I just got back from THE BIG M Manufacturing Convergence conference in Detroit’s Cobo Center. Hosted by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the event brings thought leaders in manufacturing from across North America under one roof. Needless to say, I saw some interesting things.
The big buzz was around the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine communication. Here's how IoT in the factory works. For example, say an electric motor overheats. This motor would send a signal through the cloud from an app to alert maintenance personnel that it’s running hot. This signal could also be sent to the motor’s manufacturer who may be monitoring similar units across a wide range of industries in real time.
With this signal, the manufacturer could send warnings or messages to maintenance personnel to change something, like voltage regulation, the motor’s operating speed or to shorten maintenance intervals.
Taken to its logical conclusion, we could enter a world where if you buy an electric motor, you’re no longer buying just a motive power unit, but a motor power service that includes the ability for the manufacturer to real-time monitor the health of the equipment, suggesting when maintenance should happen and interactively recommending how to best use the unit.
The use of the cloud and the ability to aggregate and analyze all of this information from multiple sources could change the nature of manufacturing. The expertise that runs the typical plant floor might become decentralized, put up into the cloud and spread amongst the vendors of the hundreds of thousands of sub-assemblies and critical components that go into making a plant operation.
Will it reach a point where a Cannon plug sends information back about the current flow going through an individual pin or contact? Maybe. In that case the design process may become decentralized to the point where perhaps we’ll iteratively design things, then have information flow back in real time to change the design as it's used in the field. We might buy "upgrades" to a car for example, as real world data suggests a better engine design.
Will it happen tomorrow? No. But in the next five years? Certainly.
To learn more about the THE BIG M Manufacturing Convergence, visit bigmevent.com.