Smart Manufacturing Is Cloud Computing

November 27, 2016 / G C Network / Comments Off

Twitter Feed

NJVC Platform as a Service to Include Google Geospatial Services for NCOIC Geospatial Community Cloud Project in Support of Disaster Relief Efforts

By G C Network | July 9, 2013

CHANTILLY, Va., July 9, 2013 — NJVC® was selected by Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) to provide the platform as a service (PaaS) element of a cloud-computing-based humanitarian assistance…

Fathers of Clouds – A Tribute

By G C Network | June 14, 2013

(A guest post from Mr. Ray Holloman, NJVC Digital Communications Manager ) For more than half a century, cloud computing has changed names more often than a Hollywood starlet. Utility…

CNBC Closing Bell: Bob Gourley on NSA Leaker

By G C Network | June 13, 2013

This is clearly off topic, but I couldn’t help myself! Please take a moment to view this CNBC video where my good friend Bob Gourley addresses this important event. Good…

Guest Blog: Sequestration and the Cloud

By G C Network | May 30, 2013

(This post was provided by Praveen Asthana, Chief Marketing Office of Gravitant, a cloud service brokerage and management company) Sequestration burst out of obscurity and entered our household vocabulary in…

Join Me at the Gartner IT Infrastructure & Operations Management Summit

By G C Network | May 22, 2013

Please join me at the Gartner IT Infrastructure & Operations Management Summit in Orlando, Florida, June 18-20, 2013, where my session topic will be “Cloud Service Integration: Increasing Business Value…

Five Years of Cloud Musings!!

By G C Network | May 14, 2013

https://kevinljackson.blogspot.com/2008/05/hello-world-april-18-2008.html “Sunday, April 18, 2008 Hello World ! – April 18, 2008 I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a blog for about six months now. Initially I didn’t…

Global Interoperability Consortium’s Cloud Computing Project Detailed at NATO Conference

By G C Network | April 30, 2013

PRESS RELEASEApril 30, 2013, 2:30 p.m. ET Eric Vollmecke of the Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium reports the proliferation of geospatial information will pose problems for disaster responders and describes…

IBM Debate Series – What’s Next in IT?

By G C Network | April 25, 2013

Next week I will be participating in the inaugural session of What’s Next in IT Debate Series, a new program of authentic debates and conversations on key technology topics. Sponsored…

Lisbon Bound: NATO Network Enabled Capability Conference 2013

By G C Network | April 21, 2013

This week I will have the honor of attending the 2013 NNEC Conference at the Corinthia Hotel in Lisbon, Portugal. The NNEC conference is an annual event which has been sponsored by HQ…

Demystifying PaaS for Federal Government

By G C Network | April 2, 2013

Join us on April 16, 2013 at 1 PM EDT to remove the mystery surrounding Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for Federal Government https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8966264786104832512 The PaaS market is plagued with confusion, and agencies…

« Previous
1
…
27
28
29
30
31
…
73
Next »

As cloud computing simultaneously transforms multiple industries many have wondered about how this trend will affect manufacturing. Often characterized as “staid”, this vertical is not often cited when leading edge technological change is the topic. This view, however, fails to address the revolutionary nexus of cloud computing and the manufacturing industry. Referred to as Digital Thread and Digital Twin; these cloud driven concepts are now driving this vertical’s future.

Digital Thread is a communication framework that connects traditionally siloed elements in manufacturing processes in order to provide an integrated view of an asset throughout the manufacturing lifecycle. Digital thread implementation also requires business processes that help weave data-driven decision management into the manufacturing culture.

A Digital Twin is a virtual representation of a manufacturer’s product used in product design, simulation, monitoring, optimization and servicing. They are created in the same computer-aided design (CAD) and modeling software that designers and engineers use in the early stages of product development. A digital twin is, however, retained for later stages of the product’s lifecycle, such as inspection and maintenance.

Figure 1– The smart manufacturing landscape https://www.industryweek.com/systems-integration/journey-smart-manufacturing-revolutio

When successfully combined these processes can deliver on the promise of Smart Manufacturing, which include:

· Ability to receive published data from equipment using secure open standards, analyze and aggregate the data, and trigger process controls back to equipment, systems of record and process workflows across the enterprise and value chain connected via A2A and B2B open standards.

· Autonomous and distributed decision support at the device, machine and factory level.

· Ubiquitous use of mined information throughout the product value chain including end-to-end value chain visibility for each product line connecting manufacturer to customers and supplier network.

· Enhanced information- and analytics-based decision making on large amounts of raw data gathered from the smart manufacturing equipment and processes.

· New levels of efficiency to support new services and business models including mass customization (highly configured products) and product-as-a-service.; and

· Provide a broad portfolio of these advanced capabilities to manufacturers of all sizes and in all industry sectors, at acceptable levels of cost and implementation complexity.

Although at first glance these goals seem overly ambitious, they are being realized today because technologies and integration standards have come together to fuel this revolution. Required building blocks include:

· Smart machines and advanced robotics –These machines recognize product configurations and diagnostic information, and make decisions and solve problems without human intervention.

· Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – Devices with network and internet connectivity that are active participants in event-driven, self-healing manufacturing processes integrated with open standards that support connectivity.

· Cloud services – On-demand information technology services that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

· Enterprise integration platforms – Platforms that have the ability to receive data broadcast from equipment via secure open standards. These applications analyze and aggregate the data, and trigger process controls, history recording, and work flows that enable business processes across value chain systems that can then be integrated via application-to-application (A2A) and business-to-business (B2B) open standards.

Digital Thread and Digital Twin also enable the evolution in the manufacturing field often referred to as Industry 4.0. This next phase increases manufacturing efficiencies while reducing both cost and time of delivery. It brings together data, cloud computing, and cyberphysical systems in order to deliver:

· Industrialization where machines supported human work;

· Optimization where assembly lines increased productivity;

· Automation, where machines largely replaced humans; and

· Digitalization, where information technology with its broad portfolio becomes an integral part of manufacturing.

Cloud computing has extended many benefits to manufacturing because those businesses can now:

· Rely more on standard cloud services allowing them to focus on business-critical functions.

· Reduce capital expenditures significantly

· Relieves manufacturer of the burden to license, deploy, and maintain baseline IT services like email, collaboration, unified communication, and human relation management

· Enhance operational flexibility through the use of rapid IT scalability

In summary, the combination of digital thread, digital twin and cloud computing enables both smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0. If you’re company isn’t deeply leveraging all of these concepts today, you don’t know anything about manufacturing.

This post was brought to you by IBM Global Technology Services. For more content like this, visit Point B and Beyond.