NOVEMBER 20229MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY INSIGHTSproducts, including their tolerances, mounting instructions, pairing recommendations and much more.These applications are successes in a broader SKF strategy to implement intelligent manufacturing at scale. Of course, the data itself is not valuable until it is used to create insights, which SKF is doing by using pilots to better understand what's possible. SKF is investing heavily in digital transformation of our manufacturing sites. Already now highly advanced factories are in place, some examples are in Airasca and Cassino, where the digital transformation and automation has significantly increased their performance level. SKF is working on deploying more solutions this year with the goal to have intelligent manufacturing rolled out in most of our factories by 2025. The core of the digital transformation is to find the right balance between technology, process and people. Only the right balance of all three will enable SKF to unlock the potential power of digitalisation to improve its processes. That includes raising awareness throughout the company so that the entire workforce is prepared to embrace change, optimizing and standardizing the processes and selecting the right technology to fit SKF's needs. There are of course specific technology challenges, one of which is connecting the legacy equipment. SKF has approximately 500 machining channels and modernising all of them at once is not possible. SKF is therefore working with brownfield connectivity to gather data together seamlessly. The aim is to enable factories make real-time decisions autonomously while being managed centrally. The HCI enables teams to leverage the advantages of both cloud technology and on-site Edge computing. Calculations needed in real time within the factory can be carried out immediately on the premises, while allowing for more complex tasks to run via the cloud, where more computing power is available on demand.One of SKF Lead factories, in Airasca, is providing evidence of how intelligent manufacturing can create value. One of our customers from the racing industry needs to make fast changes to its solutions, to be able to be successful in their business. Finding answers to RFQs or methods for very technical requests can take several weeks, but in the case of this customer the use of the digital thread the lead time inquiry to response was reduced to a couple of days. That kind of flexibility is truly a game-changer. None of this would be possible without our people, who are meeting these challenges with enthusiasm. These working methods require a new mindset with focused change management. It's about making a LEAN and digital transformation to come away from gut feeling to fact-based decision making.
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