Modern Manufacturing (Volume 1) - Best Practices from Industry Champions

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Modern Manufacturing (Volume 1) - Best Practices from Industry Champions

Since 2008, Michelle Segrest has been touring manufacturing facilities worldwide for major industry trade publications. Each plant made a memorable impression. In this three-volume series about modern manufacturing, Michelle shares her first-hand experiences touring manufacturing factories worldwide, delivering the lessons learned from the best practices of industry champions. Each chapter is a detailed case study which can be easily read in one sitting and provides a comprehensive account of how these world-class facilities use game-changing methods to improve plant operations. Each case study also includes key tips and takeaways that can be used in any plant, in any industry.

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Bionics Drive Factories of the Future

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Bionics Drive Factories of the Future

Festo’s Bionic Learning Network studies the movement and behavior of animals in nature to inspire interactive, intelligent technology and machines that stretch the boundaries of factory automation.

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How Valves Can Help Drive the Factory of the Future

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How Valves Can Help Drive the Factory of the Future

It’s exciting when valves and other equipment communicate with people—sending complex data through the air to predict maintenance, prevent failure through predictive analytics, and enhance performance. But the future of the IIoT involves an even more sophisticated evolution where devices communicate with each other to solve problems and even make decisions. The 4th industrial revolution will make history with the emergence of so-called “cyber-physical systems,” which enable the evolution of artificial intelligence.

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Create Action from Data Analysis

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Manufacturers are finding ways to gather, analyze, and use data analytics to solve problems before they happen and drive upgrades in uptime and quality.

By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Content, Inc. - Reporting for Efficient Plant Magazine

There was a time, not so long ago, when manufacturing companies had systems that were stuck in silos with little or no communication between humans and machines. Data was difficult to gather and shared only through spreadsheets and by word of mouth, making problems almost impossible to predict. Today, not only are humans and machines communicating, but machines are talking to each other. Massive amounts of raw data are flying through the air at warp speed revealing all kinds of intelligence. It’s one thing to have the data. It’s another to be able to analyze the data. But the secret sauce, according to Nathan Oostendorp, co-founder and chief technical officer of Sight Machine, San Francisco (sightmachine.com), is dissecting the data, identifying the right data, and then using the knowledge gained in a meaningful way to create actionable results. Follow this link to read the full article.

Manufacturers Leverage IIoT Data

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As companies make digital transformations using IIoT data, they see immediate results that save time and money.

By Michelle Segrest, Navigate Content, Inc. - Reporting for Efficient Plant Magazine

A plastics manufacturer had a major piece of equipment that was frequently breaking down with no warning. It was a $40-million problem every time it happened. By incorporating a digital-transformation strategy, the company was able to predict the problem five days in advance.  “This is the power of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT),” said Robert Golightly, senior manager, Product Manufacturing at AspenTech, Bedford, MA (aspentech.com), a supplier of software that optimizes asset performance. “When a machine fails, companies generally wait until the machine is fixed, and when the process is running again, they go back to work. They are forced to do this because there is not enough time to do anything else. But when you have a few more days or even weeks to think about it, suddenly there are all kinds of options. You can use the time to build inventory or reschedule production. There are half-dozen smart business decisions we could make if we had enough time.” 

IIoT is having a profound effect on the way companies collect, manage, and analyze data. Click here to read the full article.