Smart Manufacturing
Data platforms for Factory 4.0 – make or buy? The foundation for smart production
This blog post examines the role of data platforms in Factory 4.0 and discusses the pros and cons of standard software and customised software. The quality and availability of process data have a crucial bearing on the way that modern digital technologies are implemented. Data platforms are able to collect and provide this data from different sources. Standard software is available and ready to use quickly, but it may not fulfil all the specific requirements. A customised cloud-native solution can be adapted as requirements change and offers a high level of investment security. It also enables several companies to work together on the data platform to create a greater level of added value.
Digital twins: a central pillar of Industry 4.0
In the so-called “Industry 4.0”, the productive times of machines and entire production lines are largely optimized in many industries. Therefore, the optimization of unproductive times, as machine downtime and reject production, are now being considered. Digital twins of production lines can be created using comprehensive data capture. Our author Marco Grafe discusses what is behind digital twins, what they are used for and whether we need them at all.
Kinematic Simulation for Beginners
Production sites in high-wage countries demand highly automated and flexible production systems to remain competitive. In most cases, developing software for production systems requires using physical components under real conditions.
Communication between C# and C++ – A guide
This article describes the possibility to let an application written in C# communicate with a C++ application, especially for the integration of a C++ COM server with a C# client.
Smart Manufacturing at the office desk
This blog post is the first in the new “Smart Manufacturing” series. This focuses on the Fischer Technology Learning Factory at the Görlitzer site of ZEISS Digital Innovation, which simulates a networked production environment and is controlled by a self-developed cloud application.
IoT (and more) with Azure Digital Twins
As the Industry 4.0 concepts mature, we will look at the Azure edition of Digital Twins. The definition of Digital Twins assumes the digital representation of real-world things’ (or people’s) properties, either in real time (for control and predictive maintenance) or in simulations to acquire and test behaviors before actual deployment. As such, Azure Digital Twins are closely related to Azure IoT services; however, they could do a bit more, as we will see in this blog article.