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The next ten years are expected to be crucial, with smart manufacturing trends progressing at a fast rate, reshaping, and supporting every aspect of industrial manufacturing. The collaboration of engineers and scientists will be a key aspect to enable our everyday life to be innovation-driven, and all sectors must be interconnected to respond quickly to fast and drastic changes in the shopfloor, from basic research to smart solutions.
TIMTOS organized the Future Manufacturing Forum to take a closer look at where we are and where we are going with smart manufacturing in four topic areas: Boosting global competitiveness through Machine Tool Industry green transformation, Virtual Twin Experiences Shaping Smart Manufacturing for Future, The trend of Digital Transformation in Manufacturing, and Power Supplies for Machine Tools and AMR Wireless Charging Solutions.
Aditya Ramkrishna, General Manager of Siemens Digital Industries Taiwan, talks about “Boosting global competitiveness through Machine Tool Industry green transformation.” He points out why smart-manufacturing is especially important to Taiwan companies. “The majority of the machines made in Taiwan are going to be sold to international buyers, such as Europe and America. Data helps to connect and make decisions; and almost every booth here speaks about ESG and this is where Siemens can help. Digital transformation has been a topic for a while and we are seeing the acceleration now. Siemens provides Xcelerator to bridge the gap, one of our customers here saves 15% of its cutting time, which is a remarkable progress.”
Mark Chang Sales Director of Dassault Systemes, highlights “Virtual Twin Experiences Shaping Smart Manufacturing for Future.” He says, “Sustainability is in our DNA ever since Dassault established; helping customers to reduce carbon emission with our tools is our major goal.” Chang shares that Dassault sees the trend of “Equipment-as-a-service” which indicates that Dassault is much more than an equipment provider but a customer-centered partner providing consistent services to help customer evolve.
Fu Jen Ho, Senior Consultant of Rockwell Automation discusses “The trend of Digital Transformation in Manufacturing.” Specializing in strategies for sustainable carbon-emission, Rockwell indicates that many manufacturers consider reducing carbon-emission with the angle “saving energy” and that angle only, yet, “Green” is not only about the manufacturing process, it should be considered from making orders, choosing material, etc. — that is to say the manufacturing chain would be examined. While Rockwell is working with their customers, they have found out that defining the carbon-emission and integrating information are the most difficult but the most valuable.
Anson Liu, Sales Manager of the Asian Region and Jeffrey Chen, Product Marketing Engineer/Delta, explores “Power Supplies for Machine Tools and AMR Wireless Charging Solutions.” Liu and Chen share Delta’s solutions for machine tools. Their products could easily adapt to severe environments, either in a very limited space, or in a wide range of temperatures. Covid pushed the trend of “no-man factory”; many manufacturers had to consider smart equipment under the situation.
The afternoon session ended with a panel discussion moderated by Ryan Tsai of EE Times Taiwan. Here is the question concerning early birds who invested in AI at a relatively early stage including the benefits they have gained, and challenges for the late-comers were asked.
Andrew Liu, Senior Data Scientist of NVIDIA, replies, “You can see the early birds have lots of benefits, especially the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. You can say they invest without hesitation, applying to defects-examination. Before using AI, they needed great numbers of human labor, after using AI, it is not only reducing labor accounts but also improving quality.
Rebecca Tseng, Digital Transformation Solutions Director of Far EasTone Telecommunications, answers, “For the manufacturers, they are always very sensitive on budget. That is why you want to clarify what exact problems you want to solve before making any investment.”
Susan Zhu, Chief Solution Consultant of Infor, states, “Advanced software is the one common thing you can see in all the smart factories. European and American customers are more open to new technology; they are putting almost everything on the cloud now.”
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