Smart Factory Using Smart Manufacturing

The goal of smart manufacturing is to create smart factories – factories of the future or Intelligent factories. There are many advances in methods and concepts of smart manufacturing, due to the research and development efforts in the past 10 years.

Connectivity, analytics, and automation are three pillars of smart manufacturing. Smart manufacturing is characterized by robotics, 3D printing, Machine to Machine (M2M), Man to Machine interaction (M2MI), Mobile, cloud, Big Data analytics, and many more that will require industries with specific expertise. Therefore, the characteristics of smart manufacturing are as given below:

1. Internet of Data (IoD): Big data is producing by Cyber-Physical systems. So, Using internet technologies is managed and shared. Holistics security and safety culture is being developed.
2. Internet of Services (IoS): This provides the concepts of product knowledge provision and services, specific on-demand services, Internet-based services for controlling product behavior. Interaction between systems, machines, and people will improve added value.
3. Internet of Things (IoT): This consists of communication of smart systems using IP addresses. So that there is communication between the objects based on Internet Technologies. This can also be detected using IPv6 addresses (128-bit address space). The advantages of this are that the location, identification, and detection of physical objects and communication between them through connectivity.
4. Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS): It is a fusion of the virtual and physical worlds. CPS is a simple physical object with computing power and embedded software.

The smart factory is characterized by ergonomics, resource efficiency, and adaptability. With rapidly and dynamic changing boundary conditions, the smart factory provides adaptive and flexible processes. This manufacturing solution (Smart Manufacturing) on the one hand it could be related to automation, which can be understood as a combination of mechanics, hardware, and software, which will optimize the manufacturing and lead to unnecessary waste of resources and labor.

On the other hand, it could be seen in the perspective of collaboration between non-industrial and industrial partners, where the smartness comes from forming a dynamic organization. The future state of industries by implementing smart manufacturing is as follows:

1. Increase in automation and reduction in manual labor and hands-on activities.
2. Replacement of people with autonomous equipment and robotics for inspection, transport, and process monitoring.
3. Factories will be modular and mobile.
4. Artificial intelligence will begin to replace traditional professional roles.
5. Virtual or physical centers of excellence (CoEs) will be established to control or monitor like assets by improving operational intelligence.
6. Conservation and sustainability will go beyond the individual industries and start to optimize at both community and global enterprise levels.
7. In continuous performance improvement and effective decisions, the information and data will continue to become a more valuable asset.
8. Digital technologies and related skill-sets will be key enablers.

Smart manufacturing can be implemented in many industries including food, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, oil & gas industry, chemical, paints and coatings industry, etc. Today’s industry cannot afford to take a backseat, without being involved in smart manufacturing. The potential of smart manufacturing cannot be ignored, it can unlock billions of dollars of profit across the industry.