Nov 2019 - 9: The hunt for ‘smart’ manufacturing
The hunt for 'smart' manufacturing
During the summer, Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, or H-M-I hosted its ‘HxGN Live’ event in Las Vegas,.
You may remember we covered the event in the September issue of MTD magazine.
The ongoing success of this event was the catalyst behind bringing the glitz of the Vegas strip to the UK, at the world-renowned Belfry Hotel & Resort.
The H-M-I UK team prepared a spectacular two-day HxGN LOCAL Smart Manufacturing event with keynote speakers.
It provided every ounce of prestige that global delegates enjoyed in the Nevada Desert.
MTD Magazine was in attendance to see what the event had to offer.
Like the HxGN Live event in Las Vegas, the H-M-I UK event took on a holistic approach to the challenges of the manufacturing industry and its future.
With such an extensive product portfolio that covers the entire spectrum of manufacturing, it’s a fitting philosophy.
Demonstrating this at the HxGN LOCAL Smart Manufacturing event was a showroom set up with stations and technical experts.
It took visitors from the concept, design and engineering phase through to production, measurement, verification and project completion.
This incorporated everything from 3D scanning and reverse engineering through CAD, CAM, model verification and production software on to the very latest metrology equipment.
The demonstration stations encompassed everything from the latest developments of the MSC CAE and simulation software platforms through EDGECAM, Javelin, Machining Strategist, Radan, VISI, WorkNC and Workplan platforms.
Bringing the simulation demonstrations to life through VR was a Ducati motorcycle saddle construction and design.
It started with a measuring arm and reverse engineering process that was then optimally programmed with EDGECAM and NCSIMUL.
Further downstream was the measurement portfolio with the OPTIV Performance 3d multi-sensor, 7-axis Absolute Arm, Leica Absolute Tracker ATS600, the RS6 Laser Scanner, the TIGO SF, AICON Stereoscan, the Sensorfar 3D optical measuring device and the ingenious Hexagon SFx Cloud ready asset management software that interconnects the measurement hardware range.
All of this was encapsulated in a ‘Smart is Hiding in Plain Sight’ keynote speech delivered by Norbert Hanke, the President & CEO of HMI.
This was followed by an insightful presentation from Stefan Hyttfors ‘Five things you must know about the future’.
The afternoon ‘breakout sessions’ gave delegates the opportunity to take in presentations from Paul Andrews of Robo-race on the world’s first racing series for humans & AI and Ben Morgan the Head of the Integrated Manufacturing Group and Factory 2050 at the AMRC on reconfigurable assembly and digitally driven component manufacturing.
Presentations were also provided by Mike Falconer, the Education & Development Manager for the MTA on ‘SMART Students’ and ‘The SUMO Guy’ Paul McGee who delivered a presentation on ‘How to develop your resilience and build better relationships’.
The level of insight from each presentation was epitomised by newshound Daisy McAndrew from Sky and BBC News who discussed Brexit and the future of UK manufacturing.
Just when we all think we are experts on Brexit after countless hours of watching and listening to TV and radio, Daisy blew perceptions on Brexit and politicians apart with her fascinating insights and tales.
Following the absorbing events during the day, H-M-I put on evening entertainment with a band, magician, casino and simulated racing with Ben Collins, the man behind ‘the STIG’ from Top Gear.
Day two 's activities kicked off with Raf Lobato, the Strategic Product Development Director at Hexagon providing a presentation that was followed by explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE talking about ‘Living dangerously’.
With the theme firmly set around ‘Smart’ manufacturing, we listened to the keynote speech from Norbert Hanke, a fascinating insight into the future; not just for Hexagon, but for all manufacturers.
He said: “The manufacturing industry is on the hunt for ‘Smart’.
‘Smart’ is all around us and we don’t have to look far to find it.
We are living in a perfect storm of events and uncertainty that requires agility like never before.
World trade growth has dropped over the last couple of years quite dramatically.
Politics has impacted global growth and emerging markets have been slowing down for some time.
With all these challenges, its urgent that we all find a ‘smart,’ agile and resilient business model.”
“The world of manufacturing is experiencing huge shifts and customers are demanding more personalisation and better-quality products.
You only have to look at the automotive sector and its changes.
Companies have built cars for decades, but now the question is ‘do I build the asset?’ or ‘do I offer the service?’.”
“So, lets investigate the current state of ‘Smart’.
Many people perceive the transformation of manufacturing as a linear function.
This is people thinking how the business will be affected by disruption.
However, the reality is that both the change and the impact are exponential.
Why do we have to embrace these technologies?
