The New Industrial Internet Getting the Manufacturing Fundamentals Right

Introduction:

There is much excitement and much hyperbole about the disruptive impact that the Industrial Internet (the Internet of Things, the Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Experiences) will have on the next generation of product design, procurement, manufacturing processes, supply channel collaboration and the delivery of field optimizable smart connected products.

For software entrepreneurs and manufacturing visionaries who have watched their CAD, PLM and ERP software systems being dominated by just a handful of oversized and slow to deliver software providers; this disruption is a much needed and welcomed shakeup that promises to break down the walled gardens and proprietary systems which have handcuffed design, procurement, manufacturing and supply channel innovation for the past 20 years.

Before we can slap high fives and pronounce the “wicked witch is dead”, there is going to be some unavoidable “wailing and gnashing of teeth” for some period of time as this new “industry category” the Industrial Internet, defines itself more clearly and then starts to provide practical, truly better and reliable capabilities, one software brick at a time.

That is to say that until the hyperbole is turned into real, tangible and repeatable process improvements embraced by pragmatic designers, procurement, manufacturers and services people, these production pragmatists will be forced to defend and hold onto their existing, slowly evolving and less than optimal software driven processes. If for no other reason than to keep their companies viable and their children fed.

For those of us who have navigated through (and in some cases created) the past 20-25 years of underperforming CAD, PLM and ERP proprietary systems we owe it to the manufacturing industry and the customers that we server to not only get excited about the new promises made possible by the Industrial Internet but to also work as quickly and as soberly as possible to set down the fundamental technology paradigms required for this new industry category to actually deliver on the new promises.

This lack of delivery in the past has plagued companies trying to get the full “software vendor promised” value out of their existing CAD, PLM and ERP software and infrastructure investments. Throwing yet another “Industrial Internet Layer” on top of an already underwhelming and already complicated software infrastructure will do little more than deliver highly publicized but fragile Proof on Concepts, short lived Pilot demonstrations and further alienated and disappointed production pragmatists.

In the real world of real product design, procurement, manufacturing and customer service, there will be no short cuts. The new technology defining the Industrial Internet will not be successful if it doesn’t work right and work quickly from the production pragmatists perspective. The real customer.

Over the next few weeks I will publish three or four short articles which outline how to

“Get the Industrial Internet Manufacturing Fundamentals Right”.

These articles will cover the following topics:

• Correctly Defining the Industrial Internet “Industry Category” from a manufacturing perspective
• The important role that Model Based Definition Plays (MBD the DNA of the Digital Twin)
• Instrumenting existing Proprietary PLM, ERP and SCM systems with Open Platforms
• Uniting PLM, ERP and SCM with the Industrial Internet. The only practical way forward

If you would like to make sure that you get a copy of each article as they are completed, please send an email to: [email protected] with the Subject: Getting the Manufacturing Fundamentals Right

#digitaltransformation, #digitaltwin, #digitalthread, #IIoT, #mbse

About Chris Garcia’s Experience in Design, Manufacturing & Quality Software Development:

Chris Garcia has been a CAD, PLM and Manufacturing Software visionary for the past 25 years. During those 25 years he has held positions as:

• The VP of R&D for Dassault Systems (SolidWorks Division) and the visionary behind their 3D Model Based Definition (3D MBD) strategy.
• The EVP of Business Development for Siemens PLM (Tecnomatix Division) the PLM shop floor software automation provider.
• The EVP of Business Development at Anark Corporation and a pioneer and thought leader for the 3D Model Based Enterprise – the “Digital Thread” paradigm shift taking place at GE Aerospace, GE Power & Water, Rolls Royce, Honeywell, Raytheon, and the Department of Defense.
• The VP of Software Development for Hexagon Metrology (Brown and Sharpe Division) the providers of automated shop floor inspection equipment like CMMs and Laser Scanners. 
• The founder and CTO of Valisys Corporation (now owned by Siemens PLM) which formed the basis for Siemens PLM Quality Products and NX CMM Inspection.
• The Visionary and patent recipient for the mathematization and 3D visualization of GD&T Dimensions and Tolerance Schemes which is now the basis of current Semantic Tolerance practices which drive generative shop floor NC and CMM programming technology.