Transforming IT for manufacturing at the industrial edge
The future of manufacturing is connected, automated and digitally driven. As plant floor operations technologies converge with IT, numerous use cases across the manufacturing cycle become possible to ignite innovation, create more efficient operations, reduce downtime and improve worker productivity.
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HPE helps manufacturers optimise operations, improve product quality and worker productivity. Our edge-to-cloud industrial IoT solutions enable:
- Digital design and simulation: Remote visualisation, CAE and EDA solutions for faster, more reliable design, modelling and simulation
- Guided assembly: Augmented reality-based instructions help workers master multiple product configurations and assemblies to reduce defects
- Maintenance and repair: “See what I see” technologies put line workers directly in touch with remote experts for faster diagnosis and resolution of equipment issues
- Video analytics: Sophisticated video analytics drive speed and accuracy in the quality assurance process
- Condition monitoring and predictive maintenance: Monitor and predict maintenance issues before they occur to reduce unplanned downtime
- Digital twin: Digitalise plant floor asset performance and processes to monitor and adjust production
For machine assets and products, connectivity has long driven improvements in efficiency, performance and productivity. Recent technology developments provide greater capabilities to monitor and control plant floor equipment, products and even the production processes themselves, providing new data sources from a variety of operations areas.
Advancements in IT and lower device costs have allowed manufacturing companies to aggregate plant floor asset data ‒ assembly-line equipment, tools and operational systems involved in the manufacturing process ‒ into a common dashboard for improved visibility into plant floor operations and equipment performance.
Over the past five years, the Internet of Things (IoT) and edge computing have lowered the costs of applying vision to production processes and also improved the speed, data accessibility and information processing of industrial vision systems.
Futurum Research explores the impact of digital evolution on manufacturing and the convergence of operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT). The paper also looks at real-world solutions from SAP and HPE to turn data into insights.
Speed time to market without compromising quality. High-performance compute keeps iteration turnaround times low. Model and test with reliable results that quickly aid engineering decisions.
As products become smarter, more complex and personalised, it becomes harder for the human eye to spot defects. Increase the speed and accuracy of inspection processes to reduce defects and the need for rework.
See through remote eyes and improve product support times, accelerate collaboration, trouble-shooting and problem resolution across engineering, product design and production teams.
The Industrial Internet of Things presents new ways to drive manufacturing process efficiencies, engage customers and enable real-time analytics of production data at the edge to reduce unplanned downtime.
A holistic data management strategy combined with SAP S/4HANA can unlock the value of manufacturing data across the value chain for faster time to insight.
Leverage the experience of an industry leader in digital era advisory and transformation services to help drive better digital experiences for you and for your customers.
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Making zero defects a reality with AI-based video analytics
To reduce product defects, hi-tech manufacturer Foxconn improved inspection speed and accuracy with a plant floor, edge-based video analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solution in partnership with HPE and ecosystem partners Relimetrics and NVIDIA.
Challenge
Manual inspections were becoming error-prone and time-consuming with over 1,000 possible product configurations to validate for each server coming down the line. As a result, customer complaints were increasing due to out-of-the-box quality issues requiring rework.
Solution
Working with HPE and partners Relimetrics and NVIDIA, Foxconn leveraged edge computing and the IoT to implement an AI-based video analytics solution to automate the inspection process and provide better traceability of quality issues.
“We now have the ability to automatically check the configuration and assembly quality of our products and eliminate human error in areas where the solution is able to verify.”
Result
Increased customer satisfaction by reducing the number of faulty servers reaching customers by 25%. Improved inspection speed by 96 seconds per server and decreased training time of deep learning models from 3 weeks to 2 days, leading to improved factory productivity.
Featured resources
Want to explore more? Here are some manufacturing resources that might interest you.