Data Interconnection and Integration for Intelligent Manufacturing

During the Intelligent Industry Automation Seminar held by Intel and Adlink at Pullman Thamrin Hotel Jakarta, Thursday (04/10/2018), PT Cinovasi Rekaprima, an industry 4.0 consulting firm, explained that adoption of digital technology can increase productivity, reduce costs, improve product quality, as well as increase the capacity to innovate. Nowadays almost all human activities are related to the internet and digital.

Era Industrial Revolution 3.0 (IR3.0) was featured with large-scale replacement of systems and devices to realize automation in the production process of manufacturing. Whereas in the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0) era, according to McKinsey reports and studies, it is estimated to require 40-50% replacement of new systems and devices, while others are considered to have been connected or at least have access to the digital realm. In IR4.0, the industry can make partial replacements, followed by putting more efforts in interconnecting and integrating of the: human, process, technology and data (MPTD). 

On the other hand, the industry can start with the interconnection and integration of MPTD first, followed by partial replacement of the system and devices. The choices taken can be aligned with the business priorities and actual conditions of each.

According to Cinovasi, the key steps in IR4.0 are the efforts and innovations to utilize 'sustainable freemium' to become productive elements so as to provide value to industry, society and future generations. 

Sustainable freemium is renewable resource. Sunlight, wind, and water flow are examples of the renewable resources. There are also materials that can be recycled,  which can then be used as materials for production.

Data is just like other industry assets. Data is resource that is available everywhere. Data has the characteristics of being non-depletable, non-degradable, and can be used for a long time. 

In certain point of view, we can see that the industry is actually "sitting on a gold mine" of data. In this IR4.0 era, the availability of technology can lead to collecting data as sustainable freemium. In addition the technology would help to analyze the data, and provide the insight for the industry revolution, and in turn for the community.

"Data taken automatically and real time will reduce human error due to manual entry and this will also reduce the time consumption. The availability of data in digital form also facilitates collaboration because it can be accessed through various interfaces such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc. It also allows businesses to easily carry out analysis and planning, and support intelligent manufacturing as well as predictive maintenance in the future," said Fajar Wantah, Chief Business Development Officer Cinovasi at the Intelligent Industry Automation Seminar.

"Data can be extracted from the very initial process of the manufacturing, when we receive the raw materials, until the production itself including packaging, distribution, and sales," added Fajar.

In addition to automated data capture, digital based system allows us to automatically process and analyze data, which provides much better capabilities in terms of data processing and storage compared to the storage in the form of hardcopy, spreadsheet, or 'stand alone' database systems.

"In order to display data from the machines and to control the machine themselves, a field operator can use technologies such as SCADA (Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition).