CGI NETHERLANDS
DATA HARVESTING: Key on journey to smart manufacturing Smart manufacturing is achieved by harvesting data, says Coen Huesmann, CGI VP, Consulting Services Manufacturing Center of Excellence WRITTEN BY: JANET BRICE
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ne isolated glitch in a manufacturing process could be the difference between life and death as pharmaceutical giants race against the clock to produce vaccines to fight COVID-19. CGI is leading the way in consulting global manufacturers – from chemical plants to dairy companies to discrete manufacturers – on how to take the next step on the digital journey towards Industry 4.0 – a move which would also ease production problems. CGI’s IT and business consultants help enterprises harvest data to create agile, resilient supply chains which are responsive enough to identify and quickly correct operating issues. Coen Huesmann, Vice President Manufacturing of CGI Nederland agrees the pandemic is putting a strain on companies and highlights the need for manufacturers to start moving away from a silo approach to an integrated end-to-end process.
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PRODUCED BY: KARL GREEN “Many customers have manufacturing sites that have been operating since the 70s or 80s and it's about bringing these in line with Industry 4.0 – lifetime of data in a manufacturing company cannot be ignored,” said Huesmann. “This month we heard that vaccines in the Netherlands are delayed because one of the big pharmaceutical companies had an issue in their factory. And now everybody wants to know, why did this problem occur? But it's not easy to get these answers as a factory operates in a big ecosystem. Aside from the fact that vaccines contain living organisms. You have a lot of different machines, and any of these machines can lead to an error. And all that information is sitting in silos and it is information without context,” he said. Huesmann leads a team at CGI which helps manufacturing companies optimise operations and build agile supply
