The latest OEE figures flash up as a brilliant blue 3D bar graph next to the line. You ponder the 2% efficiency dip during the night shift with the engineering team and draw an arrow where you believe the bottleneck lies.
It could be any team meeting at any site. Except here there were no marker pens, whiteboard and you marked the countermeasure from the comfort of the couch in your own front room.
Welcome to the factory of the future where augmented reality headsets (see box) fuse the virtual and real world to stunning effect for UK manufacturers, Pip Fox, industry lead for manufacturing at Mircrosoft told a WM roundtable on adopting new technology in factories.
“The benefits could be huge,” Fox told assembled site managers. “Think of a training situation, for example. You could have experienced engineers who have taken soft retirement at home seeing on a screen what the apprentice with a headset is encountering live on the shopfloor. The engineer can draw an arrow that will appear as a 3D arrow in front of the apprentice and point to the thing they have to change.”
That's only the beginning, Fox stressed. Augmented reality could usher in vivid situational safety training where computer generated hazards like overladen forklifts are fused with an operator's actual lineside view. And new product designs beamed before you as holograms in scenes that will make 3D CAD look like something from the stoneage.
> Want to join us at the next Technology in Manufacturing roundtable and see the kit in action at Arla Foods space age dairy? Email max.gosney@markallengroup.com
The prospect drew a collective gasp from factory leaders. But it was hard to tell whether this was awe or sheer disbelief about how far off augmented reality seems from current struggles with more prosaic technology. “We love change,” said Peter Bennet, MD of component manufacturer Grovely Precision Engineering . “But computers and software seems to change too fast. What we use to gather the data becomes obsolete within 18 months. You find yourself thinking: ‘but I like running Windows 98- it works but I can’t do it anymore’."
Retro was proving to be a popular rallying cry. “We have fairly complex machine that are made to order so every single one has a different bill of materials,” added Anthony Lawler, MD at laboratory instrumentation manufacturer, HTZ. “At the moment we run our CRM [customer relationship management] system on Lotus notes 4.51 [released in the mid 1990s].”
PCs pre-eminent on the factory floor
These were not lone voices. More than 92% of manufacturers said PCs are the pre-eminent shopfloor technology in a Works Management Technology in UK Manufacturing survey ahead of the roundtable debate (see pxx). Just 13% of site’s employ tablets and 32% smartphones in production areas so quintissentially 1990s that you half expect to see the shift turn up wearing shell suits.
“It’s down to familiarity,” explained Rob Love, site leader at sensor manufacturer City Technology on the hegnmony of PCs. “And it’s the wrong thing to do. You have situations where the software is fine but the PC won’t run it anymore. We have an expensive laser driven system that keeps falling over because the PC won’t run the software.”
Nostalgia is not a known factory KPI and manufacturers like City will of course upgrade. But only when they see a clear business case for doing so stressed Love. “It’s the ‘what’s in it for me?’ question that’s familiar with any lean change progamme,” he explained. Many site teams are still seeking the answer, it appears. More than 90% of manufacturing leaders agreed that the adoption of new technology was fundamental to staying globally competitive in WM’s research. Yet 36% said insufficient understanding of key IT benefits was holding them back.
And in this factory leaders are not alone stressed Fox of Microsoft. “We work with the utility, finance and retail industries and everyone has their own problems, businesses are struggling to justify the cost of changes. However, everybody sees the future in extracting insight from data and getting computers to work better for you. I think you need to take a leap of faith from where you are now to where you need to be.”
Industry unclear of technology benefits
Yet, it’s unsurprising that logic-loving engineers have so many questions about the length and depth of the gap before they make the jump. “Tell us why we should use the cloud?,” challenged Chris Walker, CEO of Diamond Hard Surfaces. “As far as I can see it’s just a great word for another type of server that exists somewhere off my premises.”
Correct replied Fox of Microsoft. “The cloud, as you say, is just servers but kept in our data centre rather than yours. We think we’re better at securing and running those servers than you are. Why on earth as a manufacturer would you want to be focussing on maintaining hardware servers?”
Cue some stroking of chins among site leaders and an action point to at least challenge some sacred cows circulating in their IT departments (more than 91% of factories use their own servers according to WM's research). The exchange highlighted the power of better dialogue between IT vendors and manufacturing users.
