A Smart Manufacturing Value Frame of Reference
The manufacturing industry is the backbone of most economies. Today, globally, this sector is undergoing a metamorphosis with the advent of internet, wireless, edge computing, cloud, AI, Machine-Learning and digital twin technologies. In other words, “Smart Manufacturing” or “Industry 4.0” has captured the imagination of the manufacturing industry globally and many countries have defined strategies for the transformation of their respective industries to the new era.
Having said, it is still not very clear how to define the value of a Smart Manufacturing implementation in an industry agnostic, standard manner during design. In this article an attempt is made to define the constituent elements of a smart manufacturing implementation, the inter-relationships between these elements and the definition of value at each stage of interaction between the elements. This framework is called a Smart Manufacturing Value Frame of Reference. This frame of reference can be used as a tool during the co-creation of a smart manufacturing design by a manufacturer and solution vendor to ensure that value is achieved individually in every constituent element of the design and holistically for the entire initiative.
What is Smart Manufacturing?
Smart Manufacturing can be defined as follows:
“Where the role of every stakeholder in the manufacturing ecosystem (supplier, logistics provider, OEM customer and end customer) has transformed from being isolated to connected,
And where information flow does not lag material flow and the boundaries between the physical and the cyber worlds are indistinguishable,
And where the human worker is elevated from the drudgery of mechanical work, stress and laborious monotony and empowered to contribute with the help of intelligent machines, devices and systems to co-create value”..
Four Constituent Elements of a Smart Manufacturing Implementation Design
There are four distinct constituent elements of a Smart Manufacturing Implementation:
- Smart Business Processes that remove silos and “create” collaboration amongst all stakeholders in real time;
- Smart Solutions that provide contextual intelligence for the said collaboration;
- Smart Technologies that enable the development of Smart Solutions.
- Empowered Humans, as a result of the above, are able to use their expertise and mental faculties in a timely manner to provide useful collaboration
The above-mentioned elements can be developed in an ordered sequence to achieve smart manufacturing value. It is therefore important that at the beginning of a smart manufacturing implementation design all of the four constituent elements are distinctly identifiable and the value of each element is realized in its design.
Smart Manufacturing Value Frame of Reference
The below-mentioned diagram defines the value frame of reference as a four by three matrix (4 constituent elements comprising 3 levels each). The three value levels are realized by answering the following fundamental questions that need to be asked by a designer of a smart manufacturing implementation:
- What is the concept of value for a given constituent element? – Value Concept
- How can that value be defined ? – Value Definition
- How can the value be represented? – Value Presentation
The first element is smart business processes. The definition of value at a concept level (1st column, 1st row) is the capability for multiple human stakeholders to co-create a smart business process. A more detailed definition of the value (1st column, 2nd row) states that the co-creation has to be via “cohesive, active, inter-disciplinary, collaborative interaction”. This value can be realized (1st column, 3rd row) by means of a platform, tools and/or infrastructure that will allow for creating and collaboratively executing business processes
The second element of Smart Manufacturing Value Frame of Reference is related to the creation of smart digital solutions that implement the smart business processes value conceived previously. At the concept level (2nd column, first row), the value created is a manifestation (in a digital software solution) of the “experience of interaction” of multiple stakeholders of a smart business process. For instance, a smart business flow could dictate that if, at a supplier site, a critical measurement of a supplier part is out of bound, that information must be made available to other stakeholders to interact and contribute towards the next steps. In order to achieve this, the value definition level (2nd column, 2nd row) mandates that a Smart Digital Solution must be capable of providing “opportunities” for timely interaction by providing the contextual awareness (such as, which part number is out of bound, which parameter, by how much, what machine, which operator, what is the impact, what is the remedy possible, what delays can be expected, etc.). The responses shall be based on “actionable outcomes” generated by the solution and this forms the presentation level of the value of a Smart Solution (2 column, 3rd row).
The third element (3rd column) is Smart Technologies. The enablement of smart digital solutions using technology is the concept of value (3rd column, 1 row). Nine Pillars of Technology have been identified under the banner of Industry 4.0. Aspects like inter-operability, reliability and security that need to be considered for free exchange of data between varied contexts forms the value definition (3rd column, 2nd row). Open standards, Peer-to-Peer connectivity, IoT devices, wireless, cloud, Augmented Reality, AI/Machine Learning, etc., to implement the technology becomes the value presentation layer for this element (3rd column, 3rd row).
The final element of Smart Manufacturing Value Frame of Reference is related to the “experiencer” of the value created in all of the other three dimensions – the human. The concept of value is to make the human “the experiencer”. The definition of value (4th column, second row) for the human is “personalized experience”. Such personalization allows for better inference of the context and thereby allows for the human to be in control of the situation in a proactive manner. The presentation of value is via training – training on the solution, training to co-create and thereby training to experience the value (4th column, 3rd row).
The above-mentioned Smart Manufacturing Value Frame of Reference can be used as a tool during design to define value in all of the four elements that comprise a smart manufacturing implementation.
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This post was authored by Dr. Ananth Seshan . If you want to sponsor or contribute an article please reach us at advertising@alltechevent.com
Author Details:
Dr. Ananth Seshan
Founder & Chairman
5G Group
