Technology Implementation Challenges

Technology is something that is necessary when it comes to running a business. When it comes to implementing technology, however, there are often challenges. How can companies successfully implement technology and work through the challenges? In a recent chat for USA Manufacturing Hour on Twitter, Host Pavel Stepanov from VirtuDesk, led a discussion about how companies can work through implementation challenges when it comes to new technology.

Relevance and scope of facility management are growing all over the world. In the UK alone, this market has reached USD 40.41 billion in 2020 and is expected to move to USD 81.49 billion by 2026.

Facility management has moved past being just a method of managing physical structures.  The companies find it difficult to maximize the potential of good facility managers. So, what does facility management entail exactly and what are its functions?

Let’s look at how a holistic management process can empower FMs to deliver. That means taking a closer look at the four major aspects  of facilities management:

people, buildings, processes,  and technology.

Manufacturers have found increasing the use of technology in their plants to be effective and beneficial to their operations. Three operational areas that have reaped the most benefits are profitability, efficiency, and employee safety.

Manufacturing technology can be defined as techniques and processes designed to improve manufacturing quality, productivity, and practices including worker training. This includes automated processes. Some examples of this are robotics, 3D printing, cloud computing, and more.

How does technology help in manufacturing?

Advancements in technology for the manufacturing sector have improved every industry in the marketplace. Major innovations continue to create improvements in the productivity and sustainability of entire production processes. These innovations include process automation, additive manufacturing, and the inclusion of artificial intelligence. With the struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturers are searching for ways to maintain productivity with reduced manpower. With that in mind, businesses are wondering what the future of manufacturing technology is.

In today’s fast-paced and supply chain-challenged world, manufacturers are trying to create efficiencies in their processes wherever possible. One way of creating more efficiency is by digitally transforming supply chains. During USA Manufacturing Hour Twitter Chat, hosts Jon Freeman, Strategic Partnerships Manager and Justin Dickson, Chief Revenue Officer at FreightPOP in California, led a discussion about this timely and important topic for manufacturers worldwide.

Automation is constantly progressing in many industries and especially in the manufacturing industry. Adopting automation has changed the way the world works by making difficult or repetitive tasks easier and more efficient. Many agree that it has changed the world for the better. However, automation sometimes gets a bad reputation. There is a prevailing school of thought that believes automation will eventually take away employment within the manufacturing industry. It’s a layered concept to consider and it isn't a simple issue. In fact there are actually many aspects to the concept of automation taking away jobs. Let's explore some aspects of automation in manufacturing.

Machine vision is making major contributions to the manufacturing sector, primarily by providing automated inspection capabilities as part of quality control procedures. Formerly viewed as barcode readers, these systems now use automated cameras and software to monitor products, collect data, check for inconsistencies, scan labels and perform other functions at high-speeds and without the need for worker intervention.

According to the Automated Imaging Association, machine vision encompasses all industrial and non-industrial applications in which a combination of hardware and software provide operational guidance to devices in the execution of their functions based on the capture and processing of images.

A type of robot growing in popularity in the industrial manufacturing industry is called a cobot, otherwise known as a collaborative robot. The reason for the growing popularity of cobots is their ability to work side by side with human operators to accomplish a task. With ever expanding technology, many fear it will make human workers obsolete. Robots are one of the top concerns. However, when it comes to cobots, they have one great difference from traditional industrial robots. Their design purpose is to work productively alongside humans. This will obviously have the benefit of human labor still required and an advanced form of technology assisting in the job process. Nobody wants to see human labor become obsolete. This is why more and more manufacturing operations are making use of cobots, as they integrate automation systems.

Until the launch of 5G, every previous generation of mobile phone technology was primarily intended to improve the operation of the handset. It was not until 4G technology was adopted in 2008 that real smartphone capability was enabled and 4G mobile broadband led to the development of smartphone apps, a proliferation of multimedia and streaming services, and high-speed internet access on-the-go.

The installation today of 5G networks marks the first time that a new generation of mobile technology has been built around the needs of machines and systems rather than of handset users. The telecoms industry’s plan for 5G envisaged technical breakthroughs in three main parameters – latency, reliability and determinism; the density of connections; bandwidth, and speed of data transfer.

Edge controllers can provide advantages in many applications where traditional industrial controllers have been used. For commercial and industrial computing products, software and hardware development progress proceeds in tandem, with the lead alternating. Sometimes the software complexity and features increase in a way that bumps into processing limitations; then there are times when hardware advances unleash newfound capacity for more sophisticated software.
It is easy to look at today’s traditional operations technology (OT) industrial controller options, represented most often by traditional programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and process automation controllers (PACs), and see them as mature technologies with capable software and fast hardware. The challenge is identifying what comes next.

A few industry trends are pointing the way. Modern consumer and commercial computing experiences are ripe for merging into industrial products. Internet of Things (IoT) devices are becoming commonplace and many are looking at incorporating Industrial IoT (IIoT) devices into automation systems. Digital transformation requires connecting with many data sources, collecting and storing the data, visualizing and analyzing it, enabling optimized operations.