Unwieldy integration realities are blurring visions of the “digital factory,” where design, production, the enterprise, the supply chain, and wireless transmission will all feed continuous improvement.
On the outskirts of Kaiserslautern, Germany, along the road between Frankfurt and Paris, a modern factory is churning out bottles of liquid soap.
As the factory agilely shifts production among a mix of colors and labels, it relies on the most progressive technologies and processes known to manufacturers. PLM software designs liquids and bottles, and simulates their manufacture. Enterprise ERP software sends data to the soap and labeling machines, informing them of changes in customers, orders, and supplies. MES software takes note of both PLM and ERP information, and alters production accordingly, quickly shifting from green soap to orange, as needed, and from a bold label to a serene one targeted at a different audience.
The shop continuously loops all this information together into the so-called “digital factory” — a virtuous circle of constant improvement so that PLM knows when, for example, faulty soap dispensers roll off the line, and it immediately changes product design or the manufacturing process. The factory sends many of these instructions wirelessly to and from machine sensors, and reassembles the production line in a hurry without time-consuming re-cabling.
“We’re still many years away from the real digital factory,” says Detlef Zühlke, chairman of the factory’s executive board.
This is the SmartFactory, a trial production facility funded by 22 manufacturers and technology vendors to stress-test the factory of the future. Manufacturers, including chemicals giant BASF, appliance juggernaut Bosch, and German pump and valve powerhouse KSB, and technology vendors, such as Siemens and SAP, are pooling resources here to refine the latest digital and integrated manufacturing technologies and concepts.
Because SmartFactory pushes modern manufacturing technology to the edge, it exposes the sheer cliff faces where the would-be factory of the future plunges to the realities of today’s limitations. While many of the individual technologies perform well, they remain islands of excellence, often falling down when manufacturers try to tie them together.
“What’s missing is the integration of all these things based on standardisation,” Zühlke says. “It’s still manufacturer-specific.”
In other words, if a company uses Siemens automation equipment, Dassault Systèmes PLM, and Wonderware MES software, the holistic circle of constant improvement can easily break down over integration problems. The circle may come apart again as it widens to include supply chain partners that use even more disparate brands. Throw in wireless connections, which suffer from integration challenges and unreliable technology, and the whole thing can get downright dysfunctional (see related article below).
Exacerbating the problem is a clash between automation vendors, such as Siemens, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, Mitsubishi, Rockwell, and Schneider, and ERP vendors, such as SAP and Oracle. Automation and ERP suppliers have marched into each other’s territories in recent years with acquisitions and partnerships vying for digital factory business. Siemens, for instance, acquired PLM vendor UGS; Schneider recently agreed to resell Dassault PLM software; GE Fanuc acquired software companies, including MES vendor Mountain Systems; SAP recently acquired MES vendor Visiprise; and Oracle picked up PLM vendor Agility.
As the automation and ERP companies have extended their reach into overlapping areas, many have prioritized the integration of their own growing rosters of software over integrating their products with those of other vendors.
