protecting against malicious action and
data theft. Fault tolerance can be built
in, with distributed system architectures,
redundancy and effective back up and
disaster recovery systems.
Adopting these technologies across
a manufacturing operation has the
potential to deliver many different
benefits.
Here are just a few of the more
notable use cases that companies are
already exploiting today.

Transforming flexibility
Smart automation systems can take
companies one step closer to the lean
ideal of totally flexible single piece flow.
Smart machines can identify the parts
presented to them – using RFID tags or
printed codes – configure themselves
and carry the appropriate operation,
all within a single manufacturing cycle.
That doesn’t just help manufacturers
reduce waiting time and work in-
process inventories, it also helps them
offer significant additional value to their
customers. If any desired product is
available on-demand, those customers

can cut their inventories, and spend less

time worrying about forecasting.

Ramping up reliability

Condition monitoring systems that

use temperature or vibration sensors

to spot developing problems within

machines are already well established

in some sectors. Industry 4.0 will make

it easier and cheaper to extend these

techniques to a much wider range of

assets. Advanced analytics techniques

can automatically correlate deviations

from specification found later in the

manufacturing process with subtle

changes in machine condition, for

example. That’s helping companies

to fix difficult and longstanding quality

challenges.

Enhancing efficiency

As energy and resource consumption

rise up the agenda in many

organisations, Industry 4.0 offers new

ways to boost manufacturing efficiency.

Machines can adapt their energy

consumption according to the precise

condition of the incoming material.

Advanced analytics techniques can

untangle the complex relationships

between energy use, output, and

quality. That helps avoid sub-optimal

decisions, where savings in one part of

a process lead to higher consumption

elsewhere. It also lets companies tune

their processes in response to changes

in product mix or overall demand.

Getting from here to there

While technology is an essential enabler,

it isn’t the whole solution. There are

also important cultural implications:

your people will have to be comfortable

switching from manual to automated

processes, and ready to trust the

decisions made by their data systems.

You’ll need to be pragmatic: your

smart manufacturing systems will have

to work with your existing assets and

Infrastructure. And you’ll need to be

bold: taking risks and experimenting

with new ideas to gain vital knowhow

and valuable experience.

David Robinson is Head of Innovation and

Technology, Capula

http://www.capula.co.uk