Let’s think for a moment about the high volume of data generated by companies. Data about customers, suppliers, productivity, human resources... Information that, in many cases, is not integrated into all business departments so there is no overall vision or, what is worse, it is not even digitized. Both weaknesses stall decision making and/or can lead to wrong decisions. And in this new digital ecosystem, data is the raw material of Industry 4.0.
Companies in our industry are more conscious everyday about their need to digitally transform. However, they are facing the challenge of how it is to be adopted in their organization. ...
The Spanish industrial sector is facing an enormous challenge in order to become more competitive in the midst of digital transformation and in a market in which new consumer habits are pushing us towards a new form of manufacturing. The client in the digital era wants THEIR order (in capital letters because they don’t want what’s standard, they wa ...
In the same way that the heart pumps blood in different ways according to the requirements of the body, the MES gives the production manager the ability to adapt to the pace and characteristics of the company, its customers and its production plants. ...
The prototype’s days are numbered. Yes, I know, it’s a hackneyed phrase, but this is the reality facing us thanks to the new possibilities Industry 4.0 has on offer. Nowadays there are software solutions able to generate a virtual design of a product or process we wish to test, thereby reducing labor hours and investment substantially. ...
Juan Ignacio Castro, a technology enthusiast with more than a decade of experience in aeronautical manufacturing, has been leading the digital transformation at Airbus’ Military Aircraft division. He has made it clear that the digital transformation implies an effort on everyone’s part: the company, the employees, and the suppliers. In order to ada ...
This Industry 4.0 technology enabler is real, so real that if you want to be competitive in the new digital ecosystem, there is no other option than to use the Cloud in your business strategy. ...
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 ...
If we look back in time, we will see that the machines of the future will follow the same paradigm as previous industrial revolutions, producing more at a lower cost. ...
In the age of digitization, a company’s ability to customize their offer is crucial to enable them to become the preferred choice of current and future customers. This is an adaptation which is necessary in every sector, and the metal industry is not exempt: how do you differentiate yourself from the competition? The key is not in the product, nor ...
The digital ecosystem leads us to create collaborative environments in which we can grow as technological partners, sharing ideas from internal sources (the company itself) and external ones (customers, suppliers, the competition, the market) to develop advanced technological solutions. This is what we call Extended Digital Transformation, a concep ...
Material waste and a lack of agility in nesting or the nesting of parts are two of the most common problems faced by metal processing companies which slow down the company’s response time for its clients and make the process more expensive. This is due to them not using the appropriate technology in order to fully exploit each piece of sheet metal ...
Identifying behavioral patterns to increase sales, foreseeing possible problems in order to resolve them before they happen, managing stock in a much more efficient way or redistributing the workload automatically. These are some of the many smart manufacturing possibilities offered by this new concept in the Industry 4.0 era. ...
Industry is changing at high speed, enabled by new technologies framed by Industry 4.0 and IIoT. New approaches for software systems and machines are being unveiled all the time. Different hosting possibilities for data and software could make us think that communication is a recent development, but it is not. In this article we will show that Lant ...
Digital transformation is making increasingly decentralized environments possible. As well as mobile devices and software tools that interconnect machines and processes while capturing data, storing all of the information generated by factories in the cloud makes it possible for us to take greater advantage of all of the information in a more strea ...
Lantek recently developed a new algorithm called ICA “Intelligent Collision Avoidance ) in order to minimize potential collisions between the head and unstable contours. When the new algorithm detects which contours pose a potential risk of falling and being positioned on top of nearby contours, the system automatically assigns a micro-cut at the e ...
It is generally quite difficult to know exactly how much each process contributes to a product’s value chain. The sheet metal world is not immune to the difficulty of estimating the right price for the product. There is an infinite number of processes that add value to a product: material used, scrap generated, cutting time, consumables used, labor ...
If there’s one type of technology applied in the business world whose effectiveness is unquestionable, it’s Big Data, which has significantly revolutionized the way that companies approach markets by establishing the practical use of information and its efficient analysis as a base. ...
The raison d’être in industry is the transformation of raw materials into suitable products that satisfy people’s requirements and, by extension, those of the market. The quantity of processes performed and the parties that have to intervene to make this transformation possible vary depending on the sector or the purpose of the product. Coordinatin ...
It’s the new manufacturing paradigm developed thanks to the possibilities offered by connectivity and the cloud. An increasing number of companies are offering their software associated with Cloud Manufacturing, such as ERP, CRM, MES. ...
In this Industry 4.0 era, the new integral production strategies adopted thanks to the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning cloud solutions; at the plant, in terms of the sensorization of machines and processes and the Internet of Things (IoT); and in products, in terms of 3D modeling and simulation systems (Digital Twins, ...
Competitiveness and the capacity to adapt have become the axes that support the success of any business. Nowadays, the many changing intrinsic factors in each region and sector, macroeconomic trends of a hyperconnected global market, specific regulatory aspects in each country, or the consumer’s own behavior, can have a positive or negative impact ...
There has been a considerable amount of publicity about the advantages of cloud computing and rightly so. The advantages are clear as it removes the need to have skilled people to set up and run complex in-house computer networks and also takes away the need to invest in expensive equipment and continually reinvest to keep it up to date. ...
