LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY
Sight Machine | June 29, 2022
Sight Machine Inc. today announced it has been named a finalist of the 2022 Microsoft Manufacturing & Supply Chain Partner of the Year Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.
Sight Machine and Microsoft have together created a set of scalable solutions and go-to-market programs for the most important tasks in the manufacturing industry. These solutions can be used immediately by both discrete and continuous process manufacturers, requiring only low initial investments and leading to a fast return on investment.
Sight Machine continuously transforms and analyzes all plant data so that manufacturers can focus on improving production. This streaming platform is the breakthrough product for manufacturing data, providing every stakeholder a single, trusted and dynamically updating view of production. Purpose-built over more than a decade to convert unstructured plant data into a standardized data foundation, Sight Machine on Azure continuously analyzes all assets, data sources, and processes, from machine to enterprise level.
The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered outstanding Microsoft-based applications, services and devices during the past year. Awards were classified in various categories, with honorees chosen from a set of more than 3,900 submitted nominations from more than 100 countries worldwide.
The Manufacturing & Supply Chain award recognizes a partner organization that excels at providing innovative and unique services or solutions based on Microsoft technologies to manufacturing & supply chain customers, demonstrating thought leadership in their industry. In 2021, Sight Machine was also named as a finalist for the Microsoft Manufacturing Partner of the Year Award.
"Microsoft is leading manufacturing transformation, globally and at an industry level, and it's an honor to work closely with them, They are driving focus on the most important technical and change management problems for industry and they truly work with a partnership mindset. "Together with Microsoft and its strong ecosystem, we look forward to helping manufacturers unlock new levels of productivity and sustainability."
-Jon Soberly CEO and Co-Founder Sight Machine.
Additional details on the 2022 awards are available on the Microsoft Partner Network blog: https://blogs.partner.microsoft.com/mpn/congratulations-to-the-2022-microsoft-partner-of-the- year-awards-winners-and-finalists/. The complete list of categories, winners and finalists can be found at https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire/awards.
About Sight Machine-
Sight Machine is the data platform for manufacturing, unlocking plant data to help manufacturers improve profitability, productivity, and sustainability. Using Sight Machine's common data foundation for operations and analysis, manufacturers can make better, faster decisions for improving production performance. Sight Machine's streaming platform continuously analyzes all assets, data sources, and processes, from machine to enterprise level.
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IOT
Renault Group | June 29, 2022
A strategic partnership to develop and commercialize a one-of-a-kind technology solution for collecting and analysing manufacturing data on a large scale.
A new step toward industry digitalization is being taken by improving the operational performance of manufacturing equipment, resulting in higher productivity, fewer defects, and lower energy consumption.
This collaboration takes advantage of Renault Group's expertise and experience in digitalizing its manufacturing activities, as well as Atos' expertise as a key player in manufacturing digital transformation and consulting.
28 June 2022, Boulogne-Billancourt and Paris - ID@scale (Industrial Data @ Scale) is a new service for industrial data collection launched by Renault Group and Atos to assist manufacturing companies on their digital journey to Industry 4.0. Manufacturers will be able to collect and structure data from industrial equipment at scale using "ID@S" (Industrial Data @ Scale) to improve operational excellence and product quality.
Manufacturers generate a massive amount of data throughout the manufacturing process. Data is frequently underutilized due to its diversity and lack of standardization, as well as operator time constraints. Access to standardized data via simple analytical tools and dashboards facilitates and accelerates the deployment of many different types of use cases (production, maintenance, quality, and energies, for example), including net zero benefits.
Renault Group's IT, digital, and engineering teams created this solution to capture data from its manufacturing facilities as part of the company's digital transformation strategy. Data is collected and structured in a standardized manner for each type of manufacturing process, allowing a wide range of use cases in manufacturing, engineering, quality, CSR, logistics, and so on to be addressed. This solution is now being implemented on a large scale across twenty-two Renault Group plants. Over 7,500 pieces of equipment are linked, with standardized data models representing over 50 different manufacturing processes. Finally, the partnership is supported by the Group's Consulting and Services teams to market, deploy, and support the "as a service" solution worldwide, enabling rapid and agile deployment of new connectivity, data models, analytics, and insights for a customer within a few weeks.
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MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY
HWAFUNE | June 28, 2022
When mentioning Taiwan's traditional manufacturing, what pops into your head may be the textile industry. As a global hub for textile manufacturing, Taiwan has undergone significant changes over the past 30 years. Two of the most important changes are the relocation of industries to China and the government's New Southbound Policy.
