Most Manufacturers Don’t Understand Digital Systems

Take the model-based enterprise (MBE). For most manufacturers this term meaningless word salad. An independent study commissioned by manufacturing software provider iBase-t surveyed more than 100 discrete manufacturers. The results found that 60% of respondents do not have a clear understanding of the model-based enterprise (MBE), which employs CAD systems, product lifecycle management (PLM) systems and manufacturing execution systems (MES) to help manufacturers fully digitize their operations. What’s more, 67% of manufacturers say that less than half of their operations are digital.

Some additional key findings from the survey revealed that:

We caught up with Naveen Poonian, CEO of manufacturing software company  iBase-t, to get his view on the progress manufacturers are likely to make in the coming year. 

Do you see more manufacturers moving to model-based manufacturing this year?

Naveen Poonian: Model-based is huge in our industry because manufacturers are designing complex products. People design things and throw them into manufacturing and there are design gaps. A wide range of changes end up happening. You really must have the manufacturing integrated into the design. Everyone is working off different systems. You have to work with one instance of the truth. How do you take a model or design and make sure everything that needs to go into it is accurate. If there is no integration between design and manufacturing, you design the product and you end up with all these design gaps.

How do you avoid these design gaps?

Naveen Poonian: You move to a 100% digital twin. In our work of complex discrete manufacturing, you fully engineer it up front. You design a product though manufacturing and that gets more and more efficient. You have a product that costs $100 million to produce. You look for ways to produce it for $50 million. The digital twin is a big help, but you have to turn it into a digital thread that ties design to manufacturing. That the model-based enterprise. You have to connect to everyone through an ERP system. That connects the dots and democratizes the data.

How will digital transformation pave the way to sustainable manufacturing?

Naveen Poonian: If you’re building a satellite or a rocket, you’ll have a lot of rework errors if you don’t streamline the process. You’ll use more products and raw goods, and the carbon footprint will be full of waste. A lot of manufacturers try to manage it on paper. One of our customers had so much paper it was a fire danger. You have to streamline it digitally to reduce the errors and issues. Look at the cost of warranty work to see if the product is not right. Quality issues can increase the carbon footprint. A lot of companies are moving toward sustainability. It’s a compelling trend.

Will inflation prompt manufacturers to focus more on visibility for better forecasting?

Naveen Poonian: Inflation can dramatically increase manufacturing costs. The reshoring of manufacturing and supply chain disruptions increase costs. Products become more expensive. You have to find ways to reduce that cost with the resources you have. Look at how you can manufacture with less. You use digital technology to do that. When there is a lot of money coming in, things are unseen. When the tide goes down, you start to see the rocks and sticks.

Digital solutions include streamlining workflows, getting the data on how you’re performing, and visibility into what is working and what isn’t working. You troubleshoot and resolve issues quickly. Is the problem a machine or the labor or receiving the raw materials late? It’s about removing constraints and creating a predictable workflow. It’s about a business transformation with benefits. A lot of people are moving more efficiently since COVID.

What steps do manufacturers need to take to move to digitalization?

Naveen Poonian: It’s both communication and integration. There is some level of translation. We can build an MES, but how do we communicate? SAP has certain considerations, and our MES has certain considerations. You don’t want soft communication because there are gaps. You might miss some things in integration.

You have to get the data and push it back to design. If the fan keeps chipping, you connect MRO to the design and improve it. Th’s the holy grail, it takes work, but the technology is there. If the product doesn’t perform right, you capture the flaws in the design.

Data is the challenge. If you don’t know what is happening in manufacturing, you may find that the product comes back because it failed in the field. Digitalization catches these problems and adds value to the process.