The manufacturer of technologies for industrial automation Omron met the press organizing a day of study and dialogue on issues related to the near future of the manufacturing sector.
The meeting was attended by company representatives, such as the Deputy General Manager Donato Candianothe System Integrator Manager Luca Fraticelli And Ivano AdjutoriEngineering & IT Manager of the “sister” company Omron Automotive Electronics Italy, together with partners such as Michael MerolaPresident of theAidamAnd Andrew del CoreSales Director Manufacturing and Logistics Italy of Nokia.
The day was held in the company’s Milan office, where there is also a Innovation Lab designed to offer customers and partners the opportunity to seeere and touch some of the most interesting solutions first-hand and innovative proposals from Omron.
In the Milan Lab there are three robotic cells with SCARA robots, supported by a mobile robot to simulate intralogistics tasks; this space was designed to offer customers the ability to create tests and proofs of feasibility which can then be implemented in production.
Innovation today
The day opened with a speech by Donato Candiano, who outlined the related difficulties to innovation in a particularly critical context like the current one, characterized by very high volatility, continuous crises and wide discontinuity.
According to Candiano, automation is on the verge of moving on to a new phase: we started with the replacement of man with machine and then moved on to collaboration, but the near future will be in the harmonization of the contribution of both actors.
This evolution also reverberates in the organization of the production lines; we have moved from single-product and single-flow to multi-product and multi-flow, an era which according to Omron is now about to end: for the company, the future lies in a cellular organisation, without strictly integrated lines, which can be reconfigured as needed in an “any product – any flow” approach.
Luca Fraticelli reiterated and elaborated on this concept: manufacturing has moved from a low mix/high volume approach to a completely opposite paradigm, characterized by high variability and lower volumes.
There flexibility is therefore a necessary factwhich however cannot be an alternative to the traditional priorities of quality and cost.
The contribution of the AI
To facilitate this transition, some significant trends that have emerged in recent years can be exploited: first of all, artificial intelligence has also matured a lot at the academic levelwith the development of new models and algorithms that improve the functioning in repetitive environments.
Another area in which AI is making great progress is that of predictive maintenanceable not only to identify the potential problem but also to suggest the possible corrective action.
It goes then rethought the position of the human employee, who has to move away from the machines and look at the data; therefore, new skills and dedicated training are needed for the operators.
Artificial intelligence is also increasingly moving from data centers to the edge, not only on the edge of the machine, but also and above all at the Edge Cloud level; to integrate all these systems is needed a capable, reliable and flexible infrastructure.
The new model provides for a much more flexible and resilient factory structure, capable of adapt quickly and relatively painless to change, a basic requirement of this era. It is an open challenge and we are in a moment of transition, but the pressures are very strong and a path will emerge.
Andrea del Core focused his speech on the challenges and opportunities of the digital transition: the industry has so far lagged behind in this evolution due to the structural difficulties of a predominantly “physical” environment such as industry, but today the technologies are mature and the space to innovate has grown.
Industries are starting to invest significantly in IIOT, and networking technologies (such as industrial 5G) represent the main enabling factor: technological innovation requires much higher quantities of data, current solutions are not economically and energetically sustainable.
A fundamental pillar of innovation is also security: the digital surface of the company is increased, the architecture must anticipate and manage security issues.
Finally, it is essential to develop the Edge Cloud, which it is not an option but a necessary requirementfor latency and performance issues: according to del Core, 75% of the data needs to be worked on locally.
The customer has changed
Michele Merola, president of Aidam (Italian Association of Mechanotronic Automation) emphasized the main force that makes the change of approach in manufacturing necessary: customer needs have changedwhich first of all require customization.
This novelty has imposed a revolution in manufacturingfurther challenged by the “Amazon model”, with the habit of getting the ordered product at home in a few hours, which represents an almost insurmountable challenge for producers in terms of logistics and automation.
However, these changes require new figures; for this reason the Aidam has created a protocol for form the figure of the Mechatronicat the level of ITS (Higher Technical Institutes), collaborating in the definition of training courses for teachers and in the creation of teaching tools such as dedicated textbooks.
Finally, Ivano Adiutori has cited the example of the Omron Automotive Electronics plant of Frosinone, which produces relays for the automotive sector. Inside this factory are controllers based on AI in the critical processes of the production cycle.
The implementation has made it possible to reduce both variable costs, reducing waste, and fixed costs, allowing for optimization of the workforce. Also, the new organization has the risk that defective components are placed on the market has been eliminated.
