During World War II, after the successful landing of the Allied forces in France in 1944, led by the Americans & the British (shown in great films like ‘The Longest Day‘ & ‘Saving Private Ryan‘) there were valiant attempts to capture German-controlled bridges in the Netherlands which ended in disaster. This was documented in a book ‘A Bridge Too Far‘ which was also made into a memorable movie.
Subsequently, ‘a bridge too far‘ has become a widely used phrase to mean ‘An act or plan whose ambition overreaches its capability, resulting in or potentially leading to difficulty or failure’
The concept of a ‘Digital Factory’ which gained currency after ‘Industry 4.0’ & IIoT movements started in 2014, has today become so full of jargon and confused incremental thinking that many business leaders & operational heads consider it ‘a bridge too far‘.
I think the opposite is true, provided we understand the key concepts and start with the basic building blocks.
BASIC CONCEPTS
‘Digital Factory’ means that all aspects of its working are managed in digital form. There are 3 Core activities of a factory:
PLANNING ——–> PRODUCTION———>DISPATCH
We will focus on ‘PRODUCTION’ which in turn comprises of three main stages
INSTRUCTION —->OPERATION—–>ANALYSIS
INSTRUCTION: Comprises of all the activities that ‘Instruct’ the Machine to make the part correctly. The instructions in a Digital Factory are in the form of Programs written in Digital form.
OPERATION: It is done by machines controlled by Digital Controllers (CNC, PLC, etc.)
ANALYSIS: These are the activities related to measuring the output Digitally in terms of
Most manufacturing organizations who satisfy the above criteria still FAIL to be called ‘Digital Factories’
REASONS WHY ‘DIGITAL FACTORY’ today is ‘A Bridge Too Far’
#1: Human Intervention is needed in all stages of Production, whether Instruction, or Operation, or Analysis.
#2: Open Loop Working. Stage 3, i.e. Analysis leads to reports on quality, quantity (productivity) & cost that DO NOT automatically feed-back into Stage 1 (Instruction)and correct the same so that operation of machines produces desired results.
THE SOLUTIONS: The following ‘building blocks‘ are needed to build the ‘Digital Factory’
Indian manufacturers should take initiative and rapidly adopt the ‘building blocks‘ to convert existing factories & build new ‘Digital Factories’. This will ensure that they leapfrog over competitors and thrive in the new world.
