Is a Smart Factory enough to reach Industry 4.0?

That’s the view from global manufacturers, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise; Rolls Royce; Airbus; GE Oil and Gas; The Manufacturing Technology Centre, and ABB who made up the Smart Factory panel at the recent Manufacturing Forum.

Organised by The Economist Events, the forum allowed manufacturing leaders to hear how the industrial landscape is rapidly evolving in order to cater for different customers, respond to more challenging demands, and continually innovate to remain successful.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) calls this “Connected Manufacturing”, but insists that digitising a production facility and creating a Smart Factory isn’t enough if the sector is going to fully embrace Industry 4.0.

VP and head of manufacturing industry at HPE, Martin Rainer commented: “If we are going to truly digitise the manufacturing industry and take full advantage of the opportunities presented by Connected Manufacturing, we need to digitise our entire value chains, not just our factories.

“Manufacturers need to start looking beyond their traditional boundaries and think about connecting everybody in the value chain from third party logistics providers to R&D departments, to partners, customers and even consumers.

“The manufacturing industry is changing fast. With the rise of demanding customers, availability of digital technologies and the individualisation and immediacy of products that this creates, manufacturers are being forced to understand the vision of consumers, and service both B2B and B2C markets.

“This makes it even more important to find out who is dictating value in the value chain, and to digitise entire communities around that value.”

Head of industrial technology, partnerships and business development at Airbus, Alisa Adel, revealed that there are a staggering 4 million parts in an Airbus 380, manufactured in 1,500 factories in 30 countries around the world.

She made the point that often, the most valuable components of any supply chain are the innovative SME communities that feed into it.

Rainer agreed, stating: “We need to stop managing the supply chain and start collaborating with it instead.

“Some manufacturers are already digitising operations and integrating Tier One suppliers into this process, but to create smart supply chains, we also need to collaborate with – and integrate – Tier Two and Tier Three suppliers into any digitisation strategy.