6 steps for building the Digital Smart Factory

The aim of the Digital Smart Factory is to achieve greater efficiency and productivity with a significant reduction in operating costs. So, what steps do we need to take to turn our factory into a Digital Smart Factory? We’ve identified six.

1. Digital culture

First of all, within the organization, people need to understand the change and adapt, because the digital revolution doesn’t just mean impregnating everything with advanced technology and making no further changes. It’s crucial that people and teams understand the processes of the Digital Smart Factory and incorporate them into their daily lives. What’s more, digitization is just the intermediate step so that machines and people can understand each other, helping them to work in an orchestrated way, getting the best out of each other. Therefore, soft skills are also important to create value within companies. We should think in terms of solving problems with creative thinking and aided by new, streamlined methodologies.

2. Wireless connectivity

To build a connected factory that performs more effectively and can respond efficiently and quickly to customer requests and market changes, plant connectivity is essential. The sensorization of processes and machines using the Internet of Things (IoT) helps to improve productivity, for example, by allowing decisions to be made in real time. This connectivity also makes it easier to work remotely, something key after the pandemic and which is here to stay.

3. Invest in security

Obviously, having dozens of interconnected machines increases the risk of cyberattacks, therefore investing in cybersecurity is key in order to minimize them, and to do so not by being reactive, but rather proactive. We must create preventive response mechanisms by monitoring processes and systems that allow us to detect vulnerabilities. Therefore, in order to process data reliably, ensuring secure connectivity within operational networks (OT) and information networks (IT) is of paramount importance. A secure network increases data accessibility while ensuring that companies improve in collaboration, overall equipment efficiency (OEE) and product quality. Strategies for protecting the organization from security breaches require encryption systems, something very common in the Cloud environment.

4. Convergence of IT / OT networks

Traditionally, in industrial manufacturing, IT and OT departments have worked independently. Now, however, the two worlds must converge to optimize the plant, making it necessary to carry out a study that measures each plant’s specific needs.

5. Invest in data management

Connecting devices in the network, IoT, Artificial Intelligence and Cloud help to monitor and receive information from most devices in the production process. Having data controlled, stored and analyzed makes it possible to increase productivity, reduce plant downtime and improve OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). It also implies identifying consumption patterns and trend changes, as well as automatically prescribing solutions in real time.

6. Collaborative environments

Digital transformation and uncertain events like the one experienced after the impact of the pandemic have made it clear that we need to work collaboratively, co-creating solutions hand in hand with clients, as well as suppliers. Choosing the right partners takes time. At Lantek, we’ve been accompanying our clients on their evolution and adapting ourselves to their different states of digital maturity for over 30 years. We guide and support them in their digital transformation with solutions that we are developing in the Cloud environment, where we offer services for cutting metal and sheet metal under the SaaS access model.

And why take these steps? To compete in this changing environment efficiently, increasing productivity, but with lower costs, we have no other choice but to incorporate the new Industry 4.0 enablers and become a Digital Smart Factory to adapt to the demands of an increasingly digital, global and hyperconnected market.