INSIDE THE FACTORY OF THE FUTURE

I’ve been avoiding writing this blog about the factory of the future for longer than I’d care to admit! I've rewritten this time after time, because it's just so easy to fall into the trap of using buzz words to explain newer technologies and overly complicate things.

There are just so many these words like “Smart factory”, “industry 4.0”, “Internet of Things” and now "Metaverse" floating around it can be easy to get lost in the myriad of what they actually mean.

So many blog posts that I've read recently rely on overly complicated jargon. So much so, that by the time you’ve finished reading the article, you have no idea what it's actually about or what the real-world use case is. Worse still, you're even more confused than you where before you started reading it. In the words of Albert Einstein "If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough".

Technology should be easy to explain, simple to understand and implemented in a way that makes your working life easier.

At VisionID we go out of our way to do exactly that, by taking away the jargon and removing the need for buzz words even on our most complex solutions.

"Digital Transformation" is one of those words that is used over and over again and yes I admit I'm guilty of using it too... but at VisionID we make it very easy to implement digital transformation strategies in the correct way, by using real world examples that showcase the power of digital technologies and make them easy to understand.

For example digital transformation can be as simple as these steps:

1.) You take an existing complex paper based process.

2.) You create a digital version of that same process.

3.) A worker executes the same process with the aid of the digital workflow and a mobile or wearable device.

4.) You capture critical information from the process in real-time to make sure it is right first time.

5.) Critical data is captured, analyzed and visualized to improve process efficiencies.

One of our largest customers increased process efficiency by 300% right across the factory floor. By replacing tedious paper-based processes and executing a digital version of them on a wearable device.

THE IMPACT OF COVID

The global pandemic has seen adoption rates of these new technologies skyrocket over the last year and a half, not out of want but out of necessity, as we all had to figure out a new way of working through these strange times.

Our customers highlighted the same common pain points as they struggled with the impact of Covid and the slowing of global supply chains. Our response was the implementation of correctly aligned digital transformation strategies to resolve real world problems.

Some examples of the issues faced and the technologies used to solve them:

How do we ensure uptime and maintenance of all equipment during a lockdown?

Our answer: HMT-1 android powered headset to providing real time remote assistance.

How do we provide end user support and training even when your staff are at home?

Our answer: Train your staff in Augmented reality with the HoloLens 2.

How do we obtain real-time data from the factory floor without stepping foot in the building?

Our answer:  Implement LoraWan and WiFi sensors to output over all equipment effectiveness to a visual dashboard or in AR.

How can we keep track of assets in real-time and avoid loss throughout our supply chain?

Our Answer: Implement Radio Frequency Identification to keep track of all your assets.

How do we keep staff safe during a global pandemic and also keep production running?

Our Answer: Implement SureTraceID, our automated contact tracing and social distancing platform.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION BENEFITS

LOWERED COSTS

Connectivity to industrial assets can lower costs by improving everything from production processes to inventory management to reducing downtimes. Digital platforms provide enormous amounts of real-time data, which allow managers to see everything that’s happening on the factory floor — and make cost-cutting decisions, big and small, based on it.

INCREASED LABOR PRODUCTIVITY

Managers and workers are more productive when they have access to previously hidden stores of data, whether by addressing current problems and inefficiencies or by identifying big-picture improvements previously unthought of. And productivity jumps when these digital tools take over previously time-consuming human tasks — workers collecting data and inputting it by hand, for example. This also eliminates the sorts of downtimes and production issues that arise from human error.

INCREASED ASSET PRODUCTIVITY

Manufacturers can use our digital platforms to predict and prevent asset-maintenance issues on the factory floor and beyond. These platforms decrease asset downtime, optimize productivity and speed delivery times. According to Deloitte, factories can greatly increase productivity on predictive analytics alone — in one instance, a factory more than doubled production on its existing capital equipment.

IN SUMMARY

These innovations are transforming modern factories and shaping the factory of the future. The benefits are undeniable: increased productivity, lowered costs, quicker delivery times and improved processes on the factory floor, just to name a few.

This crucial customer feedback and benefits helped us to re-evaluate our solution set and build a factory of the future framework based on the industry 4.0 pillars and the ISA stack. Utilizing hardware, connectivity and software to build end to end solutions that allow our customers to capture, analyze and act on real time data to improve efficiencies.

Of the back of this framework we're going to publish a series of blog posts in which I’ll discuss and simplify the below pillars:

• Augmented & Assisted Reality
• Visibility & Traceability
• Data Connectivity & IOT Sensors
• Automated Data Capture (Barcode, RFID & Vision Systems)
•  Autonomous Robots
• Factory and Product Simulation
• Data Analytics & AI

So forget overly complicated buzz words and jargon, VisionID are implementing the factory of the future today, by improving processes via correctly implemented digital transformation strategies.

If you have any questions or additional suggestions on the above, please free to reach out.