Smart manufacturing: a winning bet on the digital future

Published regularly throughout the year, Transform looks at how digital technology is re-shaping the present, while giving readers a glimpse of the future.

In this edition:

Don’t be dumb about smart manufacturing

Professor Henrik von Scheel coined the term “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and has served as a high-level advisor on digital strategy to the German government.

When it comes to smart manufacturing, he says not many companies are being smart. “They treat it like an ERP system, focusing on processes and paying US$2.5m to US$10m.”

But digitalization should never be focused on processes, he tells Huawei Editor-in Chief Gavin Allen . “The main elements in digitalization are the people and the workflow.”

As a first step, he recommends integrating all relevant data (on customers, engineering, product life-cycle?management, and supply chain) and combining it into a central workflow, a task that “should cost you around US$30k to US$45k. Then you commit US$50k to US$100k on the shop floor, integrating it into your?execution and operating management systems. And then you’re done.”?

The opportunity for savings, says von Scheel, is “humongous.”

But start small. “If you’re spending more than $150k,” he says, “you’re making a mistake.”

Read the full interview with Henrik von Scheel.

With the right tech, manufacturers can stop flying blind

Akhila Tadinada is CTO of Xemelgo, a company whose software provides real-time visibility into factory and warehouse operations.

“Our customers told us, ‘I don't know when things are going to get done, or if they got moved at the right time.’ Manufacturing workers are some of the most dedicated and hardest-working professionals anywhere. But they are riddled by inefficiencies.”

Even so, Tadinada doesn’t believe AI will take over manufacturing jobs. “We will always need people at the center of this. But we need to ensure that they can do their best work,?by giving them the best form of assistance.”

Read the full interview with Akhila Tadinada. ?

Time to shift manufacturing into high gear

“It’s not cheap,” admits Haydar Vural, Chief Digital Officer at Karsan Automotive, a Turkish company that designs and manufactures electric, hydrogen, and autonomous buses.

“But if you don't invest in technology, you will go out of business,” he warns. “So, you don't have an option, and therefore you could argue it’s not expensive.”

In an interview with Transform, Vural discusses the challenges of making such a complex product, and explains how Karsan uses digital technology to give its buyers the customized vehicles they demand.

“Smart manufacturing has to be combined with AI,” he says. “Do it right, and you’ll make money. Do it wrong, and you’ll disappear.”

Read the full interview with Haydar Vural.

The hardest type of manufacturing to make smart

It’s tough to digitalize what you can’t count. That’s what’s so tricky about process manufacturing, a term that refers to the manufacture of bulk products such as cosmetics, soap, and paint.

But Dr. Min Zhou, CEO of Thingple, an IoT consultancy, says that by adopting digital technology, the sector can improve its operational efficiency and mitigate its environmental impact.

“RFID technology, for example, can be used to track goods and update factory managers on their progress,” she says. RFID can duplicate everything that a barcode scanner can do, but at greater distances and without the need for a line-of-sight connection. It can also scan hundreds of labeled containers at once, accurately, while traditional barcode readers can only handle one piece of inventory at a time.

Read more about how process manufacturing can get smarter in this article by Min Zhou.

One way to make goods smarter: put carbon in them

Today, nearly all manufactured plastic products contain carbon derived from fossil-based inputs such as natural gas and petroleum. UK-based Econic has developed a process for taking captured carbon and using it to make better running shoes, mattresses, furniture, and other household products.?

“If your company makes running shoes that require plastic inputs, our process lets you use carbon that’s already been captured, instead of relying on new fossil-based materials that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions,” says Econic CEO Keith Wiggins.

“When formulated correctly, products made with captured carbon perform better,” he says. “At the same time, captured carbon costs less than the raw materials it replaces. So, it is possible to make higher-performing, more sustainable products that cost less.”?????

Read the full interview with Keith Wiggins in the latest edition of Transform magazine.

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