Well, growth and productivity has declined in advanced economies and with our ageing population, there is a downward trend in the working age population to fill manufacturing jobs.
While these new transformative technologies can move towards a new level of automation to address the productivity and labour issues, this can have a negative impact on the economy.
However, the reality is that for the last 100 years, technology has always created more jobs and new industries. So, it’s all about the mindset for change.
The key to this is the digital transformation and the currency is data. We need to create value out of the data.”
“Jumping into technology, you can access much more data and leverage many more benefits, but are we ready to jump?
Today there is a big shift in how business leaders are looking at technology in manufacturing.
Some research indicates that 95% of all CEO’s see disruptive technology as an opportunity and not a threat.
Almost two thirds say they are personally prepared to lead their organisation through a radical transformation of operating processes to maintain competitiveness.
These leaders are recognising that connected data is offering new levels of insight for predictive pro-active services and solutions.
The future will rely on connectivity and data.
Data can save the future of our manufacturing industry, but only when the data is unlocked, unleashed and put to work for us in higher manufacturing ecosystems.”
“At Hexagon, we realise the keys to transformation and are striving to unlock data and its value for customers.
We are putting data to work to create ecosystems that are connected and increasingly autonomous.
To achieve this autonomy there are a number of points to cover.
Firstly, the ecosystem must be digital.
Manufacturing still has a way to go before it achieves digital transformation, but to be successful, the ecosystem from design to production to metrology all has to be digital.
Everything has to be digital and interconnected and we are now entering a new age of connectivity that can open doors for huge possibilities.”
New Solutions
“One example of this connectivity is our new partnership with Ericsson.
They have developed an industry connect solution that can secure a 5G connection for your factory.
It is very important that we implement this system in our factories, but it is also important that our equipment is 5G ready.”
“Our final imperative is that the ecosystem has to be intelligent, a smart connected ecosystem.
We want to build this intelligence into the solutions of today. We recently introduced a new solution called ‘Lightrunner’, which is like a facial recognition system for the factory.
It provides constant absolute positioning and mapping for the measurement of parts.
Lightrunner is the new class of solution that Hexagon is committed to; and with that we are using very powerful data in a very intelligent way.”
Are we wasting data?
“Did you know that over 90% of the data that is collected in manufacturing processes is never used.
In manufacturing, none of us like waste. If you look in your workflows, you can find data that is neglected, ignored or just unused.
What if you could have a complete overview of your metrology assets in your manufacturing facility?
‘Smart’ is hiding in your resources.
The new Hexagon asset management software is the first of our asset-based solutions that brings together data from multiple sources, including the parts and the environmental monitoring system to provide a single remote view of your assets.
This visibility allows you to minimise your downtime and maximise efficiency to manage resources.”
Using SPC to find the data solution.
Referring back to the original message of “how to find ‘Smart’”, Norbert continued with some interesting points around S-P-C data and its relevance to the future of manufacturing and digital transformation:
He said “Smart can be found in our future with S-P-C.
S-P-C today is typically used to identify trends and make corrections.
It is also used to make predictions based on trends.
Machine learning offers huge potential with the processing of ‘big data’ and when combined with S-P-C, it allows us to predict issues much further into the future and create a much greater element of certainty.”
“By performing ‘non-linear’ analysis on SPC data, we can see that the future will look much different.
So, where do we look for Smart next? Its hiding between your tools and your systems.
Take a look at a cutting tool that has cutting data and the machine parameters.
This is where our FASYS helps you to connect the CAD/CAM software to tool inventory management software to allow you to ensure the correct tool is used on the part and that it is set-up correctly.
This allows you to reduce inventory and still have the right tool when it is needed.
Connecting the supply chain, the outcome is uninterrupted manufacturing.”
A new addition to the Hexagon brand
Continuing the theme of finding ‘Smart’ and the connected supply chain, Norbert said: “We have recently bought a company called Etalon.
Etalon specialises in machine calibration and monitoring. I
f you could know all the characteristics of your machine tools and compensate for errors, just think how much smarter your digital workflow could be.
Etalon solutions enable machine tools to monitor their own geometrics and perform compensation to improve the quality of parts.
What if we look forward at how we can build this into our simulation packages like NCSIMUL to build a true digital twin of the machine, building a smart digital reality.
This will cut costs in the product development stages and simulation, showing that ‘Smart’ is even hiding in the digital reality.”
Are you on the hunt for ‘Smart’ manufacturing and has the transformation to digital platforms been considered or started at your company?
Following such a successful and insightful event, Hexagon will be looking to use this educational platform again in the future and when it does, MTD magazine would recommend our readers to take a look into the opportunities available from ‘Smart’ digital technologies.