The thorough inspection of a finished product is an essential step in the quality-control process. In the beginning, quality checklists were accessed using paper on clipboards. As technology improved, computers were utilized. But computers required additional time to access, and couldn’t be carried to the equipment being inspected. Tablets replaced computers, but were easily broken and expensive to replace.  

Connectivity is empowering more intelligent interactions between consumers and companies. An innovative automaker wanted to design and build a working prototype of a connected vehicle platform to accelerate speed to market and help the company understand today's connected world.

This document summarizes the manufacturing execution system (MES), or manufacturing operations management (MOM) solution implemented by a leading Automotive manufacturer to manage the complex assembly of the engine for their new Supercar. The MES/MOM was integral to ensure each and every single of the nearly two-thousand (2,000) process steps involved to build the engine were completed to the set specifications or tolerances without fail. MES/MOM ensured zero-defects during the assembly of the engines since it monitored and controlled all operations; all tools and devices, and the line workers themselves since the MES/MOM directed them from job start to end. The MES/MOM verified worker credentials, provided work instructions, and confirmed that the materials and tools were properly selected for the exact task at hand. Destined for the Automotive manufacturer’s highest-performance GT sports car (see Figure 1), the twin-turbo charged V6 “EcoBoost” engine is vital to the success of the final product. Given the intricacy of the engine and the number of steps needed to assemble it, and its high tolerances, the MES/MOM proved indispensable.

Filling bottles and kegs with beverages necessitates sophisticated, highly automated machines in a variety of sizes to cater for microbreweries and major producers. Comac wanted to integrate electrical and fluid power engineering with a lasting effect on development of machinery.

The testing, checking and tracing of the component source is essential to produce quality products. Servicing customers when company representatives are in the field addressing possible failures. Maximum uptime. Progressive Stamping, Inc. wanted a solution that can meet all these requirements.

A multi-national manufacturing company was unable to coordinate the work of all departments involved in the production processes. The company lacked both real-time views into the systems and methods of communication. This situation meant small problems could cause big delays in filling orders, and customers would get frustrated. Additionally, the business’s manufacturing process flow was labor-intensive and error-prone with manual checks on information coming from various departments using Excel spreadsheets. Naturally, the process was slow and not conducive to process improvements, nor was unstructured data (emails, phone calls) shared or saved for future reference. The planning manager wanted a transparent way to find out whether the manufacturing process could fulfill the production plan sent from SAP. As part of his evaluation, he needed to be able to: - Identify potential problems before they happened - Collaborate with coworkers around critical data points - Analyze the historical data, so he could continue to improve the lean production process

With a new generation of metal-working machines featuring an advanced touch screen graphical user interface on select models of its laser cutting systems, the protection of this unique software technology took on top level priority for LVD’s global operations. The LVD software introduces a major advance in machine performance, accomplishing both routine and complex cutting operations quickly and efficiently with minimal operator’s input.

Tacoma Power, located in Tacoma, WA, serves 160,000 electric utility customers with nine hydro facilities on four rivers. The company’s generation automation team, consisting of three engineers and one engineering technician, is responsible for the integration, modernization. With a small staff responsible for overseeing a number of different environments, the company was looking to implement its HMI/SCADA system in a virtual environment for automation and control in order to optimize operations and reduce costs.

Built on the principles of excellence, quality and integrity, the company strives to provide superior service to their customers, and with tens of thousands of devices out in the field, CTS needed a solution to effectively control and manage all devices from a central command center. In other words, they needed a single way to activate and deactivate devices, manage rate plan changes and diagnose problems.

As the automotive industry continues to tighten product development timelines, compressing design time in the supplier network has been the go-to model to achieve desired results. Traditionally, to successfully address the economics of part production, Delphi has used technologies like injection molding to deliver parts at scale. The cost of tooling development and time associated has limited part production to be focused on mass-production only.

No project is like another in the field of engineered solutions for escape and rescue chambers and fire simulation. Systems are tailored exactly to customers' requirements.

Maschinenfabrik Gustav Eirich offers a comprehensive range of services in industrial material processing. The focus is on machines, equipment and services for mixing, granulating /pelleting, drying and fine grinding. The main areas of application are concrete, dry mortar, plasters, building materials, sandlime brick, ceramics, glass, carbon items, friction linings, battery compounds, metallurgy, foundry molding sand and environmental protection. The company wanted to a pioneer in ensuring a consistent, smooth and efficient production process throughout the entire mixing procedure. The aim was also to promote pleasure in working with the new user interface.

When UTC Aerospace required a solution to manage assembly line workers with no previous manufacturing experience, it decided to try something new that set a precedent for its future manufacturing operations management (MOM) strategy.

CLC heavily relied on manual paper-based systems to manage their mission-critical processes. As a result these processes were time consuming, invisible and unproductive driving the organisation to seek company specific process solutions. As Roger Barnes, Manager of CLC's mining activities notes, “The risks associated with this included the lack of integration with the data sets and tripping over statutory deadlines, so things that were supposed to happen at a certain time didn't always happen because we'd lose track of where they were at.” The vehicle booking process in particular required visibility as the organisation maintains more than 80 vehicles, each of which travels great distances per year. Understanding what kind of return the vehicles provided and at the same time managing occupational health and safety requirements were constant challenges for CLC.

The project presented a series of technical and organizational challenges to the partners. First, the team members collaborating on the project were located in different regions of the world (US, Europe and China) and all development and testing had to be performed remotely.Huawei required that the application rely entirely on 3D Object Tracking. Finally, the solution had to work outdoors, in highly variable climatic and lighting conditions in which the SUN2000 inverters are usually installed.

