A smart factory is a digitized and connected production house that depends on smart manufacturing. The concept of the smart factory is an important outcome of the fourth industrial revolution. A true smart factory integrates the data from physical, operational, and human assets and drives manufacture towards a good level of maintenance, inventory tracking, digitizing operations, and various others activities. These factories have more efficiency, less-manufacturing time, and overall better productivity and keep the company at the top level in its competitive game. Currently, manufacturers are using only the smart factory components in advance planning, real-time production, and monitoring data. A true smart factory is actually beyond that.
The concept of adopting and implementing a smart factory is different and complicated. However, the recent technological advancements have made the manufacturing process flexible and adaptive. These new factories aid the manufacturers in remaining competitive or in disrupting the competition.
The transformation of the supply chain in the manufacturing industry is being updated by the industry 4.0, the mixing of the real & virtual world, Information Technology, and Operational Technology. For complete digital networks, the manufacturers must realize the digital supply network. They need to unlock capabilities i.e. horizontal integration; the myriad operational systems that power any organization; vertical integration’; that connects the manufacturing supplies and end-to-end integration through their entire value chain.
Features of a Smart Factory
A smart factory addresses the myriad issues and ecosystem-wide exerting pressure in an organization. The ability to adjust and learn data in real time in a smart factory help corporations in becoming responsive, proactive, and predictive and enables manufacturers in downsizing the operation and productivity challenges. The benefit of a full automation factory lies in the lower lead times with the customers and overall lower costs.
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