A vital component of automation advancement is what most manufacturers lack. It is the ability to deploy IIoT connections throughout the enterprise , including key areas such as receiving, warehousing and transportation . More information is available in the Zhengong Chain .
According to the latest report of PMMI Business Intelligence Company, although these fields are gradually adopting advanced technologies, they are key links in the production chain, and these links must be integrated to achieve a higher level of automation.
Automation is usually thought of as robots or sensors on machines, but automation strategies have now expanded beyond a single machine to cover the entire operation, and the key to linking the entire operation together is a comprehensive IIoT strategy.
In order to implement a viable Industry 4.0 strategy, each machine in operation needs to be prepared and designed to easily connect to the larger IIoT network. IIoT integration and data collection are the cornerstones of extended automation, so that many other advanced automation strategies can be deployed.
Currently, there are plenty of opportunities for manufacturers to expand IIoT and integration-ready machines-most manufacturers only identify a small portion of their factory floor operations as fully supporting IIoT. But in the next five years, leading CPGs will have an average of 75% of their machines capable of collecting critical machine performance data.
In 2017, manufacturers estimate that only 15% of their product lines support IIoT. Although the number of leading CPGs will rise to 30% by 2020, and that of small and medium-sized enterprises (small and medium enterprises) will rise to 24%, there is still a huge gap in IIoT capabilities. On average, any given manufacturing business will have 73% of production lines that are not fully connected and integrated.
An engineering manager at a large canning factory said: "We now have only half of our production lines collecting data; all new equipment must have the ability to collect data, which is part of our capital plan to upgrade or replace old equipment." What does OEM and supplier mean? There are opportunities to help manufacturers expand their IIoT connections beyond traditional production processes.
What do the companies interviewed for this report think about their automation integration needs and plans?
The leading CPGS is still on its integration timeline
"We have 10 production lines, of which about 70% are automated, but not yet integrated; we still have some areas in primary packaging and secondary packaging that need to be automated, and we are considering the use of robotics for packaging and stacking." — Chief Engineer of Snacks
"All our production lines are fully automated, but not all integrated yet; we are advancing at a rate of 2 to 3 lines per year."-Chief Engineer, Beverage Supervisor
"We are moving in the direction of higher automation, but we have not fully integrated our production lines." —Continuous improvement manager, frozen food leader
"In general, we will add more automation and robotics to the entire production line, and integrate magnetic motion control; however, none of our production lines are capable of supporting Industry 4.0 version -it will be implemented in our production line in the future." —Advanced Director of Packaging, Head of Personal Care
Legacy lines will still cause roadblocks
"70% of our product lines are fully equipped with IIoT capabilities. We still have some old filling lines with smaller capacities, which may be upgraded in the future." —Product Engineer, Director of Medicines/Health Products
Industry 4.0 / IIoT is not every company's strategy
"Our factories are scattered in very fragmented markets around the world. Almost all production lines have been automated, but our strategy has not led us to the intelligent industry 4.0 model. " —Packaging and processing engineer, CPG chief said, more The information is all in the Zhengong Chain.