GE Aviation loses millions of dollars each year to errors made at key points during the assembly and overhaul of its engines. The costs show up in lost productivity, delays in testing, delays in customer deliveries, and the man-hours required to troubleshoot and correct faults. If errors arenʼt detected until after the engines are sent to customers, the repair costs exponentially increase.B-nuts are one such key manufacturing point. They play a critical role in aircraft engine fluid lines and hoses, providing a sturdy, reliable seal―but only if tightened and torqued properly. If not torqued properly, there will be a need for a maintenance do-over, cancelled flight, or even an in-flight shut down.

High quality standards and full material traceability are essentialrequirements for identification solutions in the automotiveindustry. Parts identification and container management areconsidered to be important factors for a problem-free productionprocess. The labels must also retain their adhesive properties on many different types of surfaces - from porous structures to oilymaterials. The labels should also be able to withstand rugged, high-temperature environments without tearing or peeling off.

Sigma Industrial Automation formerly specialized in creating weights and scales for the food industry when they realized their customers were doing the majority of their measurements by hand. Seeing an opportunity to expand their product offering and improve their customers’ experience, Sigma team members decided to explore the creation of wireless equipment that could send measurements to a computer. Sigma just needed a way to make a product that met their customers’ needs—and a way to do it fast.

Kennametal's high quality drill bits along with their associated aluminium trays where they are arranged go through a thorough cleaning process involving ultrasound, damp and vacuum cleaning processes after machining is performed. Before entering this washing facility, the order documents and the tray are separated and then re-allocated after cleaning. A work step that involves a risk as analyses have shown that, on occasion, trays and order documents were allocated incorrectly after cleaning. Drills went through coating processes that were supposed to be used for a different order. Hence, there was a need to eliminate mix-ups altogether.

Industry 4.0 is gradually becoming a reality, and manufacturers are actively transforming their production process into intelligent manufacturing systems by leveraging Information Technology (IT) and Operations Technology (OT).The main concept of Industry 4.0 is to realize transparent vertical and horizontal integration from the production line to management level so as to increase productivity and efficiency. In other words, the resources available throughout the entire production process must be digitalized and networked so that they can be visible and completely availability.

In the upcoming years, we believe that interest in distributed ledgers will continue to grow around the globe.In Luxembourg, attention on the technology has surged in recent months, with digital players involved in DLT being increasingly attracted to Luxembourg.All industries combined, public institutions and private companies alike, are shifting together towards automating their internal and external processes. This phenomenon is triggering a digital convergence between market participants and will bring new opportunities for collaboration.New modes of transactions and user interactions for current products and services are emerging. We believe that industries should now internally improve their skills and competencies in order to be ready when the technology will reach its full maturity. 

Installing stairlifts can be challenging because every home staircase is unique and there is no one size fits all lift for them. Every stairlift must be customized to each individual staircase, so measuring, manufacturing, and installation takes quite a bit of time. 

The cosmetics market requires manufacturers to make quick changes in the matters of both production and distribution. In this market segment, one of the principal marketing tools is grouping products in packages (for example, shampoo + conditioner, cream + makeup remover). So far such process has been carried out in the Polish division of L’Oréal through outsourcing, which has limited the possibilities of a dynamic reaction to market impulses.

The mats make a huge difference in how people view the company’s premises and the company itself. However, when the mats should be chosen, many people find it difficult to visualize how the mats would look in the premises.Lindström’s mat selection is also so large that viewing them all, let alone comparing alternatives, is challenging for many customers. In addition to the actual product selection, the sales consultants usually spend significant time in the back-office tasks like calculating pricing and data entry. 

The complex Business requirements and existing Legacy platforms posed challenges for Geith. Given the size of business, the costs had to be kept under strict control so as to justify the business case and extract the expected returns. Moreover, the implementation timelines were to be kept at a minimum, so as to avoid business disruption.

Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) needed a consistent and thorough approach for training inspectors to assess road defaults such as holes, cracks, and more. The level of wear and tear on the roadways determines the amount of money that districts in Georgia receive for repairs, so it was important that all assessments were judged by the same standards.

In tandem with its 6 year-long smart meter rollout plan, Con Edison sought to implement Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) operations on top of a comprehensive enterprise data analytics platform for improved operational insight and customer service for its base of more than four million customers. In order to improve customer service and operations across its region, one of the largest integrated utilities in the United States has rolled out the C3 AI Suite and C3 AMI Operations application on AWS. Con Edison’s project objectives were to deliver on the utility’s commitments for presenting customer data, establish AMI operations across 5 million smart meters to ensure operational health, and build a federated data image platform for analytic capabilities. The utility’s smart meter deployment will generate between 100 terabytes and 1 petabyte of data per year, so choosing a platform that could scale and continue to perform analytics on an ever-larger data set was vital.

Today, interoperability is a challenge. Communicating between programmable logic controllers (PLCs) from different vendors and with other peripheral devices on the same system presents difficulties. Industrial IoT companies rely on remote devices to control, monitor and maintain the health of their systems. The RTU, or remote terminal unit, transmits telemetry data to the PLC via the DCS or SCADA system and uses messages from them to control connected objects. For example, oil and gas companies need to know the status of pressure and volume on their pipeline. They may need to open or close valves depending on the conditions, which operators would do by communicating with the RTUs.When updates to the hardware were required, these companies were faced with limited options. They could either buy more devices from the same vendor, which was restrictive. Or, they could purchase from another manufacturer and then invest more time and money to have their SCADA integrator reprogrammed.

To reduce time to market by speeding up cycle times, and reduce manufacturing and inventory costs, of complex building system automation equipment.