Manufacturing Technology

Despite the acknowledged productivity benefits of automation, many companies still handle common business practices manually, missing out on efficiencies and potential competitive advantage. Organisations should consider robotic process automation for back-office operations, and even some front-office processes, which are currently still done manually, according to NICE. Gerry Tucker, managing director, ANZ, NICE, said, “Businesses can gain significant benefits by automating certain business processes through robotic process automation. There are two types of robots: attended robots, which are used on a desktop to help humans optimise their work; and unattended robots, which live on the server and replace human activity. Using attended or unattended robots can help organisations deliver a consistent customer experience and makes workers more efficient. “For example, one of the world’s largest furniture retailers worked with NICE to implement a robotic process automation solution that could streamline order entry and fulfilment for customers. The system eliminated 100 per cent of order entry errors. It automated the processes and tasks associated with the equivalent of 16 full-time employees, letting those workers focus on more value-adding tasks.  In total, the robots reduced the company’s manual workload by 5,000 hours per year, delivering a faster, more accurate automated order and delivery system. This dramatically improved the customer experience.” Robotic process automation has been defined by the Institute for Robotic Process Automation as “the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a ‘robot’ to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems”.1 NICE has identified five ways robotics can improve an organisation’s business processes, enhance the customer experience and deliver greater employee satisfaction:        Increasing employee satisfaction: By relieving employees of repetitive, menial actions, organisations can improve customer service and employee satisfaction […]

Disruptive technologies and digital infrastructure have the potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing risks and to transform industries. These include safeguarding the planet’s soil and water, and improving inequality and education.   This is the main conclusions of the 2017 Global Opportunity Report, released by DNV GL, Sustainia and the United Nations Global Compact. The Global Opportunity Report is an opportunity and solution based response to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report. It enables leaders to navigate new markets, new business opportunities and solutions. For the 2017 edition, 5 500 leaders from within business, government and civil society across five continents provide their insights. They identify and rank 15 sustainability opportunities and in addition showcase 120 practical projects and solutions that already exist around the globe. These range from micro grids that make cities more resilient to climate change, to bacteria that bring depleted soil back to life, to peer-to-peer trading, and inviting ethical hackers to test cyber security. The 2017 report’s top findings are: Smart water technology is perceived as the biggest market opportunity. Providing e-learning to conflict-affected areas is the second-biggest opportunity, giving business the potential to contribute to creating more peaceful societies. Rising trust in digital technologies such as blockchain[1] technology and artificial intelligence can help combat many of the global risks such as cybercrime and rising inequality. Leaders agree that rising inequality is the biggest of the five risks in the report. Smart water tech uncovers new market opportunities Smart water technology took first place in this year’s rankings, being deemed the most impactful and applicable of all 15 opportunities. Technology that automatically saves and reuses water protects this scarce resource while creating sustainable options for citizens. This finding reaffirms a tendency that is present in all Global Opportunity Reports to date — […]

Jargon aside ‘servitisation’ means understanding the bottom line of what your customers really want. Bridging the skills gap and boosting services will be top priorities for manufacturers this year. And IoT? Today, 50% of the costs of IoT projects go on integration. This year will also see many manufacturers realizing they already have ‘IoT’ solutions; now they need to integrate them better to leverage the full benefits. Outlined below are my three key predictions for 2017—and beyond. Prediction 1: Over 80% of manufacturers will realise they already have ‘IoT’ solutions—the question is: How easily integrated are they? After years of hype, we tend to forget that many manufacturers already have ‘IoT’ capabilities. And have had for years. They just might not identify them as such. But systems like Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) have efficiently gathered performance data from equipment since the 80’s and 90’s. And many continue to do so. So manufacturers need to think carefully about which data performance tracking technology is most relevant to them. For those producing large-scale capital equipment to be deployed in the field, new sensor-enabled data gathering technology is a fantastic value-add. It enables them to offer maintenance and services around the clock, in tough environments—a serious competitive edge. But for manufacturers producing a higher volume of smaller products in-house, IoT field sensors and monitoring would be very costly. In these cases, preventing problems before the goods leave the factory is the priority. So If SCADA or PLC do the job—an ‘IoT’ solution is already effectively up and running. Currently 50% of the cost of implementing IoT projects goes to integration. For these high-volume manufacturers an open architecture ERP system that lets them integrate their existing legacy systems without costly integration could be money better spent. Carry […]

Product Engineers can efficiently evaluate structural product performance under a wide range of physical scenarios using the powerful virtual testing environment of Solidworks Simulation Professional. Fully embedded with Solidworks 3D CAD, Solidworks Simulation Professional enables engineers to determine product mechanical resistance, product durability, natural frequencies, and test heat transfer and buckling instabilities. Pressure vessel analysis and complex loading is also supported. You can optimise products for weight, vibration, or instability based on a range of physical and geometrical parameters. With tight integration and a consistent user interface across Solidorks solutions, you can use the powerful capabilities of Solidworks Simulation Professional early in the design process to maximize product quality and reduce costs.