How Edge Computing Can Improve Production Efficiency in Manufacturing

Janifha Evangeline

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Manufacturing is entering a new era as new automation technologies promise to create intelligent factories and warehouses that continuously gather and share vast amounts of data through connected devices and distributed infrastructure. This fourth industrial revolution is ushering in a new era of manufacturing. It's a game-changer for firms that depend on data for quick decision-making.

Automation data can be examined and used to boost production efficiency, maintain systems, and address issues that arise on the factory floor in real time. For instance, sophisticated sensors can enhance quality control and oversee maintenance. Industrial robots have the ability to work independently and interact with manufacturing processes. Devices that use augmented or virtual reality can enhance industrial worker safety and training.

Today's manufacturing landscape is changing as a result of implementing edge computing. In centralised networks, the addition of the Internet of Things (IoT) and other endpoint devices results in the generation of enormous amounts of data, which results in high latency, bandwidth congestion, and data bottlenecks. What's the result of these most recent changes? For companies that make products, pushing more computer operations to a network's edge would boost speed and operational effectiveness and provide the factory floor additional agility.

The whole manufacturing value chain is changing due to competitive pressures and revolutionary changes in how businesses manufacture their products. The next generation of technologies and business practises, known as Industry 4.0, will transform how people interact with computers on factory floors. The distinction between physical and digital manufacturing is being rapidly eroded by the combination of autonomous vehicles, IoT devices, and intelligent machinery.

Companies that formerly employed a combination of manual and compartmentalised systems now use cutting-edge robotics, AI, electronic wearables, and computer vision devices to develop, build, and test items from conception to delivery. Edge computing plays a complementary role in connecting, analysing, and sharing data from endpoint devices and improving backroom operations, such as inventory management and predictive maintenance, as manufacturing becomes more digitalized. Let us look the various ways that Edge computing is being leveraged by manufacturers in increasing production efficiency and transforming the factory floor.

Reducing unplanned equipment downtime

Unplanned equipment downtime has an impact on both revenues and productivity. For instance, downtime expenses and productivity losses in the automobile sector can vary from $22,000 to

$50,000 per minute. To forecast maintenance requirements, many firms still use a combination of manufacturer guidelines, visual examinations, and databases with current and historical repair information. Problems arise when assets are located in remote areas, manual inspections are too challenging (turbine blades, offshore oil platforms, etc.), or usage goes beyond accepted norms.

The Coca-Cola Company, eBay, Cisco, and Intel are just a few businesses making investments in edge computing to address issues or improve business processes.

Enhancing connectivity on the factory floor

The interaction between machinery, IoT devices, robots, and autonomous vehicles will change much more in future smart factories. By enhancing connectivity on the factory floor, the fifth generation of mobile networking technology (5G) will further enhance industrial operations. Speed is already a major advantage of 5G over 4G, which enhances data sharing and connectivity with many sensors and other devices at once.

Currently, a single sensor can transmit an average of 43,200 signals in a 24-hour period. Factories with hundreds or thousands of sensors simultaneously sending data can overload cloud networks. In contrast, a robust 5G network will handle increased data transmission while maintaining low latency levels. Integrating 5G to the factory floor offers a highly connected, agile environment to enhance product assembly performance.

Qualitative enhancements to optimise processes and cut expenses

Another piece of technology that helps keep businesses very competitive is advanced analytics software. To increase efficiency across manufacturing value chain, it may simultaneously collect multiple data sets and historical data. Advanced analytics in a smart industrial setting focuses on qualitative enhancements to optimise processes and cut expenses. For instance, many businesses experience persistent issues with defects, scrap, and rework issues, which negatively affects customer satisfaction and may lead to product recalls.

In a production environment that is changing, visual inspections and outdated software models are frequently insufficient to find possible qualitative problems. In contrast, advanced analytics-based intelligent software continuously updates data and monitors evolving trends to spot potential abnormalities or quality problems. It does this through the use of complex algorithms and simulation programmes.

A more recent development in Industry 4.0 is digital twinning, which duplicates a physical object into a developing digital version. A digital-twin concept combines actual assets with a virtual setting to provide a fresh method for obtaining and sharing real-time information. For instance, engineers at Boeing can simulate actual weather and flying circumstances on a digital twin of an aircraft. Predictive analytics are then provided through simulation tools and three-dimensional animation to stop manufacturing issues before they start.

Prior attempts to use digital-twin systems were constrained by available bandwidth, storage costs, and processing power. These barriers are no longer there because to the use of edge computing in conjunction with sensors and endpoint devices like IoT.

As you can see, recreating tomorrow's production facilities will rely heavily on modern robotics. Because earlier generations of wireless networks can't maintain the speed needed to transfer programming instructions, many industrial robots now use a wired system to operate. Robots of the upcoming generation will have better vision, quicker movement, more adaptability, and more intelligence to act on their own. Robots, for instance, might carry out duties and make decisions in the present without human guidance if they were programmed with information about every step of the manufacturing process and connected to AI-based programming. Many industry observers predict a period when fully automated production processes, known as "lights out" manufacturing, will become the new standard for factory floors as robot prices fall and their capabilities rise.