Tackling current challenges faced by manufacturers with Industry 4.0

As manufacturing businesses face the triple pressures of rising energy costs, supply chain challenges, and a widespread skills gap across the sector, every efficiency gain counts – large or small.

With budgets squeezed from every angle, and pressure to achieve ever greater efficiencies, how can manufacturers get a clear picture of the productivity gaps across their factory that will enable them to embrace digitalisation?

The manufacturing sector is no stranger to evolution. From the first moving assembly line to the arrival of Industry 4.0, the factory floor has become a more complex world and manufacturers have had to adapt equipment, teams, systems, and processes to maintain the smooth running of production lines and achieve maximum efficiencies.

Remaining competitive in the face of extreme challenges

In recent years, the sector has faced a major recruitment issue as young people take up careers in other industries. Many have turned their back on what are seen as ‘traditional’ industries to pursue careers in the technology sector, not realising the role tech plays in creating world-class manufacturing facilities.

The industry certainly has a job to do to show a tech-hungry talent pool the opportunities a career in manufacturing affords and, on a micro level, individual manufacturing businesses that are embracing Industry 4.0 and communicating it to the outside world stand a much better chance of attracting the talent they need.

The double whammy of COVID and Brexit has also created significant supply chain issues for many manufacturing businesses that have seen some products become near impossible to get hold of, alongside huge price rises and extended delivery timescales – all of which have a direct impact on the bottom line.

Add to this the unprecedented energy price hikes facing the sector, and most manufacturers are really feeling the pinch. This perfect storm means that efficiency and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) are even more firmly in the spotlight.

What exactly is Industry 4.0 and how can it help manufacturers?

Industry 4.0 is still evolving but in practical terms, it is a variety of means by which manufacturers are integrating new technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and analytics, and AI and machine learning into their production facilities and throughout their operations. Industry 4.0 technologies allow your production lines, business processes, and departments to communicate regardless of location, time zone, platform, or any other factor.

Industry 4.0 is about connecting digital systems together to make manufacturing businesses more productive, competitive and resilient. However, due to the complexities of the manufacturing process it can be very difficult and costly to find a system that delivers complete integration.

FourJaw, the company behind an affordable and accessible plug & play machine monitoring solution believes that one of the first steps on this journey is for businesses to look at the resources they already have at their disposal and ask themselves whether those resources are being used in the most efficient ways.

Most of the manufacturing businesses we speak to estimate machine utilisation at between 50% and 60%. However, after implementing ‘plug and play’ manufacturing analytics software, the data shows that actual utilisation rates are, on average, between 20% and 30%.

For a lot of businesses, the first instinct is to invest in new equipment to help increase efficiency. In many cases, with the right information at their fingertips, those businesses can significantly improve OEE without having to invest in new kit, simply by tapping into the capacity in their existing machinery.

Gaining a clear understanding of the whole production picture helps to ensure that all resources – machinery, staff skills, energy, and time – are used efficiently and cost-effectively. Industry 4.0 is complex, but machine monitoring needn’t be, and gaining a picture of how your site is performing is a vital first step in achieving those all-important efficiency gains.

Read more about what Industry 4.0 is by downloading FourJaw’s free ‘No Bull Industry 4.0’ guide.