While Taiwanese textile manufacturers' decision to relocate is mainly driven by the need to reduce costs using cheap overseas labor, the rising labor costs in Southeast Asia have forced the manufacturers to constantly move their production to other regions, turning them into textile industry nomads.
Despite these two relocation trends, HWAFUNE Textile which specializes in manufacturing functional fabrics has insisted on keeping production in Taiwan to provide reliable, high-quality products for esteemed customers. Instead of blindly pursing low costs and low prices through contract manufacturing and ending up in the red ocean, HWAFUNE Textile has strengthened the foothold of the Taiwanese textile industry in the global luxury market.
One of the hot topics in the functional apparel market in recent years is the European Union's ban on fabrics containing PTFE. Currently, membranes made of PU, TPU, and PTFE account for the majority of functional apparels. With superior moisture permeability and breathability, PTFE has been adopted more widely than the other two materials.
However, when heated to high temperatures during the manufacturing process, PTFE will generate PFOA which is classified as a possible human carcinogen. In addition, greenhouse gas is produced when fabrics containing this material are incinerated. Even if the fabrics are buried in landfills, PFOA will not decompose and will be washed into the ocean by rain. It then gets into the atmosphere via evaporation and is transported to everywhere by airflow or rain. PFOA has even been found in polar bears' livers.
Considering the potential impact of the EU's ban on the clothing market and consumers' fear of toxic substances, upmarket brands have been looking for alternative functional fabrics. Therefore, HWAFUNE has joined hands with Phoenix Innovative Materials to develop the functional fabric brand Porlite, which has rapidly won the heart of high-end functional apparel brands.
"In Light of Future Trends, HWAFUNE Develops Porlite Fabrics with Phoenix Innovative Materialsto take interest in PP membranes five years ago. Although HWAFUNE has the ability to mass produce fabrics featuring PTFE, PU, and TPU membranes, he believes PP membranes will become a trend in the functional apparel industry since the lifecycle of the material, from the production of the membrane and the manufacturing of the fabrics to the disposal of the clothing, is more in line with increased environmental awareness, I can guarantee that Porlite is capable of replacing existing functional fabrics and can fully address high-end brands' product development requirements"
-Jackson Chang,ChairmanHWAFUNE.
Turning the ambitious vision into reality is not easy. In the past three years, these two companies worked closely on the manufacturing, testing, and modification of the membrane. Besides functionality, HWAFUNE also considered the needs of consumers during testing, such as waterproof, moisture permeability, and even the appearances of the fabrics after washing.
The reason that Chairman Chang is so committed is because he has put himself in consumers' shoes in the first place. He thinks environmental protection, safety, non-toxicity, and practicability should be combined perfectly. Product developers should not need to choose between them, nor should they force consumers to compromise on environmental protection, price, or quality.
Dr. Chang, who is responsible for technology development at Phoenix Innovative Materials, explains the three major advantages of Porlite which is produced through non-toxic manufacturing processes in Taiwan. Firstly, there are 10 billion pores arranged in an orderly manner on the membrane. As the pores are smaller than water molecules and bigger than air molecules, the fabric can resist water penetration, even under pressure, while maintaining breathability.
Moreover, since most outdoor exercises are relatively intense and will create a lot of sweat during the process, Porlite can also transport moisture from the clothing to the atmosphere by diffusion through the membrane, thus providing moisture permeability and breathability that no other functional apparel on market can achieve.
Porlite Captures Top Brands' Heart with Non-Toxic Manufacturing, Sustainability, Fastness to Washing, and Moisture Permeability
In line with the HWAFUNE's commitment to sustainability, the Durable Water Repellent (DWR) for Porlite can endure at least 30 laundering cycles and rain-resistant for period of time, thus providing a longer life span.
Manufacturing in Taiwan is one of the main reasons that Porlite has won favor with Europe-based tier-one sportswear brands. The high quality enables Porlite to stand out from other competitors and meet customers' needs for upscale and reliable products.
Both the PP membrane developed by Phoenix Innovative Materials and the Porlite fabric created by HWAFUNE are manufactured in Taiwan. Thanks to their insistence on domestic production, the companies have established a high-tech brand image for Taiwanese textile companies widely recognized by overseas esteemed customers. These are valuable experiences for both Phoenix Innovative Materials and HWAFUNE.
Instead of pursuing short-term profits through contract manufacturing services, Chairman Chang and Dr. Chang spent five years developing the Porlite fabric whose overwhelming advantages for environmental protection and functionality have spoken for itself. The goal is to establish bio-based manufacturing processes by using natural materials such as weeds as raw materials and to provide biodegradable products in 10 years.
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