It’s good to talk whether on a Skype, smartphone or face-to-face. In fact more than 31% of site managers said clearer communication of technology benefits from suppliers was instrumental in facilitating upgrades. Enhanced capital investment incentives (36%) were another key enabler alongside government partnerships with industry to prove technological buzzwords like Industry 4.0 or The Internet of Things (31%).
The rise of the smart factory from Stuttgart to Seoul
In that, ministers could take a crash course from their German contemporaries who set out a national hi-tech strategy to become a global leader in new industrial technologies way back in 2006. And the Germans don't have a free run on the age of the Internet of Things in industry. South Korea has launched a £200 billion a year state backed Manufacturing 3.0 initiative that will see 10,000 smart factories built by 2020 and a push to actively spread technologies to SME operators with the highest GDP growth potential.
Those lost at the mention of the term smart factory or Internet of Things, take note. Picture a factory packed with sensors: measuring each step of the production process and communicating with factory plant, customers and suppliers live via the internet to enhance efficiency, quality and add value of the final product.
Fox said: “By Internet of Things or the smart factory we mean collecting information from something and bringing it together with information from something else and using that data in a more intelligent way.” For example, a manufacturer monitoring the frequency of machine bearings and triggering maintenance activity or replacement after a change in tone indicates wear.
And in a smart factory, It won’t just be the machinery that is being monitored. Microsoft is piloting wrist bands which can track employee heart rates, exposure to UV levels even mood. The sensor bands could help develop tailored occuptational health strategies and monitor lone workers said Fox. But they are likely to provoke some volitile discussion with unions ahead of any implementation.
We don’t mind more data reflected Neal Whitefield, UK plant director at Brita. So long as there’s a simple way to extract the value from it, he stressed. “There’s a difference between buying capital equipment to make a new product which is fairly easy to justify and investments for turning data into something useful,” said Whitefield. “We’re collecting information for OEE and put it on an Excel spreadsheet for each shift but nothing quite joins together correctly. It’s very difficult to connect things together on a single piece of software.”
Save our whiteboards
Sometimes the old fashioned ways work best, he added. “We used to have our OEE figure in a spreadsheet for everybody to see but nobody saw it because it was on a computer in a manufacturing area and everyone ignored it. But when we changed it to a whiteboard system and everybody had to write their figure up with a green magnet or red magnet next to it then that brought the biggest jump in productivity.”
It’s why someone should slap a preservation order on the whiteboard amid all the talk of the smart factory according to site managers. “We’ve got hundreds of databases in one dairy,” said Alan Causon engineering manager at Arla Foods £300m greenfield plant near Aylsebury. “But we use power of the pen, everything written down by operators at the end of a shift because it is really powerful.”
Causon's Arla site provides an intriguing prototype for the uniquely British take on the smart factory. PLCs are programmable from the head engineer’s smartphone on one hand, yet team debriefs take place around laminated boards on the other. “You can’t forget when you’re trying to automate that there’s a human side to it,” concurred Whitefield.
A mantra enshrined in WM survey finding that 53% of UK manufacturers believe more effective people management will harness more sweeping productivity gains than the latest technology.
And that's well and good for today’s largely 40 and 50-something site management teams. But their successors- more familiar with Flickr than flipboards- are sure to see things differently. “At Rolls-Royce we have lots of experienced engineers who are outstanding at fine-tuning our processes.” said Cath Jude contractor of Rolls Royce. “But the younger people who come through are asking the more profound question about why we use those practices and processes in the first place, Why do we operate, communicate and collaborate in that way?”
So our challenge is a dual one. Embrace 21st century technology which promises productivity gains of upto 30% according to operators like Siemens. But also to bring in the people born in that century to best harness it.
Do both and we may just hit upon a fascinating USP. Germany and South Korea may have the edge in pioneering the tech laden smart factory but few can bring the best out of the people within it like enlightened UK management teams.
Smart plant and smart people in equilibrium: the UK manufacturing way. Deliver that and no piece of automation- no matter how artiificially intelligent- can hope to match our productivity enhancing pace.
Fox concluded: “The way you are going to innovate your processes is through your people. The machine learning is about number crunching and comparing trends. But it’s the human mind that has thoses flashes of inspiration: standing on the left, not the right to gain an edge. If you’re innovating, looking for ways to improve and involving your people in the process then that’s where manufacturing keep the edge.”
