Written by Mathieu Xhonneux
Over the last years, we repeatedly heard that Industry 4.0 technologies would revolutionize the world of manufacturing. And, to some extent, this promise has come true: IoT sensors monitoring production parameters, artificial intelligence algorithms automating manual tasks, connected robots accelerating the speed of production lines, … These technologies are today no longer a sweet dream, but a true reality benefiting many manufacturing environments. However, Industry 4.0 solutions do not magically solve all problems on the factory floor. Some manufacturing challenges remain intrinsically difficult, especially when they bridge the distinct worlds of humans and machines. To tackle such challenges, manufacturers tend to rely on the conventional lean manufacturing and six sigma methodologies. Although these frameworks have proven their worth over time, the profusion of data collected by new digital solutions now enables manufacturers to unlock new insights and troubleshoot problems at a much faster pace than what was previously possible.
At BrightWolves, we help manufacturers in solving their most important problems by harnessing the new possibilities enabled by the Industry 4.0 and data analytics. Our goal is to showcase how data literacy, i.e., being able to explore, understand and communicate with data from manufacturing processes, allows to improve the related operations on the factory floor. To do so, we rely on a very practical and impact-focused approach:
In collaboration with the manufacturer, we first review the problems being faced and the related data that is available in the organization.
We then collect, structure, clean and explore this data. Using advanced data methods, we build practical insights on how to improve the manufacturing operations (e.g., identifying root causes for breakdowns, parameters influencing quality & yield, energy losses, …).
After obtaining preliminary results, we ask the engineers and operators who know best the production environment to challenge them. We leverage their expertise to improve our model and refine our findings.
Once all stakeholders agreed on the outcomes of the data analysis, we design and implement measures on the factory floor to improve the operations.
Finally, we can also assist the manufacturer in setting up a transformation program to gradually improve the data literacy within the organization and sustain the improvement we started.
This impact-driven approach allowed us to help key international players in the agrifood and chemical industries with their operations. We recently implemented this approach for a client active in the food processing industry. By retrieving and combining data from both programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and an ERP system, we identified in less than four weeks 10+ issues in the operations of two production lines that were badly understood by the local performance and engineering teams. Thanks to a fruitful collaboration between our consultants and the client’s operators and engineers, we leveraged these data-driven insights to design and implement practical measures on the factory floor that uplifted the throughput of the production lines by 40%.
We are always excited to discover new production environments and help manufacturers overcome their challenges. If you are facing challenging problems with your manufacturing assets and are interested in our approach, do not hesitate to reach out to Mathieu and Miguel to discuss how data analytics techniques can help your organization.
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