What is smart manufacturing?

When we talk about smart manufacturing, we’re really talking about data. How? Smart manufacturing uses real-time data—and data-driven technologies such as AI and the IIoT—to automatically adapt to changes in customer demand and business needs. It uses data from machines and sensors to optimise production, improve quality, and keep equipment running smoothly. And it uses data from across the supply chain to anticipate disruption, avoid issues, and keep the company’s promises to customers.

Definition of smart manufacturing

The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) defines smart manufacturing as: “ fully integrated, collaborative manufacturing systems that respond in real time to meet changing demands and conditions in the factory, in the supply network, and in customer needs”.

Smart manufacturing is founded on cloud connectivity. It is a combination of human creativity, digitally connected machines and assets, and AI-powered systems and analytics. The integration of AI and smart tools helps to foster adaptability and accelerates the ability to tailor outputs based on real-time data and intelligence. The visibility, agility, and resilience of smart manufacturing make it a cornerstone of more efficient supply chain models and overall business operations.

Learn about some of the benefits of smart manufacturing.

History: From Industry 1.0 to Industry 4.0 manufacturing

Industry 4.0 refers to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The word “Revolution” is used because each Industrial Revolution has been powered by some kind of game-changing technology or invention that “revolutionised” the entire industrial world. The First Industrial Revolution used steam; the Second, electricity; the Third was driven by basic automation and computing power; and the Fourth is powered by cyber-physical systems and intelligent technologies.

Today’s smart manufacturing is not about demolishing traditional factories and replacing them with something else. It’s about improving existing factories step by step and enhancing them with the best tools and solutions to achieve their manufacturing goals more efficiently and effectively.

Top 5 benefits of smart manufacturing

Amidst unprecedented competition, today’s businesses need to look at more than just profit as a measure of success. Long-term stability and customer loyalty stem from benefits that are experienced throughout your business—from your customers, to your staff, and even environmentally.

1. Efficiency and productivity: With automation, real-time data analytics, and integrated manufacturing solutions, your teams can work more quickly, more intelligently, and more safely. Predictive maintenance and automated workflows can help your IoT-connected machines and assets operate at peak performance with more streamlined outputs.
2. Agility and responsiveness: At each stage in the process, smart manufacturing solutions and data analytics enable you to respond swiftly to market changes—adapting your manufacturing workflows and personalising your products with speed and acuity.
3. Sustainability: The data gathered by smart manufacturing technologies can help implement strategic and cost-effective plans to streamline operations and reduce energy usage. From sustainable product design to greener logistics, smart solutions can support your sustainability initiatives.
4. Improved quality control: From the frustration of poor reviews to the catastrophe of a product recall, smart manufacturing solutions can integrate across your supply chain and manufacturing operations, to ensure that quality standards are visible and verifiable at every stage.
5. End-to-end savings: Digital integration from one end of your supply chain to the other allows for better forecasting, stock management, and logistics solutions. This means fewer risks, less spending and—best of all—happier customers.

Smart manufacturing technologies

Crucial considerations such as cyber security and strategic business integration are all part of the digital transformation landscape. But below, we will simply look at the most fundamental technologies that underpin smart manufacturing practices.

