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In today’s complex-manufacturing competitive landscape there’s no room to make critical mistakes. Following over a decade of close collaborations with top discrete manufacturing players, we’ve come to know and learn to spot some of the most widespread mistakes. This article looks at the common pitfalls and examines top manufacturers’ strategies to avoid them.

With a rising skills gap and an emphasis on attending university over learning a trade, the manufacturing labor shortage is not a new problem. However, it is one that the pandemic has supercharged. Post-covid workers are looking for flexibility in where and when they work and higher pays – something at odds with today’s manufacturing landscape that requires physical in-person shift work and the need to meet tight deadlines.
Supply chain issues are also compounding the productivity issues stemming from labor shortages. Suppliers are facing the same labor shortages as manufacturers. Given the aerospace industry relies on long and complex supply chains, it only takes a short delay to create significant ripple effects, slowing down production.

Manufacturers in every field are always busy looking for ways to improve their business operations and scale up their throughput – it’s an endless challenge.
In order to achieve this goal, they must examine each step of their current workflow and form dedicated optimization strategies. This is the crucial procedure of process optimization in manufacturing, a never-ending journey that should be reviewed time and again, and in which continuous improvement is measured in micro-steps. The road towards the ultimate goal of improving the company’s bottom line is a long one indeed.

When the word ‘AI’, enters the discussion things become interesting. “Oh, we already use AI,” people say to me.

I’m always happy to indulge in conversations about AI use cases, so I immediately ask if they would be OK with telling me a little about their system, and how exactly it’s being used.

Then, as the discussion continues, it becomes clear that they were actually referring to BI, reports and dashboards and not AI in the deep sense that I was.
Don’t confuse AI with data analysis and dashboards

Traditional nesting software has reached the limits of the efficiencies it can deliver at the product level. Manufacturers focused on continuous improvement of their production processes are now turning to more accurate metrics and a holistic approach to reduce additional waste in the nesting and cutting process.

Currently, manufacturing processes use roughly one-third of the world’s energy, and these numbers are only expected to rise.
When it comes to composites, the situation is complex. Composites manufacturers are used to having their products evaluated based on quality, performance, pricing, etc.; now, customers and other supply chain players are pushing towards an additional parameter: the sustainability of their manufacturing operations.

Under pressure from global material and workforce shortages, the rising prices of raw materials, and the growth in demand, Aerospace composites factories today acknowledge the need for digital acceleration. They have started to adopt new smart-factory technologies in order to become more agile and effective, increase profitability, boost productivity and cut costs.
What do hyper automation and industry 4.0 manufacturing optimization implementation look like? This article reveals the step-by-step journey of an Aerospace composites manufacturer as it leveraged IIoT and AI to cut costs and boost profitability.

While the decision to implement an IIoT / connected factory / Industry 4.0 solution is a no brainer, choosing and onboarding the right IIoT provider and the right solution remains a big challenge.

There’s no better time than now to put together a digital transformation plan and start looking for the right supplier.

While the decision to implement an IIoT / connected factory / Industry 4.0 (or alike) solution is a no brainer, choosing and onboarding the right IIoT provider and the right solution remains a big challenge.

Lean manufacturing is as relevant today as it ever was, but it is evolving. Meanwhile, digitalization is one of the most talked about trends in modern manufacturing, but in its goals – minimizing waste and maximizing productivity – it could be said to be an extension of Lean. In fact, at Plataine, we think that digitalizing your production line is only likely to be successful if all production line operators and managers think in terms of the Lean goals of waste minimization and productivity maximization. Before considering deploying a digital manufacturing solution, it’s vital to plan in advance. While the best solutions can be deployed with zero downtime, the process will still incur a significant cost both financially and in terms of training staff to use the new system. To lay the groundwork, you need to accurately calculate the ROI of your investment, and ensure that all stakeholders have bought into the concept. With full internal buy-in, the financial benefits are significant.

So how does it help my bottom line?

The number of elements on a factory floor that might cause a particular efficiency or quality problem make it nearly impossible to pick out a single tool, process or condition as the culprit.

Due to supply chain disruptions (post-Covid), factories experience material shortage while logistics and procurement managers testify that material orders that used to be fulfilled in weeks now take months.

Many manufacturers are turning to Industry 4.0 software with AI-based algorithms, that’s tailor-made for aerospace composites, in order to deal with specific challenges.

Successfully reaching the Factory of the Future level with Industry 4.0 technologies, requires software to solve specific challenges that are part of the day to day work life in the Aerospace composites industry.
Here are the 6 key questions aerospace composites manufacturers should ask when selecting the optimal solution.

At Plataine, we’ve got a simple view on AI-based optimization solutions: they bring radical benefits to manufacturers. Of course, we’re a provider of such AI solutions, so you could be forgiven for thinking, “Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they.” That’s why we’ve introduced a free trial package for our Time Sensitive Material (TSM) Manager solution, allowing you to see for yourself how easily you can setup and start using our TSM solution.
We’ve taken the big step to develop an easy-to-use application for time sensitive material management, plus offering a free “test drive”. For customers that take up the offer, it’s a no-strings way of actually experiencing all the benefits of our solution. We are consistently finding that, once customers have tried Plataine, they don’t go back.

The Light & Strong production team was constantly searching for new levers of process automation in order to reduce material waste, improve quality control, and offer real-time visibility across production lines so issues could be tackled before they arose.
Due to the global labor shortage, the company was keen to automate any processes that could be automated to free up factory staff for higher value tasks.

During this time, the company’s management decided to further explore AI-based IIoT technologies and the implementation of advanced Industry 4.0 layers on top of its MES solution.
Read the blog to find out more.