For many companies, the journey to the cloud presents itself as a challenge. Its enormous benefits are obvious: cost reduction, access from anywhere and any device that is connected, immediate and unlimited scalability, integration of programming languages... Advantages that imply such substantial savings and efficiency that it’s impossible to igno ...
There’s still quite a way to go in the industrial sector’s journey towards digitization. Many companies, especially the smallest ones, don’t have segregated IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) networks, instead, all of the equipment is connected to one single network which leads directly to the Internet. In others, generally ...
At Lantek, we have an obsession - increasing our clients’ productivity day after day. With each evolution of our products and with each small innovation, our whole technological plan is aimed at achieving one objective: to make manufacturing better every day. Better budgeting, better analysis, better planning... ultimately, to never stop working! ...
Manufacturers in the metal and sheet metal industry need technological solutions to improve and optimize their production, making it fundamental to have tools that make the automation of tasks and remote working possible. ...
As we saw at the start of the pandemic, digitized companies have been those best able to overcome the limitations of confinement. They have also had, and continue to have, the greatest potential to succeed in these times of uncertainty. In times of coronavirus, the value of connectivity has been recognized for its ability to enable productive activ ...
The Digital Factory is much more than a concept or an increasingly widespread expression, it’s a methodology aimed at the 21st-century company, a company that simply must be linked to technology and digitization. ...
Even before the pandemic, the automation of processes in sheet metal plants was a lever for competitiveness, but now, following the impact of Covid, it has become an indispensable competitive advantage for any factory that wants to survive scenarios as disruptive as the ones that we are witnessing. ...
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of making decisions that are based on objective and accurate data. The reliability and quality of said data is fundamental and we must know exactly which data to use in order to justify decisions and add value. But we can’t just use any old data. ...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming a key technology for the optimization of production processes and can be especially useful in sheet metal cutting factories from the automation of processes to the creation of quotes, cost control in real time, management of the cutting process or through expert guidance, using AI, of the machine configurati ...
The pandemic has empowered people even more, humanizing companies in terms of their relationship with their stakeholders. Clients, suppliers, employees, partners... Now more than ever, it’s obvious that the biggest asset of any organization is its people, how they feel, how they act, how they relate, how they think. This is what we call the Interne ...
Covid-19 has highlighted that, without the digitization of processes, it’s difficult to maintain business continuity, that supply chains are fragile and information is unreliable, exposing a digital divide between more or less digitized companies. Those who fail to cover this gap fall by the wayside, which means that accelerating transformative pro ...
Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) has become a trending topic in the industry due to the implementation of numerous algorithms by groups dedicated to academic research on artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years. AutoML is a tool for streamlining the development of AI solutions in the industry by providing explainable and reproducible results ...
When facing the current environment of Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA) which is also highly competitive, the digitization of industrial material is an essential differential value in order to quickly adapt to market requirements. It’s a must in order to optimize plant production and respond to new consumption habits that re ...
The arrival of the IoT on the market was a watershed moment in terms of how we relate to technology. It revolutionized everything, from smart homes to connected cars, to systems for smart cities, 5G innovations and, of course, industrial advancements made with the industrial internet of things (IIoT). ...
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 chal ...
Cloud, Analitycs, Big Data, Deep learning, Artificial Intelligence, augmented reality… these and other concepts, that were already around before the pandemic, have now got some real-world solutions in industrial applications. Their aim is helping industry to optimize its processes through safe and effective digitization. ...
Following the impact of the pandemic, concepts such as resilience, business agility, crisis management, costs and cash flow and innovation have become increasingly critical for business, changing the reality of manufacturers, companies and consumers. ...
If we take a brief look back over previous industrial revolutions: mechanization (steam and coal), electricity (mass manufacturing, assembly line) and electronics and computing (automation thanks to information and communication technologies) we can see how these events caused cities and populations to develop, marking a turning point for economies ...
Ultimately, the crux of the matter is to optimize plant production in order to mass-produce customized parts without increasing costs and while also boosting productivity, that’s why using Industry 4.0 enabling technologies is vital. We’re talking about both the sensorization of plants with Internet of Things (IoT) technology and advanced software ...
When we talk about automation we mean using technology to reduce the need for human intervention within a plant. The aim is to optimize the factory, making it more productive and, ultimately, more competitive in an environment where competition is growing and margins are becoming increasingly narrower. ...
When we talk about the Digital Smart Factory we mean intelligent and advanced manufacturing supported by digitization and the interconnection of processes and machines to collect and process data. It involves the participation of all the departments of a plant, from production planning to remote maintenance, including system integration or data ana ...
Vision and innovation, cloud, modernization of apps and systems, security, services focused on and for the user, hyper-connectivity, artificial intelligence, protocols, IoT, integration... Digitization, a great deal of digitization, and all under the umbrella of Industry 4.0. The future brings with it a world with more options in terms of automatio ...
Industry 4.0 is in the news and companies in every sector are becoming aware of the terminology. Its potential for improving productivity is immense. But we must remember that this concept includes dozens of very different technologies, each with different implications and results. The challenge for industrial companies is to understand the possibi ...
Which technological enablers will make an impression next year? We go over the now traditional report by the Gartner consultancy firm that lists 12 technology trends that will multiply organizations’ efficiency and productivity. ...
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