With the rise of Industry 4.0 and the digitally connected factory, data analytics are defining and optimizing the future of smart manufacturing. Unleashing the power of data analytics in smart manufacturing is dramatically boosting all aspects and components of industrial productivity via real-time data-driven insights and decision-making. Industry 4.0 and real-time data analytics empower the digitally connected factory with productivity-boosting advantages in many ways, such as:
Keep reading to learn more about the rise of Industry 4.0, tools and technologies empowering today's digitally connected factories, and the exciting ways data analytics are boosting industrial productivity and optimizing the future of smart manufacturing.
In the ongoing evolution of manufacturing, Industry 4.0 is a major game changer, transforming industrial manufacturing operations into smart manufacturing networks. Humans and machines are communicating and working together to optimize operations throughout production facilities. The integration and application of exciting new digital technologies make this possible, including the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud connectivity, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced data analytics.
Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing deliver substantial digital transformation, quantifiably improving metrics, such as organizational efficiencies, productivity, product quality, responsiveness to customers, and agility in the face of market unpredictability. According to McKinsey & Company, Industry 4.0 unlocks significant value across many areas of digitally connected factories, including:
Smart manufacturing relies on continuously collecting data from robotics, embedded software, and advanced IoT sensors. For example, machines equipped with IoT sensors continually monitor and transmit real-time data to cloud-based data analytics applications that process massive amounts of data far faster than any human. The resulting analyses deliver extremely elevated levels of operational visibility and insight. This enables real-time data-driven decision-making and organization-wide process improvements.
Some examples of the productivity-boosting capabilities of data analytics in smart manufacturing include:
Smart manufacturing technologies and capabilities are on the rise across the country and around the globe. Personnel working in connected factories are harnessing the power of data analytics. They do this with IoT sensors that monitor and transmit data to cloud-based platforms accessible via smart computing devices, like mobile phones, tablets, and laptop computers.
However, manufacturing facilities have potentially combustible atmospheres, classifying these areas as Zone 1 environments. Standard IoT sensors, smartphones, and other common electronic devices are unsafe and illegal in Zone 1 locations, as they can cause sparks, potentially creating a devastating explosion.
Upgrading Zone 1 areas from manual labor-intensive pen-and-paper methods of collecting data to smart manufacturing technologies requires certified "intrinsically safe" digital tools and solutions. Only certified intrinsically safe IoT sensors and electronic computing and communication devices can guarantee spark-free use, ensuring worker safety in potentially explosive locations.
Aegex Technologies is a global supplier of certified intrinsically safe (IS) solutions and enterprise-class software for transforming Zone 1 manufacturing facilities into smart manufacturing networks. State-of-the-art Aegex digital tools and solutions include IoT-based IS NexVu sensors for real-time monitoring, data collection, and transmission to our Windows-based IS aegex10 tablets.
Providing superior computing power with integrated mobile communications, Aegex Technologies delivers intrinsically safe smart factory solutions to Zone 1 manufacturing facilities. If you want to empower your entire organization with productivity-boosting data analytics and smart manufacturing technologies, we can help. Contact us here to learn more about Aegex digital tools and solutions for Industry 4.0.
