Nine Starting Points for Digital Transformation in Manufacturing

whitePaper | February 24, 2023

Business demands have forced manufacturers to be more agile. Smart manufacturers are adopting technology, specifically digital twins, to move faster. Using a digital twin in a manufacturing environment can fast-track discovering bottlenecks, drive efficiencies, lower costs, reduce environmental footprint, and help manage risk. However, there is mystery around digital twins, from defining what they are and their strengths to the critical importance of an ecosystem approach to address the diversity of digital twin scenarios. The goal of this paper is to demystify digital twins, so more manufacturers can apply the technology and bring agility to their operations.

whitePaper | November 5, 2022

Many credit the birth of the digital twin to Dr. Michael Grieves, who applied the idea to the manufacturing sector in 2002; however, the argument is often made that its origins can be traced back even further. For example, during the Space Race (1955-1975), NASA would create a replica of each spacecraft they would send into orbit. These replicas were studied and used for simulation to gain insight into their performance and improve their space exploration initiatives.

whitePaper | September 30, 2022

Until 2020, progress towards digital transformation for most manufacturers was slow. But the urgency for manufacturers to make successful digital transformations escalated during the first 8-12 months of the global pandemic. As COVID-19 reshaped consumer buying behaviors, the pace jumped from a crawl to a sprint: According to one study, 85% of organizations accelerated their digital transformation initiatives in 2020.[1] Some industry observers believe we witnessed 6.5 years of digital progress in the last eight months of 2020 alone.

whitePaper | December 6, 2022

Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) create significant challenges for users and manufacturers of systems and devices. Most machine and system manufacturers as well as most production companies lack adequate experience when it comes to using smart networks. Even though, modular automation concepts with increasingly decentral distribution of control intelligence have already been around for some time. The decentral components – including safety controllers – communicate more and more via network technologies. However, many manufacturers and users hardly think about security issues. Cybercriminals use this fact to sabotage or extort companies, or to carry out espionage

whitePaper | November 4, 2022

For manufacturers, the challenge of ensuring that production efficiency is improved to the point that’s right first time, every time, is critical towards the ultimate goal of achieving zero defect manufacturing and all of the associated cost and sustainability benefits.

whitePaper | November 8, 2022

The industry is currently undergoing its fourth revolution. The third industrial revolution introduced automation, which created data. I4.0 is the movement to translate data into information. This is paving the way for introducing a high level of autonomy by utilizing smart decision-making through advanced physical or statistical modelling to achieve self-adaptation, self-diagnosis, and self-healing. This is truly relevant for the companies, as the conventional systems are unable to adapt to the highly increasing complexity and dynamic of the production environment