MAY - JUNE, 20189MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSsmartphones. Soon, some should be easy enough to program and deploy that they will no longer need expert overseers."4. Building Intelligent Factories--in the CloudBeyond robotics, AR, and VR, factories are becoming more savvy with cloud computing and smart sensors, retrofitting older equipment with the latter and installing them in newer machines. IoT functionality can track and analyze production quotas, consolidate control rooms, and create models of predictive maintenance. Machines could increasingly be able to self-report problems, provide insight on ways to improve efficiency, and generate feedback on product functionality and consumer usage. The three main applications of industrial analytics in the near future will be predictive and prescriptive maintenance of machines, consumer marketing-related analytics, and the analysis of product usage in the field. The report also found that companies using these analytics increase their revenue, customer satisfaction, and product quality while optimizing their supply chains. 5. Robots on the Rise--Managed by HumansBuilding a better manufacturing sector with augmented and virtual reality, robotics, and data analysis using smart equipment naturally raises an important question: What will the Industry 4.0 workforce look like? "The vast majority of automation technology will not outright replace humans; instead, it will simply make their work more efficient," wrote Jim Rock, the CEO of the vision-guide industrial vehicle company Seegrid, in TechCrunch last year. Barbier notes that the bulk of automation is used for work that would be considered unsafe, too imprecise, or simply impossible for humans to perform, such as those that involve toxic fumes, extreme temperatures, or that demand an acute level of precision.This makes robots a complement to, not a replacement for, human workers. Because of robots, "we'll be able to increase our output," he says. "The jobs that are going to be taken over by automation are actually going to be replaced with additional product volume and categories. We will need people who are able to manage the robotics, to program them, and maintain them. You'll have to take care of the information that you're going to get out of this automated equipment and interpret what you can do with that information. I believe there are a lot of different categories of experts and skilled people we'll need for designing, building, and using the automation."Designing useful algorithms and software that capture, process, interpret, and predict information is key to success in the digital manufacturing age. Flex is already utilizing these kinds of complex tools to inform procedures in the U.S. and abroad. It's a change that will necessitate new kinds of training and educational programs, but as the IoT has already been influencing enterprise in fields such as medicine and business, it's not hard to imagine that the manufacturers of the future will readily prepare workers for the challenges ahead.Looking AheadIndustry 4.0 faces several hurdles before it can truly take hold globally. Security breaches are one of the top concerns for companies innovating in the manufacturing sector, and keeping up with the security requirements that come from collecting vast amounts of data is no small task. The smart manufacturing infrastructure--which includes hardware, software, algorithms, maintenance, and training--will likely undergo significant changes. A feature in Strategy + Business titled "A Strategist's Guide to Industry 4.0" reported that "making Industry 4.0 work requires major shifts in organizational practices and structures. These include new forms of IT architecture and data management, new approaches to regulatory and tax compliance, new organizational structures, and most important--a new digitally oriented culture, which must embrace data analytics as a core enterprise capability." Based on the successes and integrations already occurring, however, it seems that the industry is up to the challenge.With increased efficiency, more jobs, and growing profits, the future of American manufacturing is looking bright. As our machines move into a more complex age, so do our workers and products, symbiotically growing into a new era of production. While the current supply chain system consists of several steps occurring independently, smart manufacturing streamlines the time, effort, and communication between each step, creating faster and more reliable serviceFrancois Barbier
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