When looking at smart manufacturing facilities, the possibilities for better productivity and efficiency are endless. However, if a company doesn’t have the necessary automation systems, their results can be vastly disappointing.
With that idea in mind, what sort of things should a company look for in the smart manufacturing approaches for their business? Luckily, there are five different factors to consider that should be placed high on the priority list.
1) An Increase in Bandwidth and Capacity
First, the automation systems should have the ability to scale to easily incorporate vast amounts of devices, data, and connection points for the business. Without this quick scaling, automation systems will fall uselessly.
2) Improvement in Decision Making
One thing about smart systems is the ability to generate and gather tons of data, but without the ability to understand that data, the systems are useless. The Human Machine Interface, or HMI, helps analyze the data while also presenting the data in an easy to understand format. The system can also route, report, and store all the data that is related to events by facilitating and troubleshooting the data.
3) The Interoparability
Since various machines, as well as systems, require different sets of tools, interfaces, languages, and logic, the learning curve tends to be quite steep. Finding the right sort of people that contain the necessary skills to support these technologies is a challenge for most companies. It is important to try to bring many technologies together in the workplace to match up with the skill sets available.
4) Maintaining and Troubleshooting Ease
HMI, as discussed before, can help make the troubleshooting easier. It gives better access to the stored data far technicians to read that is related to the various events and issues. Maintenance is easier as well since the data is easier to access and read through the HMI.
5) Better Security
When there are more devices, systems, and connection points in a certain facility, it raises the risk of digital threat exposure. That is why control systems and network infrastructures should be optimized to help fight these risks and avoid security breaches on the data stored.
The modern automation systems out there are ideal for helping a company reach their goals, but they also help raise the bar for success in the future business practices. Considering the various ways that modern automation can be beneficial can help produce more awareness toward this need for technological advances in the workplace.