Agility is critical for South African manufacturers looking to modernise their environments. They need to embrace the concept of Industry 4.0 to leverage cloud-based technology and cyber-physical systems to operate the smart factory required in today’s digital world.

By Morné de Villiers: integration architect and project manager at TechSoft International

An intelligent manufacturing solution must be considered if a business is to bridge the gap between existing legacy solutions and the connected ones needed for the cloud. This will help local operators gain supply chain efficiencies and compete in the global marketplace.

When a business can make intelligent decisions, it can optimally allocate its people and resources to minimise machine and equipment downtime. Process automation becomes essential in this regard.

When a manufacturer uses the data generated through this intervention and power intelligent automation, it can reduce manual processes, increase productivity, refocus its workers on more value-added tasks, and enable better decision-making across the organisational footprint.

Manufacturers collect, store, and use data across various machines, systems, and data repositories. This data needs to be unified to optimise efficiency to provide business and technology leaders with complete access. Protocols are numerous, which presents a challenge in connecting the data across operations. Connecting the various data stores takes cloud-based intelligence, data mining, and analytics.

A connected intelligence platform that integrates data across processes, equipment, and Industrial Internet of Things devices becomes the cornerstone of the shift toward Industry 4.0. Furthermore, this platform can intelligently unify data for greater access and control and confidently predict the future to help reduce costs, improve operational efficiencies, and increase profitability.

South African manufacturers understand all too well the need for consistent production processes. Intelligent automation does provide for this. Quality control (QC) is used to identify defects or flawed products, but this takes up valuable time and resources. It is, therefore, better to have consistent production that ensures each product is flawless.

Reducing or eliminating inconsistencies saves time and resources in QC. It also lowers defect rates on products delivered to buyers. Artificial intelligence (AI) models empower manufacturers to combine historical and real-time supply chain data to find quality issues early. The AI learns from automated root-cause analysis and other processes to dynamically improve quality consistency.

Supply chain optimisation is vital if a manufacturer is to be competitive in modern distribution channels. Buyers throughout the distribution channel rely on on-time delivery of products. Any delays or bottlenecks in production and distribution provide competitors with a significant advantage in filling orders.

Industry 4.0 and automated intelligence enable proactive responses to supply chain changes. Instead of manually recognising demand changes or problems, the data reveals inventory insights and allows the business to optimise transportation and logistics as required.

Locally, manufacturers must contend with significant industry regulations impacting production processes and products. And while South Africa is not unique in this regard, it does introduce a new layer of complexity into the process. Fortunately, Industry 4.0 automation enables greater efficiency and accuracy in meeting compliance by reducing opportunities for human error, improving audit and tracking information, and providing analytics that helps identify potential compliance issues before they arise.

Companies will see optimised revenue and profit by adopting automated processes and benefitting from greater accuracy resulting from manufacturing intelligence. They can maximise resource utilisation to deliver products on time while keeping costs minimum. Automation also enables agility as manufacturers scale to accommodate new customers or products being brought to market.

As a result of the events over the past two years, Industry 4.0 is foundational to the manufacturing ecosystem’s success. Automation brings benefits such as integrated data insight, process optimisation, supply chain resilience, and compliance with industry regulations that cannot be ignored.

Getting a connected intelligence platform in place to provide manufacturing intelligence for the modern smart factory is no longer a luxury but a business necessity for local companies.

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