Weekend Musings: Smart solutions for smart manufacturing

Earlier this week, I took a short trip to Osaka, Japan to attend the ‘Factory Solutions Conference’. The three-day conference showcased some of our integrated Smart Factory solutions to our partners from all over the world – including 17 valued partners from India. Witnessing all those solutions at once was an overwhelming experience as it was a window into how Panasonic has been taking steps to provide its customers with high precision and efficient manufacturing solutions which help companies cope with the demanding environment and ensure better productivity as well as the elimination of hidden losses.

While data analytics is gaining significance across almost all operations, I believe that automation in the manufacturing sector will accelerate as we move towards an era of enhanced connectivity, efficient sensor technologies and simplified visualization of performance metrics. Most manufacturing setups and processes are an accumulation of special purpose machines and customized assembly lines designed and supplied by individual machine manufacturers and commissioned by turnkey integrators. Therefore, at a time when the world looks towards executing Industry 4.0 capabilities, in my opinion, it is important for manufacturers to step up on two aspects – first is enabling automation and the second is improving data analytics in order to enhance the overall productivity. And we at Panasonic are making sure to align ourselves to provide better and smarter solutions to the manufacturing industry in this journey.

Enabling automation and seamlessly connected solutions in the factories is key to increase efficiencies. At the conference, we showcased high-technology solutions for IoT based welding equipment, SMT(surface mount technology) floor solutions, automated transport systems (battery-operated lift and place systems, input feeders, etc.) for warehouses and shop floors, PCB assembly and inspection solutions, and pre/post SMT process solutions. Given that these terminologies may not sound familiar to a few of my colleagues, it suffices to say that these lie very much at the heart of manufacturing across the electronics and automotive industries. Our focus through these smart solutions is not just to provide our equipment but also to collaborate with partners and provide end-to-end factory solutions.

Coming to the second aspect, which is to expand data analytics and dashboards so as to be able to evaluate data better on a real-time basis. The numerous benefits it incurs include higher efficiency in monitoring, troubleshooting, data archive, and retrieval capabilities. To support the manufacturers in this aspect we showcased MOM (Manufacturing Operations Management) oriented design at the conference, which aims for autonomous sustained operations. The idea here is to integrate all manufacturing processes through a custom-designed system that covers procurement, inventory management, production planning, cost management, order management, and delivery. The data inputs coming from assembly operations need to be uniformly integrated with the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and the above-mentioned processes for effective real-time analytics to improve decision-making and productivity. Smart, connected systems help manufacturers have seamless visibility into bottlenecks, machine performance, and other operational inefficiencies which in turn can assist them to make adjustments to increase yields, improve quality, and reduce waste.

As manufacturing is on the cusp of a revolution – the Internet of Things (IoT) revolution; it is, therefore, time for us to ensure that these world-class solutions are executed in India and we, at Panasonic India are committed to accelerating our efforts to engage with the industry for this transformation. The need of the hour is to be precise, agile, and fit to lead the game. With more such advanced solutions in the future, we at Panasonic will continue to innovate to achieve our vision of a better life and a better world.