Signpost: still running off an antiquated PC or pioneering IOT tech? What’s your view on embracing new technology? Email mgosney@findlay.co.uk
Five things we learned at the Technology in Manufacturing roundtable
- 1.It’s good to talk: bringing IT experts together with manufacturers operators is a great way to air some technology hang ups and explore new opportunities. Top vents from site managers included the dizzying speed of software upgrades and confusion over some of the supposed benefits of v2.0. Terminology was another sore point with buzzwords like the cloud and Internet of Things causing much consternation. Keep it simple said site managers.
- 2.We’re logical not luddites: Factory bias towards ageing PCs is driven by laissez faire rather than laggard tendencies claimed assembled manufacturers. However there was an acceptance that a sector facing intense global competition can’t afford to lose ground with aniquated IT. The crux to bringing in new kit, said managers, was finding compelling evidence on operational advantages and paybacks. Should technology suppliers address this then IT investment capital will begin to flow.
- Help us deal with all the data: manufacturing sites generate a wealth of data from sales orders on back office PCs to production figures on factory floor whiteboards. The proliferation of different data streams can create confusion and departmental silos said site leaders. They praised software that unites datasets with Sharepoint praised. Sites want a one-stop-shop that makes it easy for employee’s to access data and exchange ideas on enhancing it.
- 4.A catapult to fire us into the Internet of Things: site leaders praised the catapult centres introduced by the Coalition to unite government, universities and industry in harnessing key technology growth areas like automation and composites. The case was made for an addition: a centre specifically targeting Industry 4.0/The Internet of Things in industry. The catapult could be a hub for best practice and help spread early adoption through the UK supply chain, manufacturers said.
- 5.Don’t forget the human touch: factory floor employees get a buzz from picking up a pen and putting a figure on a board said site managers. And that should not be forgotten in the hype over new technology. The trend may shift as generation X arrives in the factory, the debate heard. But even then, production and lean manufacturing techniques demand software that is visual and operators can easily engage with. Few will be throwing the whiteboard out just yet.
Seeing is believing: how augmented reality could change your factory forever
The headsets might look like something straight out out of sci-fi classic, The Lawnmower Man. However, augmented reality should not be confused with the virtual reality technology celebrated in the movie and available since the late 90s.
In virtual reality, you are totally immersed in a 3D computer-generated world. AR is more of a middle fround: you see the normal world around you but it is overlayed with 3D animations and graphics. The operator is half in the this world and half in another. Which sounds like a one or two shopfloor operators you might know. Yet the technology has some fascinating applications on site.
Training is one. Employees could walk around the site wearing headsets, seeing an actual view but supplemented with artificial 3D animated hazards. Dangers like unguarded machinery for example or pedestrians not following walkways as holograms. It will look real enough to the worker and enhance their ability to spot the hazard earlier when it actually happens.
Microsoft has launched its Hololens AR set in the US with an entry price of $3,000. Hololens will allow a user to mark symbols on a touchscreen that then appear as 3D symbols in the eyeline of a colleague wearing a headset. An arrow- for example- to mark where a replacement part might fit on a particular machine. The kit could not only transform in house training but product training offered by manufacturers to supply chain customers. Lawler of HTZ remarked: “We have a lot of machines in places like Malawi and Pakistan and training for people from distributors is a big problem. The ability to offer them realistic 3D training remotely sounds incredibly useful.”
Quotes of the day:
IT vendor
“It’s about finding those shining stars within your organisation who are ready to embrace new technology and make it a reality.” Msoft sales lady
“Adopting new technology is often about learning by doing. You fall in love with it because you understand it and how it can add value.” Jess Love
“In a smary factory humans will move into safer roles away from the things that could hurt them. We talk about artificial intelligence and machine learning but the thing we will still need is human knowledge.” Pip Fox
“My daughter was really impressed by hololens, our augmented reality product. Then she asked: ‘can you feel the 3D images too?’. When |I said: ‘not yet’, she said ‘oh’ and that just shows how the next geenration will think differently.” Matt
Manufacturers
“Young people come in having learnt about rapid protoyping and 3D printing and they wonder why lathes aren’t 3D printed,” Chris Walker, CEO, Diamond Hard Surfaces
“I’m not so concerend where we store data, it’s about how we get it out and use it more effectively.” Neal Whitefield, UK plant director, Brita
“The data capture on the whitebaord is absoltely essential to us. It’s the thing that drives engagement witht he shopfloor.” Rob Love, site leader, City Technnology
“Currently we have to ship an engine at huge cost to a customer to trian them on maintenance. The aspect of training remotely through augmented reality is hugely beneficial.” Cath
‘Generally, we are still working in the last century’
Works Management survey almost 200 site leaders on the current IT challenges and future opportunites for implementing new technology in the factory. Here’s what you had to say:
92% using PCs on the shopfloor [pic of person by PC}
13% using tablet based analytics [pic of hands on tablet]
91% believe adopting latest tech is key to staying competitive [?]
