A Quick Guide to Smart Manufacturing

The upheavals of the past two years exposed the delicate nature of systems, processes, and supply chains in manufacturing. Scott Wooldridge, president at Rockwell Automation, Asia Pacific, takes a closer look at the many changes in the manufacturing ecosystem and shares valuable insights and best practices for smart manufacturing.

Global talent shortages, competition from re-shoring and pressure from customers, employees, and investors to improve sustainability have compelled manufacturers to review how they operate.

So-called “smart manufacturing,” which was once seen as nice-to-have, is now a must-have for businesses as they navigate this new reality.

What Is Smart Manufacturing?

According to Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association (MESA)Opens a new window International, smart manufacturing is defined as “the intelligent, real-time orchestration and optimization of business, physical, and digital processes within factories and across the entire value chain. Resources and processes are automated, integrated, monitored, and continuously evaluated based on all available information as close to real time as possible.”

Smart manufacturing has evolved from a hypothetical idea into an engineering necessity.

In fact, 93% of manufacturers based in Asia-Pacific view smart manufacturing as “very” or “extremely” important to future success, according to the 2022 State of Smart Manufacturing ReportOpens a new window . This global survey of 321 manufacturers is developed by Plex Systems, a Rockwell Automation company, in collaboration with Hanover Research. It reveals the present state of smart manufacturing, the challenges manufacturers are facing, and expectations for the future of the industry.

See More: Adopting IIoT, OT Security in 2022: Interconnectivity Makes Work Easier and Security Harder

Considerations for Smart Manufacturing

Smart manufacturing equips manufacturers with the information and insights to optimize productivity, quality, risk management, and sustainability. Many business outcomes, including cutting downtime, are influenced by these aspects of smart manufacturing. 

But what is “smart,” and how do you get smart? 

Here are some elements to consider when pursuing smart manufacturing adoption.

1. Consider your key stakeholders: your workforce

Before beginning your business’ smart journey, the first thing to do is inform and educate the most important participants – your people. You may understand the business value that smart manufacturing will bring to operations, but it is important to clearly articulate this to the people who the transformation will impact – from senior management to the engineers, technicians and operators on the plant floor. Showcasing the tangible benefits smart manufacturing can bring will make the change easier to comprehend and accept, leading to greater long-term success.

These advantages for the workforce can include reducing or eliminating mundane and repetitive paper-based processes and freeing workers to take on more high-value and complicated tasks that require human discernment and innovation.

Companies like Hindalco Industries Limited are implementing smart manufacturing strategies to achieve real-time visibility into operations and KPIs while improving asset reliability, supply chain efficiency and product quality.  

However, Hindalco also recognized the importance of people when rolling out its digital transformation. It wanted to develop a digital-savvy workforce and delight its employees by deploying cutting-edge technologies. As part of the roll-out, the company recruited more than 75 early career professionals from across all functions, called digital ambassadors, to help drive change. Through digital immersion sessions, this team has helped to increase the adoption of digital culture and contributed to a successful smart manufacturing implementation. 

2. Formulate a purposeful data strategy

A key advantage of smart manufacturing is the ability to extract data in real-time from a machine. Yet this data is worth little if not analyzed in parallel with your business goals and the current set of challenges affecting your manufacturing balanced scorecard.

Smart manufacturing is a continuous process of improvement, not a one-time business exercise. You can start small with just one machine or line. Study what data can be collected, analyzed and presented, and the expected results. If the impact is insignificant, move to another use case. Given how dynamic business cycles are, positive results that can then be replicated quickly are essential. Short project cycles of three to six months are the most likely to create a cadence of success building that will sustain a smart manufacturing journey.

Being deliberate about your data strategy provides a clearer call for action. Once the strategy is decided, you need an actionable plan on what data is to be extracted and how it should be cataloged, analyzed and used by relevant stakeholders. 

Remember, the data you are collecting needs to align with your core business drivers. Many smart manufacturing projects fail as they become a substantial exercise in collecting all data possible and then trying to identify business use cases. The more successful projects start with clearly defined data needs and use cases and prioritize the data management aligned to these needs.

3. Smart systems and devices – enablers of smart manufacturing

A key part of enabling smart manufacturing is deploying smart technology. Some of the devices in your plant today are likely equipped to generate and deliver data. To make this data useful, it needs to be interpreted into useful information – this generation of valuable insights from the devices and sensors is what contributes to smart manufacturing. 

With information, manufacturers can better diagnose issues and predict or plan for more effective decision-making. For example, how soon will I need to replace a part or clean a sensor? 

Higher-tier systems can provide much more data that, in turn, offer a wider range of KPIs for you to measure when assessing your manufacturing performance. 

With smart systems – from components to the PLC, attached to information gateway solutions built to function across both operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) systems – the data amassed should be shared to the right people in your organization in the right format. Most sites have the majority of data that is needed. However, it can be captive within different systems. Focus on the gateways and security infrastructure to access this existing data rather than starting with the mindset that brand new devices are needed everywhere.

Couple this with analytics to observe trends, identify gaps, and better predict downtime before it turns into a full-blown problem. This is only possible if you have the right information. A great example of this is Shandong Mining, which saw the potential to improve its real-time monitoring of equipment by investing in smart manufacturing solutions – leading to maintenance cost savings of up to 30%.

4. Keep safety and sustainability top of mind

Sustainability and safety are vital elements of any development initiative and central tenets of any smart application. Any smart manufacturing initiative has the opportunity to address not just productivity but also sustainability and safety. Often these are directly linked, and not building this mindset into the planning cycle for projects risks reducing your stakeholder engagement and also missing key ROI justifications associated with project funding.

5. Smart manufacturing is a journey, not a destination

As technology continues to change, so do the opportunities. The benefits and solutions smart manufacturing offers include:

• • A more flexible manufacturing and supply chain digital infrastructure allowing companies to adapt to fluctuating product demands quickly
  • Operational data that enables users to be proactive instead of reactive based on the insights gleaned 
  • Improved plant reliability and uptime
  • A structure of design and operation tools that will make system integration, operation and maintenance easier
  • The digital infrastructure that drives your balanced scorecard, addressing not just productivity but safety and sustainability elements 

There is no single ‘best’ way to begin your smart manufacturing journey. Start where it makes the most sense, then grow and scale. The more information you gain from the data, the more knowledge you have to improve decision-making and overall productivity levels. Be smart in the way you practice smart manufacturing – your operations will be all the better for it.

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