Technology today has played a vital part in advancing many areas of people’s lives. Companies, for instance, can now create internal solutions and products that were difficult to imagine several years or decades ago.
On top of that, technology is transforming the world of manufacturing. Buzzwords, specifically Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory, are poised to transform the manufacturing sector’s entire value chain.
What is Industry 4.0 and Smart Factory?
Industry 4.0 is an umbrella term referring to the changes occurring in the manufacturing value chain process. These changes offer a more effective way to manage, organize, and streamline the standard procedures within the manufacturing sector, including supply, production, logistics, development, and prototyping.
Industry 4.0 is a manufacturing trend that involves the use of the Internet of Things (IoT), automation, and cyber-physical systems, all of which create a smart factory. As the name suggests, this term is a highly digitized production or manufacturing facility, where the whole production or manufacturing process occurs automatically without the need for human input. On top of that, a smart factory is a place where communication flows seamlessly and smoothly between the different systems.
Advantages of Using Industry 4.0
You get to reap the following benefits when you apply Industry 4.0 to your business:
Higher Productivity
Technologies using Industry 4.0 allow you to do more with less. Your manufacturing company, for instance, can make more products quickly while allotting resources more efficiently and cost-effectively.Your machines and production processes will experience less downtime, disruption, or delay, thanks to automated (or semi-automated) decision-making and enhanced equipment monitoring.
Enhanced Efficiency
Industry 4.0 makes various areas of your manufacturing line more efficient. Examples of improved efficiency include less idle time, automated reporting, better track, trace processes, and quicker batch turnovers. You can also make management decisions more quickly, with your entire factory’s manufacturing data at your hands.
Better Product Quality
Real-time quality control that usually comes with Industry 4.0 technologies enables you to extract data points and other relevant statistics at every stage of the production or manufacturing process. It helps you figure out the changes in facility conditions that affect product quality.
Take temperature as an example. The changing heat or cold levels in the facility can influence employee production and affect product quality. With the help of Industry 4.0, you can use the extracted data to determine the ideal temperature in your manufacturing plant.
Increased Opportunities for Collaborative Working and Knowledge Sharing
The processing plants found in traditional manufacturing facilities operate in silos. This means that the workers in those individual facilities don’t get much opportunity to share their knowledge or collaborate with other plants.
Technologies operating under Industry 4.0 enable your employees to communicate regardless of time zone, location, or any other factor. With Industry 4.0, you can disseminate knowledge picked up by one machine in one facility to other processing plants throughout your organization.
What’s more, you can share this knowledge from one system or machine to another without the need for human intervention. The data found in one machine or a particular location, for instance, can enhance production processes in other places across the globe.
Improved Customer Experience
Industry 4.0 provides you with opportunities to enhance the services you offer to your customers. Automating your company’s track and trace capabilities, for instance, allows you to resolve problems speedily.Your business will face fewer issues with product quality and availability.
Lowered Costs
Investing in technology with Industry 4.0 requires an upfront cost. The money you put in, however, will be worth it. You’ll see the manufacturing costs in your facility dip as a result of using Industry 4.0 technology. Your business will be able to manufacture parts or products faster, utilize resources better, and enjoy decreased overall operating expenses.
More Opportunities for Innovation
Industry 4.0 helps you become more knowledgeable about certain manufacturing areas, such as distribution chains, supply chains, and manufacturing processes. It gives you the chance to innovate by coming up with a new product, changing existing business processes (in favor of better ones), streamlining a supply chain, and more.
Benefits of Moving to a Smart Factory Setup
Apart from using Industry 4.0 technologies, your processing plant or facility needs to move towards a smart factory configuration. By doing so, you’ll enjoy the following benefits:
Predictive Maintenance
A report by eMaint, an award-winning software company, revealed that businesses spend a majority (80 percent) of their time reacting to arising problems instead of preventing them from occurring in the first place. This approach can severely drain the available resources of a business, including money, time, and worker productivity.
A smart factory can overcome this challenge with its predictive and proactive maintenance capability.With this feature, you will receive an early warning about a machine’s declining performance. Your maintenance or repair specialists, therefore, can take the necessary steps to nip the problem in the bud. By doing this, your business can avoid significant downtime or business losses.
Optimized Assets
Technologies in smart factories streamline various assets in a manufacturing facility and aid the business in making the most of them. They help identify the location and performance of your resources and manpower in real time. This way, you can make changes to your inventory on the fly.
Scalable Infrastructure
The capital costs involved in setting up a scalable smart factory for the first time are high. Over time, however, the infrastructure becomes cost-effective, as you can expand the facility to accommodate the increasing demands of your company. With a scalable infrastructure, you won’t have to shell out additional money on aspects like security and productivity.
Better Mobility for Facility Workers
Manufacturing supervisors, as well as authorized workers, can roam around the production floor and access any system data to inspect the efficiency of machines in the facility. This mobility allows your employees to add more value to the organization. Additionally, it boosts their productivity and provides them with the opportunity to come up with solutions to make manufacturing processes better.
Turning Facilities to Smart Factories
Techman Robot aims to offer state-of-the-art solutions to transform conventional factories and facilities into highly efficient smart factories. TM Robot, our high-performance cobot, can do the work of traditional industrial robots without the hassle of getting more manpower to keep up with the rigorous workplace environment. Additionally, you can use our collaborative robotin a range of applications, including packaging, testing, quality inspection, conveyor tracking, and machine tending.
Get in touch with us today for a free consultation.