Old assets can be a big barrier to fully digitizing the factory floor.
To include those assets in Industry 4.0/smart manufacturing projects, manufacturers need to connect their legacy equipment to a single platform. Then they must collect data over time and figure out when to act on it.
This is not an easy task. It’s even more difficult to find a scalable and cost-effective way to do it. Manufacturers often need help with best practices, project prioritization, and a digitization roadmap for their legacy equipment.
For over 27 years, I’ve deployed manufacturing, supply chain, IoT and AI solutions to both discrete and process manufacturers. In the last three years, I’ve focused on building Industry 4.0 solutions for my clients, using AI and machine learning. Legacy assets were a major challenge, but we found a way to incorporate them into the strategy.
There is no one-size-fits-all roadmap, but I have plenty of best practices to share. At next week’s Manufacturing Leadership Summit in Orange County, I’m going to do just that.
I’m facilitating a Think Tank at the Frost and Sullivan event titled “A Manufacturing 4.0 Roadmap for Legacy Assets” on Tuesday June 12th at 1:50pm. Notes from the session will be made available to attendees after the event on the event website.
During the interactive session we’ll discuss:
1. Best practices from successful implementations
· How to leverage legacy assets without replacing them
· How to minimize disruption during the implementation process
· Companies who boosted productivity and lowered costs and how they did it
2. How to prioritize projects
· Selection criteria when evaluating projects with old assets
· Where to get started when capital is a problem
· Projects that pay for themselves
3. Digitization roadmap for legacy assets
· How to connect old assets to one platform
· What data to pull and how to pull it
· Roadmap differences for small vs. global manufacturers
What do you think is the biggest challenge when digitizing old assets? How do you prioritize projects? What best practices work for you? Let me know in the comments.
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