Transforming a factory into a smart factory is not a marketing quirk, but an opportunity that the Italian manufacturing market cannot afford to underestimate. Only by completing a digital transformation process can the Italian industrial sector confirm itself as the excellence of our country and continue to grow in an increasingly difficult global context.
Thanks to the technology and the approach that places the consumer’s needs at the basis of a company’s strategies, the smart product that comes out of the smart factory gains in duration, evolves in functionality, and can be adapted, even during construction, to customer needs.
The pillars of a digital transformation in manufacturing are essentially two: a cloud-based technological infrastructure and an application platform capable of transforming data into business value, as they say. That is, data that actively and immediately contributes to the growth of a company and its turnover.
In the projects that the company has already developed in Italy and around the world, the model provides for the availability of a cloud environment in which three fundamental elements reside. The servers, i.e. the machines dedicated to data processing, the storage for their archiving and the network through which the information travels. The infrastructure will be populated by application software and services and will be intimately connected with production machines, industrial systems, IoT devices, wherever they are.
As with all markets, even in Manufacturing data represent the raw material of a digital environment and are managed by integrated application platforms in which they are collected and, above all, processed to transform Big Data into Smart Data. Because the data generated by business applications grows exponentially and uncontrollably and it is essential to be able to filter and process the really useful data.
Google Cloud’s approach to the manufacturing market starts from these considerations.
A cloud offering that stands out
There has never been so much technology available for the digital transformation of companies. The offer is vast and you risk getting lost, which is why it is essential for a client company to identify the one that best meets your needs. The Google Cloud offer is distinguished by some peculiarities: in first place there are certainly the data analytics tools, which have always been an added value of Google services. Analytics are fundamental in understanding the needs and desires of users and consumers, the starting point from which to shape the offer, also in Manufacturing. With the support of Artificial Intelligence algorithms, data analytics services in the industrial market not only help to make good strategic decisions based on predictive analytics, but represent an outstanding support for production. Processing production data allows you to save costs, predict risks, monitor quality and generally optimize production itself. For example, Visual Inspection AI allows you to quickly build a model based on Artificial Intelligence capable of automatically detecting production defects, even without the need for particular technical skills.
Manufacturing Data Engine, on the other hand, is a solution that allows you to quickly connect to almost any machine. The collected data is translated into an understandable whole and sent to the cloud for processing, contextualization and archiving. It is possible to acquire data from any type of machine, from telemetry to images, via a private, secure and low-cost connection and the objective always remains the same: to activate real-time control over production anomalies and provide useful forecasts for optimizing the maintenance.
Google Cloud also brings a portfolio of Industry 4.0 projects that have already been successfully implemented with clients such as A2A and De Longhi in Italy. On the basis of the company’s needs, then, Google Cloud builds the specific project by enabling the most suitable application services and cloud infrastructures. And, although every company has its own needs, starting from a standard approach and solutions recognized by the market from which to derive a customized project is the best way to face a digital transformation. Application services which generally have the objective of optimizing all stages of production.
Particularly emblematic in this sense is the close technological partnership between Google and Renault. The automaker relied on Google Cloud to fully digitize its production facilities and optimize its supply chain. In particular, a “Supply Chain Twin” was created, ie a virtual representation of the entire communication cycle between Renault and its suppliers by integrating and processing data from various sources. Through the use of certain Artificial Intelligence algorithms it is possible to simulate the entire production cycle by predicting the times and methods of the flows. In this way, for example, the production of components is rationalised, avoiding blockages in the assembly line and reducing the so-called time-to-market. But that’s not all: thanks to a personalized dashboard that takes advantage of the integration between the various data sources via API, Renault is able to reduce emissions and optimize energy consumption, for example by monitoring the temperature in the vehicle production phase. Ultimately, the digitization of production plants and the entire supply chain today allows Renault to save on production costs, optimize its flow and also make it more sustainable.
In the case of Renault, for example, considerable energy savings have been achieved by monitoring the temperature in the vehicle production phase.
GE Appliance, part of Haier, on the other hand, is using the Intelligent Product Essential solution, based on AI, to improve the functionality of its home appliances by making them smart. What does it mean? For example, a Thanksgiving turkey will come out perfect from a GE Appliances oven, thanks to the processing of data generated by the sensors in the oven and their analysis using machine learning algorithms and the comparison with what is already present on the cloud. that is, the wealth of knowledge of the algorithm, always updated.
Another concrete example of the value of the Google Cloud offer took place at the last SPS Italia – a reference event for automation and intelligent industry – where the company, together with four strategic technological partners for the Manufacturing industry ( Aliz, BIP, Huware and Avvale) showed its full potential, presenting real cases of manufacturing companies that have become smart factories together with Google Cloud.
Integrate and connect for a successful cloud
Finally, Google Cloud guarantees maximum data security, its governance and full compliance with data processing regulations thanks to tools specifically designed for cloud protection of corporate information. And, again, Google Cloud doesn’t forget sustainability, working on data centers designed to guarantee the minimum impact on the environment in terms of CO2 emissions.
In the proposition for Manufacturing, Google Cloud does not forget logistics, product distribution and the interaction between the company and its suppliers. Also in this case, services that are based on application integration become fundamental. And even in this case the ability to share and process data in real time with the right tools is a differentiator. Because predicting in advance the critical issues in the distribution or in the supply chain allows to reduce the so-called time-to-market and avoid frustrations, delays and errors in the relationship with suppliers and, in cascade, with final consumers.