True Production Monitoring in the world of Industry 4.0

SERIES: Where does Weld Production Monitoring Fit into Recovery and Reinvention?

PART 2:

What does true Production Monitoring Look like in the World of Industry 4.0?

Originally shared in WELD Magazine's Fall 2020 Edition, IRCO Automation and IRCOpulse explore Weld Production Monitoring in a time when many companies are and were faced with a period of recovery and reinvention. Click the links below to jump to the other parts of this series.

Posts in this series:

• PART 1: Introduction 
• PART 2: What does true production monitoring look like in the world of Industry 4.0? 
• PART 3: What does production monitoring mean for Welding Automation? (Coming May 11)
• PART 4: Areas Weld Production monitoring can provide insight to (Coming May 18)
• PART 5: What to consider when choosing a production monitoring system (Coming May 25)
  

What does true production monitoring look like in the world of Industry 4.0?

Digital technology is reshaping and transforming manufacturing and the 4th Industrial Revolution is well underway. Industry 4.0 focuses on performance, digitalization, data, and the tools to understand this data. The increasing sophistication and availability of technology that can be used in manufacturing processes is welcoming a new age of smart automation, machine learning, and cloud-based production monitoring.

"Industry 4.0 is about more than simply stamping a serial number on your finished goods and logging it to a spreadsheet."

Industry 4.0 is about more than simply stamping a serial number on your finished goods and logging it to a spreadsheet. Instead, companies require a rich dataset that can provide detailed insights about cycle time, throughput, downtime, and scrap rates, to name a few. 

The big so what? Why does it matter?

This valuable data can then be combined with reporting tools allowing businesses to take a deep introspective dive to analyze production metrics and performance in relation to their financial targets and projections.

This level of data integration can allow for new transparency in manufacturing, fabrication, and production processes; it has the power to reshape customer and vendor interactions and schedules, inventory and material handling, and operational scheduling. Teams can use the data to provide certainty for their financial reporting and projection, while also identifying areas for efficiency gains, revenue growth, and cost reduction.

Coming Soon - Part 3: What does Production Monitoring mean for Welding Automation? (Coming May 11)

Contact Us & Related Content

For more information about IRCO Automation's automated welding solutions, visit the Welding Automation page on our website.  Connect with our team by sending us an email at: info@ircoautomation.com 

Looking to learn more? See the following Resources: 

• Hard vs Robotic welding automation - What's the difference?
• Welding Automation - Turn-key Solutions
• What are the different types of welding automation available?
• Components of an Automated Welding System
• Robotic Welding
• More on Production monitoring