• Advanced Manufacturing

System Integration or Integrated Systems?

  • Advanced Manufacturing
Is it possible today to answer unequivocally which approach is better? Over the last few decades, integrated systems for business management have appeared on the market, replacing a number of separate solutions dedicated to individual areas, such as: manufacturing, warehousing, outsourcing, invoicing, accounting, human resources and payroll. These and other aspects of business management need to be integrated for the business to operate as a single unit.

Artificial Intelligence, the symbiosis between human and machine

  • Advanced Manufacturing
Contrary to popular belief, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not going to replace people, but should rather be seen as an ally, given that it’s more geared towards optimizing business processes, such as task automation processes. The most widespread AI is currently based on learning from questions and suggestions made to humans to deal with the challenges presented by the different processes. Full automation is only possible in very simple processes, generally with little added value.

Machine Communication Standards

  • Advanced Manufacturing
We all know that our goal is to achieve online connectivity between our IT systems and the real processes taking place in our factories. However, in reality, nowadays there is no single communication standard which allows us to communicate our IT solutions (ERP/MRP/MES) to any given machine from any given manufacturer and, of all these terms, it is not easy to understand which are important in each case.