Merging machines and software for the Smart Factory
by Lantek
Advanced Manufacturing
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A favourable overall framework such as that of Industry 4.0, which encompasses a set of factors, extended to specific applications such as the connectivity of elements in the plant and the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), are leading the industrial sector to change at an unprecedented scale.
More than 10 years ago Lantek set out to go further in solving the needs of companies in the metal sector. An example of this is Opentalk, which allowed Lantek to progress with the development a many different systems by enabling machines to inform software when they were ready to start or when they had finished in the case of unattended production lines.
The emergence of new technologies along with the development of communication protocols and standards (OPC-UA, etc.) has endowed machines with the necessary resources to establish a fluid communication with software systems: IoT, CPS, sensorization, security, 5G, etc.
In recent years, Lantek has been working hard on developing a secure connection mechanism that enables cooperation between machines, local software systems, applications and systems located in the cloud.
The merging of machines and software, two elements which were traditionally isolated is unstoppable and technology is relocating the different functions, either locally or in the cloud. The interconnection between the two worlds (local and cloud) is already possible. Machines started to “talk” some time ago and they are learning more “vocabulary” and “languages”.
A strategic approach for collaboration between machine tool builders, software developers and system integrators will be essential to unleash the amazing potential of concepts yet to be imagined.
By all working together, we will define the Smart Sheet Metal Factory of the future.
Imagine a sheet metal factory. Hundreds of processes are taking place at the same time and all of them generate (or can potentially generate) a huge amount of invaluable data. That data can be processed and fed into the data analysis pipelines that Lantek is developing to provide advanced services targeted at improving the efficiency and performance of factories. Some of those advanced services are already in the market, like Lantek Analytics. Soon that data will also feed machine learning algorithms that will revolutionize the way we work and interact with sheet metal software.
It’s the new manufacturing paradigm developed thanks to the possibilities offered by connectivity and the cloud. An increasing number of companies are offering their software associated with Cloud Manufacturing, such as ERP, CRM, MES.
Industry is changing at high speed, enabled by new technologies framed by Industry 4.0 and IIoT. New approaches for software systems and machines are being unveiled all the time. Different hosting possibilities for data and software could make us think that communication is a recent development, but it is not. In this article we will show that Lantek has been working in industrial interoperability for many years.