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When Kimberley Hagerty became lean transformation manager at Pratt & Whitney’s Hot Section Module Center, she quickly realized that the company, while flush with the most advanced technology needed to make “the world’s most advanced jet propulsion system in the world,” lacked the “most advanced processes and systems that supported the manufacturing of that technology,” she told people attending The Digital Transformation, a smart manufacturing seminar SME held here recently.

Companies strategically adopt cutting-edge solutions to help solidify their position within a competitive marketplace. Years ago, blue light 3D scanning technology was implemented to help product development and alleviate coordinate measuring machine (CMM) bottlenecks.

It’s probably not a bad idea for smaller and mid-sized manufacturers (SMMs) to adopt an “us against them” attitude as they become aware of the prevalence of cyber-attacks in the digital age of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and Industry 4.0.

On June 22-23, SME hosted a Smart Manufacturing Working Group meeting at Texas A&M University (College Station, TX) followed by an international workshop on Smart Manufacturing for the Factory of the Future.

Manufacturers are facing shrinking product lifecycles with frequently changing customer demands. As a result, they need agile production and flexible factory layouts that can easily be modified whenever needed.

As with any digital transformation process, the devil is in the details, and there are many potential pitfalls that can derail projects.

There is no shortage of competition in a global market. As a manufacturer trying to get ahead of the pack, automation can help with problems like a limited skilled labor force, quality control issues and suboptimal throughput. But the high initial cost and extended implementation time can be deterrents.

Cyber criminals are increasingly setting their sights on today’s digitized manufacturing industry as an entry point into government and commercial supply chains.

Artificial Intelligence is weaved in with capacity management, cybersecurity, data science, diagnostics, ERP-PLM integration, location analysis, machine learning, predictive maintenance, process optimization, situational awareness and supply chain management.

Smart sensors, already an integral feature of many manufacturing plants that are integrating IT and OT, are now making their way into the supply chain where they monitor reliability and shipping conditions, improve predictive maintenance and make just-in-time delivery (the innovation from the 1980s) easier.