Building Your Factory of the Future

Last week, AMT hosted the annual [MC]² Conference, where suppliers and manufacturers come together to discuss and exchange ideas about MTConnect. I’ve had the pleasure of attending the last four of these conferences and thankfully, they’re growing. As companies understand that connecting their machine tools and equipment can help them improve data gathering and information analysis, thus allowing them to make better decisions, they’re beginning to jump on the bandwagon. The concept goes by many names…Industrial Internet of Things, Industrie 4.0, Digital Manufacturing…but regardless of what you call it, it’s here to stay. In order to remain competitive, manufacturers of all sizes should be exploring implementation.

Opportunities Abound

Any good conference that is trying to influence behavior will include success stories, and the [MC]² Conference was no exception. From corporate giant GE we learned a little more about their Brilliant Factory concept. How their early discovery phases included assessments of machine controls, machine performance, process measurement and factory infrastructure. How they’ve focused on energy management, consumable management, process optimization and machine health to help drive cost out. Yes, GE is a HUGE corporation with a great deal of resources, but manufacturers of any size can learn from what they are doing.

“Connectivity has allowed for information to flow but hasn’t created much value. We’ve got to turn connectivity into insights, and insights into outcomes. And that’s the industrial internet.” – Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO, GE

GE wasn’t the only success story. Richards Industries, a 150 employee, $40M/year company, shared that they’ve realized productivity improvements up to 40% and achieved ROI as high as 4.7X since they started their digital factory initiative. They partnered with a supplier who helped them plan and implement connecting their eight different machine tool control types. Their journey is ongoing as they continue to connect additional machines and systems. Bill Metz, VP of Operations, stated that there will be surprises and time challenges along the way, but that it’s been worth it. One of his best pieces of advice is to make sure someone within the organization acts as the internal champion to keep the project on task.

Beware – the Cyber-Security Threat is Real

One of the biggest topics at the event was about the need for companies to be serious about potential security threats. These threats, or opportunities for harm, become greater as we connect more devices. Something as seemingly innocuous as a corrupted flash drive from a trusted vendor has the ability to bring down a system or make unauthorized changes to programs and data files. Additionally, the threat is not limited to personal information, data theft, industrial espionage or stealing of intellectual property. There is now concern about the potential for attackers to make changes to systems, system protective mechanisms and even manufacturing part programs. “Cyber-Physical” could be a bug that disrupts the physical mechanisms of machinery, delivered via cyber methods.

Don’t Panic

The conference featured a panel discussion, Planning for Cyber-Physical Security (pictured above), that was highly informative and offered some concrete ideas and suggestions for even the smallest companies. Here are some steps you can take to reduce risk and prepare for potential crises:

• A cyber-security risk assessment was highly recommended from all four panelists. The costs may seem high, but being informed about the potential risks, and being able to fix them, is well worth the investment.
• Crisis planning is important. Work with your operations departments and IT departments to plan what you might do in the event of a cyber-security incident.
• Explore purchasing cyber-security insurance (yes, it’s a real thing). When you do, closely examine the exclusion clauses, especially any prior event exclusion clause.
• Begin to think about your data the way you think about your physical assets – put dollar values to them in order to prioritize solutions.
• Don’t let fear of a potential threat keep you from getting connected.

A good resource to check out is provided by the Department of Homeland Security and the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team. They provide an online risk assessment resource that can help you get started.

Continue to Dream and Innovate

In addition to sharing implementation success stories and offering information on improving security, the conference provided some insight into what the future could hold. Additional presentations touched on advancements in robotics and how the use of virtual and augmented reality can add value, aid in learning and enhance engagement, and let us see how the future is actually today. We are limited only by our imaginations.

All-in-all, even considering the possibility of cyber threats, the potential benefits of creating a digital factory far exceed the cost of implementation. Using MTConnect is an easy way to get started, and there are a great many resources and companies that can help make it happen. But you have to start somewhere.

What does your factory of the future look like? And how can we help you make it a reality?

Julie Murphy is Director of Marketing, Okuma America Corporation.