What if one day factories could function mostly on their own and self-regulate and self-balance production? What if production intercommunications were all at an all-time-high and real-time level? What if such a production environment could communicate across the entire supply chain spectrum? It has been since the Industrial Revolution that manufacturing and production has gradually become a less and less cumbersome endeavor to monitor input, flow and output and to optimize production methods and overall capacity. Broad advancements in technology have cumulatively altered production; Industry 4.0, IoT and Smart Factory 4.0 is manifesting in our midsts.
The perks of Smart Factory and Industry 4.0 seem to be endless and scalable in terms of production. As this arriving system is being integrated into factories and supply chains around the world, production is beginning to become infinitely accountable and audit-able. Human intervention is barely needed in some instances and that has great benefits when producing volatile materials such as chemicals and hazardous material ingredients.
The perks of this paradigm are extremely beneficial to a facility that is looking for improvement in production and overall efficiency, but along with these perks there are also many drawbacks such as:
Although these drawbacks are a legitimate concern for the manufacturing industry, Smart Factory 4.0 is still becoming a top choice for operations that are pursuing maximum efficiency. As production facilities are moving toward technology-orientated system integrations, this model could be a step in the right direction.
Advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems utilized as a hub that collect data and relay it to upstream or downstream entities are geared very much toward Smart Factory and Industry 4.0. If you are trying to attain Smart Factory 4.0 status, then look into APS as one of the many means to get data cross-integrated and with high visibility.