For years, the term “cloud-based” for data in manufacturing has been met with some skepticism. However, with the new technologies of industry 4.0 and DM, this approach is starting to be embraced more openly as it provides:
- Lower cost of entry due to the pay as you go philosophy,
- Full transparency of shop floor with added flexibility and
- Improved scalability and simplicity built into the software!
Continuing our conversation with DELMIA’s Mike Bradford, we will now dive into what has changed about the technology and how innovations in manufacturing have overcome the perceived issues of the past to bring you into the Digital Manufacturing future!
Gene: I feel as though, Up until recently,- when it comes to manufacturing and data the, industry was paranoid about cloud as a concept because They wanted all of their information on the actual premises, in case the cloud services stopped working that they would still have access to their data .
Gene: But more and more, I hear people talking about cloud more positively.
Gene: So, what exactly are the benefits of delmia cloud MES when it comes to manufacturing?
Mike: So, you’re right, people have been hesitant to adopt Cloud MES because of- number one-,
Mike: the data concerns that you mentioned, but also the concept of “latency”; anytime you’re using the Internet, there’s a certain level of latency- even with 5G- which is better, and there’s still a certain level of latency.
Mike: That’s been one of the concerns, but people have learned lots of ways to address that whole latency issue.
Mike: companies have learned more about “edge computing”, where even though your whole system isn’t on premise, you can have an edge computing device to do some key processing on site, but still the majority of data storage and processing in the cloud.
Mike: that’s been the approach we’re taking in terms of the data concern.
Mike: The other concern I hear is “data security”, but think about how much expertise you as a manufacturer have in data security versus how much expertise a software company like a 4 billion company like Dassault has in terms of data security.
Mike: We have the expertise to keep your data secure; so, from a data security perspective, cloud should not be an issue.
Mike: In terms of actual execution in recognition of that latency issue, we’ve got 3 cloud models that we support. We support, infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and then true software as a service.
All though there’s a much longer discussion we can go into for the first two, I just want to focus for a quick minute on “software as a service”.
Mike: Software as a service is 100 percent cloud based. We manage the servers, we manage the software; all you have to have is an Internet connection.
Mike: So, from a cost perspective, it’s much less expensive- you don’t have any hardware, you don’t have to have technical expertise on site. It’s very scalable. You can start with a single line.
Mike: ” I need a supervisor and four operators on this line.” And if it works, then we can add another line because you’re paying by subscription.
Mike: So, from a cost and scalability perspective, it’s excellent.
Mike: We are focusing right now on pretty simple manufacturing processes, and that’s one of the things we emphasize as well. Let’s save the edge computing piece for later until we’re really comfortable with the rest.
Mike: We’re focused now on assembly operations and on simple things like welding, where you’re not integrated to welding machine, but we go into a lot of shops and the guy’s got a paper packet for what he needs to weld.
Mike: Let’s get rid of the paper. Give him a screen that shows him “these are the components you need to do, these are the steps”, walks them through the process, and all he or she has to do is run their welder and then click done when they’re done.
Mike: Now, they’ve got all their work instructions available to them, you’re getting rid of all the paper, and a supervisor then knows “Joe has started this job and has completed this job.”
Mike: Supervisor has complete visibility into the status of all the jobs on the shop floor and can control those.
Mike: But the key is you can still have the same source of truth; you’re still pulling the same data from the same ERP system whether you’re using on prem or whether using our cloud app. So, you’ve still got that single source of truth, but it gives you more flexibility into what you need at a given facility, and it lets you step into this Relatively new cloud and software as a service world gradually and learn as you go and grow as you go.
Gene: Unfortunately, our time is coming to a close. In closing, do you have any last-minute thoughts, regarding the DELMIA suite of software or Dassault’s unique ability with the virtual twin concept that could benefit manufacturers?
Mike: I think just as a wrap up, it’s the inherent value and having model-based systems engineering, a model-based solution to go from design to execution with a single digital thread and then be able to build off that and work from that in a single platform-based solution.
Mike: It has huge value; and you can start that process wherever it makes sense for you!
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D4M is a privately owned company specializing in leveraging digital technologies to accelerate manufacturing clients to their transition to Industry 4.0. With long tenure and hundreds or successful projects, we are confident that our approach and experience provides the roadmap to help bring clarity and efficiency to your manufacturing operation.
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