New Technology
The Future of Manufacturing: Impactful Tech on the Horizon By: Rahav Madvil, Simulation Product Manager for Siemens Digital Industries Software, and Noam Ribon, Senior Business Consultant at Siemens Digital Industries Software
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ndustrial manufacturing as a sector has been an early adopter of robotics and other forms of technological improvements for decades. Robotics have been one of the best options to increase production efficiency for large and often highly repetitive manufacturing processes. But the era of producing large quantities of just a few products with low mix is coming to an end, giving way to increased product personalization requiring a more flexible production process with less waste than ever before. Fortunately, the future of manufacturing is brimming with opportunity. It is full of new technologies designed to reduce waste and maximize process efficiency and flexibility through software and hardware capabilities. Almost all of this promise is built upon a foundation of digital transformation – and the digital twin. Everything from raw material tracking to process optimizations to
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26 IMD SEPTEMBER 2020
hardware selection stems from insights gained from the digital twin and a closed-loop optimization of entire facilities. The most difficult aspect of any change to operation are the inevitable changes to process, they are expensive twice over, because nothing is being produced and resources are still being consumed. An autonomous transport initiative squarely addresses this, relying on a few, key technologies to make it happen.
The Power of Virtual Commissioning Creating a comprehensive digital twin of your production process can greatly reduce downtime for new machines, new processes and new products. Let’s say you need to install a new CNC station. What if the processes for this new machine could be validated before it ever arrived on the production floor by using the digital twin of the production
