The biggest question of the fourth industrial revolution, or Industry 4.0, is how to navigate the digitization of the manufacturing sector. Fortunately, HEXA Engineers is here to help you successfully understand and navigate the concept of digital manufacturing. Here’s what you should know about implementing industrial automation systems in your facility as you move through your digital transformation.
Define Your Goals and Objectives
When you begin your digital transformation, meet with key stakeholders and discuss what your main goals and objectives for implementing integrated automation should be. The architecture of your digital manufacturing system should help you meet these goals more efficiently than you do without automation.
- Integrate programmable automation into your supply chain.
- Improve your facility’s quality control measures by implementing human machine interfaces.
- Achieve a certain amount of increased productivity based on these new implementations.
If you define your goals and objectives before you begin your digital transformation, you will have a much clearer picture of what you want to achieve with these implementations. Once you figure all that out, you can select the right types of industrial automation for your manufacturing plant or facility.
Types of Industrial Automation to Consider
As you begin your transformation process, you should consider how you can integrate three main types of automation technologies into your facility management processes and your overall operations:
- The Internet of Things (IoT): IoT is the phenomenon of more devices and pieces of equipment being connected to the internet. You can use IoT to create human machine interfaces where you can more tightly control how your machinery operates. This can improve your quality control measures and decrease your overall time to market. You can also use IoT to manage every aspect of your facility, from the number of particulates in the air to foot traffic in certain areas.
- Facility Management Automation: You can streamline your facility’s day-to-day operations through this type of automation, which involves machine learning and artificial intelligence. It can also connect your management network with IoT devices to help you manage your facility. However, the most important automation system you should implement is a building automation system (BAS), which controls the temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors in your facility. When you automate those big-picture decisions and processes, that allows you to focus on your business’s more mission-critical operations.
- Building Information Modeling (BIM): A BIM platform provides a digital model of your facility so you can understand how all of its different parts connect to each other. When you have the BIM in front of you, you can examine and reorient the layout. For example, you can see what your facility would look like if you removed certain walls and how that would affect your manufacturing operations. This type of technology helps you maximize your space management capabilities so your physical environment’s design improves your business operations.
Consider which of these automation options will meet your current business needs. But you should also determine how these options can help you design and build a facility that improves your overall manufacturing processes and productivity.
If you define your goals and objectives before you begin your digital transformation, you will have a much clearer picture of what you want to achieve with these implementations. Once you figure all that out, you can select the right types of industrial automation for your manufacturing plant or facility.
Choose the Right Partner for Your Digital Transformation
When you begin digitizing your facility, you should have a partner who’s experienced in automation by your side. We can help you automate your control systems as well as your manufacturing processes, such as batch and traceability processes. We’ll provide the automation design and manufacturing transition steps you need to help your facility succeed during this change. When you partner with HEXA, you gain a team of automation experts who can digitize your facility while you run your business.
Make Your Digital Transition Today
If you’re ready to transform your manufacturing facility with digital automation, reach out to HEXA today. We can work with you to find the right automation solutions for your facility’s design and your business operations. If you already have ideas for automating your processes, let us know what they are. We’ll find a way to make those ideas a reality.