Cloud Control: The Backbone of Smart Factories
Almost every food industry is seeing a rise in “smart factories,” which feature autonomous-operating machinery. To guarantee the smooth traceability of the whole process chain, machines are interconnected.
The next stage of development is real-time, direct communication (M2M) between the various system parts. Because the intelligent factory consists of dispersed production environments with various components, each with its own data source, static solutions soon run out of steam.
Without cloud computing, the enormous amount of data cannot be handled and assessed ad hoc. The primary problem in this scenario is to synchronize the virtual representation of the production with the actual production that it reflects. Machines must also autonomously report information about their operational state to maintenance people, such as for predictive maintenance.
Cloud computing is a key component of any Industry 4.0 plan. For smart manufacturing to be fully realized, engineering, supply chain, production, sales and distribution, and service must all be connected and integrated. The cloud helps make this possible. Furthermore, cloud computing allows for more efficient and cost-effective processing of the generally vast amounts of data saved and evaluated. Cloud computing can help save startup costs for small and medium-sized manufacturers, allowing them to right-size their requirements and scale as their firm grows.
AI and machine learning enable manufacturing businesses to fully capitalize on the abundance of data created not only on the production floor but also across their business units, as well as from partners and third parties. AI and machine learning can generate insights that improve the visibility, predictability, and automation of operations and business processes. For example, industrial machines are prone to breakdowns throughout the manufacturing process. Using data obtained from these assets, firms may do predictive maintenance using machine learning algorithms, resulting in increased up-time and efficiency.
More and more sensors are also being installed for continuous monitoring of ramified industrial processes. Modern sensors do not require batteries because they directly “harvest” the required energy from the environment through energy harvesting, which refers to methods that convert the energy available on-site from temperature gradients, solar radiation, or mechanical movements into usable energy. The market for energy harvesting systems is still in its early stages.
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