The past few years have been incredibly challenging for UK manufacturers. Much like the rest of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic led to severe supply chain disruptions, import restrictions and heightened uncertainty on demand and supply. As we look to the present day, it still seems bleak. There has been a continued sluggish global demand and workforce challenges. Only recently, UK manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) hit a seven-month low, as the downturn continues to deepen. Economic uncertainty and inventory corrections compound weak demand.
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Despite these challenges, manufacturers can grow through digital investment to enable greater agility and supply chain visibility. According to a recent survey by Rockwell Automation, over 50% more manufacturers are using advanced technology such as machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) compared to last year.
Certainly, these new technologies will help to unlock new growth opportunities for the sector. The promises of Industry 4.0, to enable a more efficient, connected and flexible ecosystem will also help drive competitiveness for UK factories. However, to simply say that putting these new technologies into an existing architecture will fix everything is a tad ambitious. Rather, they must take a holistic approach to these initiatives to truly create the smart factories of the future.
The reality is that many of the existing and underlying technologies used in the manufacturing sector are typically quite old, acting in isolation. These businesses will often have legacy systems that were not built to scale so are unable to handle modern demands or manage the more advanced security requirements they now face. These outdated systems often aren’t able to integrate with newer technologies or processes. What’s worse, continuing to run and maintain these technologies can be expensive, increasingly so as they continue to age. These lead to an increase in siloed data, maintenance costs, and operational inefficiencies which all result in an overall loss of productivity. Attempting to still function on outdated systems is foolhardy and will severely hinder the ability to compete in today’s global landscape.
To many, smart factories are simply where the processes take place with the aid of cloud technology and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. When, in fact, getting all of these processes to work harmoniously together is the real challenge. Smart factories should ideally provide manufacturers with the opportunity to self-optimise performance, to adapt and learn from new conditions in an instant, and to help autonomously run the entire production process. These interactions, or events, happening in the process must be made instantly available to interested applications and parties, both in and out of the organisation. For manufacturers to do this, they need to first unlock and then leverage real-time data to allow them to learn and make predictions. The end goal is to help maximise overall equipment effectiveness while not sacrificing operational efficiency.
So what exactly is real-time data? And how does it unlock these possibilities? Well, it helps to better view and understand the supply chain, how to predict maintenance on operations, and how to assure greater quality control. This can be done through GPS trackers that leverage the power of real-time data to track the movement of goods through the supply chain. In turn, this allows manufacturers to immediately identify and act on any bottlenecks. Whether this be by sensors to detect faulty machinery, or even to predict and schedule maintenance before the breakdown occurs. The quality of products can then be constantly monitored as they are being built so that workers can best identify any quality issues and correct them.
Having access to this real-time data is immensely important…but not enough. An infrastructure is required to connect this real-time data movement on the factory floor to the rest of the organisation’s IT estate, to meet the requirements for greater agility, innovation and scalability. This can be facilitated through an event-driven architecture (EDA), a software pattern that allows for the flow of data and events between different applications or systems, all in real-time. Furthermore, manufacturers tap into an event mesh – a real-time data network that distributes the data from applications or IoT devices to other systems that require this rapid-fire information to best perform their function.
An example of this in action looks something like this: components needed to manufacture an aircraft engine have been ordered, however, logistic delays in the supply chain mean that the parts required aren’t able to be delivered on the set date. Connecting the supply chain and internal manufacturing process, for instance, ERP, through EDA allows the manufacturer to be immediately informed about the decision, and they can then react accordingly. They’ll be able to readjust the production line or look at alternative suppliers, all while keeping overhead costs as low as possible. Without that real-time information, enabled by an event-driven ecosystem, these updates would have been slower to process, leading to delays, unnecessary spending and a much less efficient factory.
EDA has become essential for any organisation that requires real-time intelligence, from global banks, major retailers and even national space administrations. Adopting it will be a game changer for manufacturers in the UK during the transition to Industry 4.0. In fact, a recently analyst-led study found that investing in EDA delivered a substantial return on investment for the manufacturing industry globally, including specific benefits like increased employee productivity and increased revenue.
The manufacturing industry will have to adapt to this wave of data and “IT” within its sphere and this will require a significant culture change. The adoption of EDA should be at the top of every UK manufacturer’s mind if they are to differentiate themselves from the rest.