49% rate themselves as cautious followers of new technology. Once evidence of the benefits becomes clear, they will adopt [pic of manager stroking hin?]
22% say keeping ageing IT going is their biggest headache [pic of manager banging computer?]
82% believe better insight into manufacturing data could drive an improvement to their product [binary code pic]
65% say investment capital is the biggest barrier to adoption [stack of money pic]
36% say lack of understanding of IT benefits deters reinvestment [pic of manager with ? over head]
91% store data on their own servers rather than the cloud [pic of storm cloud/lightning bolt]
45% shunning cloud services because of security fears [padlock pic?]
53% believe effective people management has the biggest potential for productivity gains [manager with hand on colleague’s shoulder pic]
40% say new tech will be the dominant force in delivering productivity improvements
36% want capital investments breaks to boost technology adoption
31% belive better education from IT suppliers will drive adoption
Survey views from technophiles: [pic od manager with smartphone, AR, lots of tech]
“Efficiency and technology improvement are two sides of the same coin. It’s essential.”
“If we do not keep up to date with technology, we will be left behind.”
“I’ve observed first hand the advantages of computer, CNC and office management systems over 40 years in engineering. Failure to keep up with your competition is an extinvtion event.”
“If we are to be competitive in the global market then we must adopt the latets technology for efficiency and effectiveness.”
“In our industry unit cost is king. Whatever provides us with an edge, we need.”
“Technology always wins.”
“Since the dawn of time, societies have gained an advantage through the early adoption of new technologies. From the ancient Egyptians to our own industrial revolution.”
“Technology and automation reduce operating costs and improve productivity. This is the only way to compete with low cost economies.”
Survey views from Technophobes [traditional manager with pen ann paper?]
“Technology is often deployed without clear added value to the operators or the process. It is often driven by IT or the latest and greatest from suppliers.”
“Technology is only one of the tools that enables world-class performance. People’s skills and knowledge are more important.”
“Appropriate knowledge is important, not the latest.”
“Generally in our industry we are still working in the last century.”
“I think we are 10-15 years behind the curve on IT utilisation.”
“I need to see a short term return.”
“Technology is overhyped. Please note this is not a Luddite view: I strongly support implementing effective technology. But I believe IT is not reliable enough and is almost always an inhibitor of output.”
“There’s a lack of clear ROI and added value opportunities around new tech.”
“We struggle with staff whose training was 40 odd years ago and don’t believe there’s a better way.”
Survey digest:
Marmite might as well have been a partner in our Technology in Manufacturing survey. For on all things tech, it seems site managers either love it or hate it. The survey polarised debate with nearly 200 responses and reams and reams of pro or anti comments filling up the survey appendices. The two camps might not agree on the merits of new tech but the strength of feeling shown indicates the crucial importance of the topic to the manufacturing industry as a whole.
Even the most technophobic will accept the folly of ignoring IT advances completely as we look to keep pace with the rest of the world. Evidenced by the nine in ten who rated tech as core to our competitive future. The crux is sifting the genuine technology game changers from the frivolous factory gadgets. And that’s going to take closer and more collaborative links with suppliers. Around 36% said a lack of understanding of the benefits of IT held them back on replacing it. Site managers must enter those conversations with open minds and avoid dismissing advances with the old chestnut that ‘we’ve always done it that way’. And in return, IT vendors must cleanse themselves of buzzwords. Servitisation, datafication? Time for some realisation that engineers like to keep it simple, stupid.
Signpost: Technophile or technophobe? Have your say at max.gosney@markallengroup.com