• IoT/IIoT: When devices and machines are equipped to send and receive digital data, they form an IoT network. Data sent from the device reports on its status and activity, and data sent to the device controls and automates its actions and workflows. An Industrial IoT (IIoT) network is at the heart of smart manufacturing as it not only consists of the connected assets, but also the intelligent systems and automated processes with which they are integrated.
• AI/Machine Learning: The most comprehensive data in the world is meaningless until you can make use of it and use it to tell a story. AI brings manufacturing data to life with advanced analytics and the inherent ability to manage and amalgamate broad and disparate data sets. Manufacturers equipped with all that data can then use machine learning algorithms to get their systems to tell them what they need to know—about what is happening right now, and what is predicted to occur in the future.
• Big Data: If AI and machine learning put the “smart” in smart manufacturing, then Big Data is the fuel. Big Data is not so-called simply because it is voluminous. It is defined by its variety and complexity. By providing an AI system with vast sets of complex and diverse manufacturing data, you give it the scope it needs to draw increasingly accurate conclusions and learn more rapidly over time.
• Autonomous robots: As already discussed, robotics is nothing new in manufacturing. It is not the ability to automate assets externally that is the game-changer—it is the ability for those cloud-connected assets to use smart technologies to automate themselves. Smart factories rely on autonomous automation for the agility and speed that they require.
• Additive manufacturing/hybrid manufacturing: Better known as 3D printing, additive manufacturing enhances resilience and agility. For example, a Boeing 747 jet is made up of over six million parts—all of which require replacement on different schedules. Instead of attempting to store all those parts, advanced metal or plastic 3D printers can access the maintenance logs and produce the parts as required, enabling the company to maintain a “virtual inventory”.
• Cloud computing: Cloud connectivity and computing provide manufacturers with on-demand availability of system resources such as IIoT data, analytics, and process automations, all across wireless channels like Wi-Fi or 5G. Large clouds may be centrally managed yet distributed across regional or global locations.
• 5G connectivity: With 5G, businesses gain the advantages and benefits of internet cloud connectivity and enhance them with lower latency, much faster speeds, and almost limitless capacity to scale.
• Edge computing: Today’s smart factories are all about adapting rapidly and responding promptly in real time. It takes time to send data gathered in one place to systems housed in another physical location—and for smart factories, that downtime represents a loss. Edge computing helps to bring the intelligence (AI and data analytics) to the shop floor and eliminate delays in the IoT network.
• Simulation/digital twin: A digital twin or simulation is created to be an identical virtual copy of a machine or process that exists in the real world. It enables manufacturing teams to trial new methods of working, and to push virtual prototypes to their absolute limits, without the cost and risk of causing any real-world damage.
• Design for manufacture: This is not so much a technology itself as it is a cross-functional practice that exists due to technology. Design for manufacturing principles enable R&D professionals to learn from data—from across the factory floor and customer base. These insights then help them design win/win products that meet customer demands for quality and personalisation, and create designs that are also easier, leaner, and quicker to manufacture and customise.

Automated manufacturing vs. autonomous manufacturing

Automated manufacturing is nothing new. It simply refers to robotic devices that are programmed solely to perform a specific action. Most often, these repetitive tasks take place alongside other machines and people in an environment such as an assembly line. Automation is essential in delivering the speed and accuracy required for high-volume manufacturing.

Autonomous manufacturing is essentially just automated manufacturing… with a brain. By utilising Industry 4.0 technologies such as AI and machine learning, a smart manufacturing system and the IoT devices within it capture disparate data sets such as consumer feedback, supply and demand, machine capacity, and any other relevant information. Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms can then be applied to those data sets to deliver—and automatically implement—more efficient and optimised workflows and processes.

Examples of smart manufacturing in practice

See how some of the world’s most innovative companies are leveraging software solutions to optimise and streamline their manufacturing and supply chain operations:

• Leonhart Group: Cloud-based smart solutions provide visibility, productivity, and security. Scalable systems support growth and responsiveness to business opportunities.
• A.M.P.E.R.E: Automated processes across the supply chain and live foreign exchange and share updates allow for speedy price calculations and just-in-time order fulfilment.
• Geographe: Transparency and real-time data mean a better response to customer needs, more confident predictive analytics, and optimised supply chains and production.

Smart manufacturing implementation: Next steps

Some businesses have already travelled quite far down the path of digital transformation, integrating a wide range of Industry 4.0 technologies into their operations. Others are just beginning their journey or wondering where they ought to start.

The good news is that the best smart manufacturing solutions meet you wherever you are, helping you to begin or continue your journey—with standalone solutions or cloud-based ERP with embedded functionality.

And finally, before you begin this process, remember to include your most valuable manufacturing asset: Your people. Develop robust communication and change management strategies to ensure that all your teams are enthusiastic, empowered, and informed about the exciting improvements ahead.