In a relatively short amount of time, Industry 4.0 has gone from theory to reality, and the result has been that many parts of the manufacturing sector are still scrambling to keep up.
Industry 4.0 comes with the promise of better, more efficient ways of doing things through greater machine-to-machine communication and more sophisticated networking, and ideally this will lead to less overhead and increased profits.
However, the massive changes brought on by more integrated systems will also put a huge amount of pressure on businesses that are slow to adapt: with the industry developing at such a rapid pace, the chances many companies will be left behind are very real.
Most manufacturers live or die in the margins: the ability to manage high overhead and unwieldy supply chains while being attentive to consumer demands is imperative, and competition is only going to get fiercer as automation takes over.
One of the key areas where savings can be made and profits increased is in improved efficiency and the reduction of waste. Perhaps one of the most significant ways in which Industry 4.0 is changing manufacturing is by making production lines better able to monitor themselves, and therefore become more flexible and responsive to issues as they arise.
At the forefront of this fourth industrial revolution have been new developments in metrology, which allow quality control to become more seamlessly integrated into the production line.
Software like PC-DMIS Planner allows coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) to work off of the same CAD models that are used to manage production, which not only makes a completely paperless part assessment process possible, but also allows CMM routines to be updated automatically, based on changes to the production model.
If your production line relies on CMMs or metrology software, it is important to stay up to date with CMM technology so you can make sure you are taking advantage of the very latest advances in metrology before your competitors.
Powerful tools like the new Polyworks Inspector software are even making it possible for CMMs to monitor wear and tear on machines further up the production line by keeping track of small degradations in part quality that provide early indications that manufacturing equipment may be wearing down.
As production lines grow more and more integrated and machines are able to communicate with each other in increasingly sophisticated ways, manufacturing is going to change in ways that cannot yet be predicted.
Many of these new developments are likely to take place at the nexus between quality control and production-line functionality, and with new CMM software already making it possible for CMMs to find and address errors earlier in the production process, it is likely that the next five years will only bring further breakthroughs in machine-to-machine communication.
Companies that are able to take advantage of these developments now will be best poised to reap the benefits of further improvements to CMM software and technology.
Industry 4.0 comes with the promise of better, more efficient ways of doing things through greater machine-to-machine communication and more sophisticated networking, and ideally this will lead to less overhead and increased profits.
However, the massive changes brought on by more integrated systems will also put a huge amount of pressure on businesses that are slow to adapt: with the industry developing at such a rapid pace, the chances many companies will be left behind are very real.
Most manufacturers live or die in the margins: the ability to manage high overhead and unwieldy supply chains while being attentive to consumer demands is imperative, and competition is only going to get fiercer as automation takes over.
One of the key areas where savings can be made and profits increased is in improved efficiency and the reduction of waste. Perhaps one of the most significant ways in which Industry 4.0 is changing manufacturing is by making production lines better able to monitor themselves, and therefore become more flexible and responsive to issues as they arise.
At the forefront of this fourth industrial revolution have been new developments in metrology, which allow quality control to become more seamlessly integrated into the production line.
Software like PC-DMIS Planner allows coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) to work off of the same CAD models that are used to manage production, which not only makes a completely paperless part assessment process possible, but also allows CMM routines to be updated automatically, based on changes to the production model.
If your production line relies on CMMs or metrology software, it is important to stay up to date with CMM technology so you can make sure you are taking advantage of the very latest advances in metrology before your competitors.
Powerful tools like the new Polyworks Inspector software are even making it possible for CMMs to monitor wear and tear on machines further up the production line by keeping track of small degradations in part quality that provide early indications that manufacturing equipment may be wearing down.
As production lines grow more and more integrated and machines are able to communicate with each other in increasingly sophisticated ways, manufacturing is going to change in ways that cannot yet be predicted.
Many of these new developments are likely to take place at the nexus between quality control and production-line functionality, and with new CMM software already making it possible for CMMs to find and address errors earlier in the production process, it is likely that the next five years will only bring further breakthroughs in machine-to-machine communication.
Companies that are able to take advantage of these developments now will be best poised to reap the benefits of further improvements to CMM software and technology.
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