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A Refined Smart Manufacturing Definition for 2021
A Refi ned Smart Manufacturing Defi nition for 2021
Conrad Leiva
Chairman of the Smart Manufacturing Working Group, MESA International
Over the past few years, the concept of smart manufacturing has been evolving among early adopters, expert practitioners, and industry strategists. Organizations where leaders collaborate on this work—including The U.S. Smart Manufacturing Institute (CESMII), The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and MESA International—have been providing guidelines and documenting the progress of manufacturers.
They have all agreed on key ingredients for smart manufacturing including real-time integration and information-driven collaboration for a highly efficient digital manufacturing ecosystem. However, we are at a point in the smart manufacturing journey where it’s time to converge on a concrete set of guiding principles to help accelerate the next phase— democratization of smart manufacturing.
According to a 2016 report by NIST, “Smart manufacturing systems are ‘fully-integrated, collaborative manufacturing systems that respond in real time to meet changing demands and conditions in the factory, in the supply network, and in customer needs.’”
Rik Geerts, member of several MESA International working groups and the International Board of Directors, wrote, “Smart manufacturing is the intelligent, real-time orchestration and optimization of business, physical and digital processes within factories and across the entire value chain.”
Democratization of technology happens when it becomes available for mass adoption because it’s practical to implement for the average manufacturer. Many of the technologies required for smart manufacturing are now affordable, yet the cost of implementation and integration continues to be a barrier to wide adoption. The next step is to remove the barriers for adoption in an ecosystem that includes many small- and medium-sized manufacturers.
It’s necessary to provide wide access to the knowledge required to implement the strategies and leverage the solutions. Smart manufacturing researchers, architects, and practitioners in the CESMII community have been focused on developing, implementing, and refining the methodologies. CESMII is releasing an updated definition of smart manufacturing, which is very similar to MESA International’s definition, and is providing additional guidance to help industry and educators accelerate adoption. Their 2020 release states, “Smart manufacturing is the information-driven, event-driven, efficient, and collaborative orchestration of business, physical and digital processes within plants, factories, and across the entire value chain.”
Resources and processes are integrated, monitored, and continuously evaluated with the sensing, information, process modeling, predictive analytics, and workflows needed to automate routine actions and prescribe actions for non-routine situations.
In smart manufacturing, organizations, people, and technology work in synergy via business and manufacturing processes and technology-based solutions that strive to be: • secure, • scalable, • flat and real-time, • open and interoperable, • proactive and semi-autonomous, • orchestrated and resilient, and • sustainable and energy efficient.
When all these design imperatives are considered in smart manufacturing initiatives, the organization realizes not only traditional performance improvement benefits like higher levels of productivity, asset reliability, and product quality—they also realize more strategic benefits like transparency, speed, collaboration, agility, innovation, and resiliency.
Transparency, speed, and collaboration are all linked in smart manufacturing. Information flow must be designed so that raw data can be contextualized into information and analyzed for insights which are provided back to multiple systems in the manufacturing ecosystem. Insights drive event-driven autonomous actions for routine situations and enhanced human decisions for non-routine situations with higher levels of transparency and speed.
Higher levels of connectivity and information enable an organization to: enhance operating models, provide more personalized product and service offerings, and innovate partner ecosystems to drive higher revenue and customer value.
Smart manufacturing solutions use modular systems and are integrated with open interoperable APIs that can easily reconfigure to scale production up or down, introduce new products, and create one-off production runs or high-mix manufacturing opportunities. This agility makes the organization adaptable to changes in demand and more resilient to market disruptions.
We encourage everyone to learn more and get involved with these organizations. MESA International is creating guidance on how to apply smart manufacturing standards as well as justify and architect solutions. CESMII is using their unique ecosystem to accelerate the democratization of smart manufacturing, to provide a platform for development and testing and drive implementation by manufacturers through co-funded innovation projects.
Get Connected to Protect Frontline Workforce and Increase Operational Agility
Prior to the most uttered topic this between strategy and actual execution. LNS Diane Sacra year—COVID-19—things were already Research shows that capabilities for safety Director of Marketing, challenging enough for industrial orga- and risk programs and processes are most
LNS Research nizations. For manufacturers, their “normal” often deficient. In a survey of 300 industrial included complexity, change, and uncer- organizational leaders/personnel conducted tainty, creating an evolving risk environment by LNS, 63% of respondents reported that to be dealt with daily. In response, companies they don’t have capabilities in place to embraced industrial transformation. effectively manage risk and safety. “Industrial transformation or what we call With COVID-19 only adding to this stress IX is the digital transformation of indus- on manufacturers, organizations struggled trial operations. Companies utilize IX as a to respond to rapidly changing informastrategic framework to drive step-change tion, confusion, and concern. At the start improvement and competitive advantage,” of the pandemic, industrial organizations said Peter Bussey, research analyst at LNS responded most commonly with the updatResearch. LNS Research is a Boston-based ing and addition of more personal protecfirm focused on industrial transformation tive equipment (PPE). However, as the crisis research and analysis. unfolded, greater emphasis has been placed As part of industrial transformation ini- on more permanent engineering and operatiatives, manufacturers have been increas- tional controls, such as re-configuring proingly building into their strategy the use of duction process flows to improve physical a connected workforce; using technology distancing of personnel. to improve productivity, increase commu- “Certainly, we’ve seen increased focus on nication, share real-time knowledge, address digital technologies that include tools for issues faster, and improve their bottom-line remote expert access, better use of alreadyperformance. Now, with the addition of a available collaboration tools, rapid developglobal pandemic, a digitally connected work- ment of new apps, vision systems, cobots, With COVID-19 force is more important than ever before. “Frontline workforce issues are among automated guided vehicles, and specialized connected worker tech, such as smart wearonly adding to the top strategic priorities in industrial operations, specifically addressing a severe ables to maintain distancing,” Bussey said. Connected worker initiatives were already the stress on talent and skills shortage, and improvement being explored and implemented by manumanufacturers, of safety and EHS performance,” Bussey said. “The pandemic has preferentially accelfacturers as part of their industrial transformation. With the “new normal” created organizations erated these initiatives.” In LNS Research’s recent report that by a worldwide pandemic, Bussey believes this trend will only continue at an acceler-struggle to focuses on enabling operational agil- ated rate. Bussey recommends, “Connected respond to ity with a digitally connected workforce, Bussey points out that workplace safety is worker initiatives should be a key pillar of operational strategy, directly contributrapidly changing a prerequisite to smooth-running, profitable operations. This priority seems espeing to the development of a safe, engaged, informed workforce, with the collaboration information, cially punctuated this year with a global and agility needed to meet fast-changing confusion, and health crisis and much strategizing on how to keep workers safe while keeping organirequirements and new risks.” concern. zations open and working. According to Bussey’s research, though safety is certainly an organizational concern, when it comes to safety and risk management on the frontlines, there’s a gap
Aerotech, Inc. AutomationDirect AVEVA Beckhoff Automation CIMON Digi-Key Electronics Dorner Endress+Hauser Fabco-Air, Inc., A member of Festo Group Festo Corporation Hammond Manufacturing HMS Networks L&T Technology Services Lenze Maverick Technologies, LLC, A Rockwell Automation Company mk North America, Inc. Motion Index Drives Moxa Americas Inc. Murrelektronik, Inc. NSK Automation Opto 22 ProComSol PACK EXPO CONNECTS Automation World Editor Dave Greenfield
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