“Connected” is a new magic buzzword. Everything is connected these days. The world is changing because of new ways to connect between people, machines and systems. Data is a new oil and companies are exploring how to to capture value from massive data streams and disconnected islands of data. An overwhelming connectivity creates many challenges for manufacturing enterprises these days. What systems and methods will be capable to handle such level of complexity?
My attention was caught by an open call for abstracts for PDT 2017. PDT Europe is co-organized by CIMdata and Eurostep, Eurostep a software outfit focusing of product data collaboration. The company has been instrumental in designing and delivering major parts of the STEP/PLCS standards. Read more here. I captured an interesting passage from the call for abstracts article:
Products are becoming systems with increased complexity. This development is driving the take up model based enterprise (MBE) approaches. These include digital twin, digital thread, digital enterprise and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), all of which need to work together. This means increased interoperability, democratization and collaboration.
Everything and everyone is connected. Data must be reused across the systems lifecycle and business networks and this calls for a broad definition of MBE. MBE is cross discipline and cross organization. Much more than 3D CAD, it includes processes up-stream, as well as down-stream of CAD.
In parallel, the competitive landscape is changing at an unprecedented pace with pressure on lead times, quality and cost. Competition, globalization, joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions force organizations to transform to survive. MBE must be implemented for agile processes and change.
Product complexity and distributed landscape of product development is a real problem. You might remember one of my earlier articles – Future product lifecycle and digital networks. Majority of manufacturing today is point-to-point. We can define things, design and engineer them, plan the production and make things at the end. There are lot of hype of internet of things today. To me the most important element of IoT and PLM convergence is how we connect them together into digital network in the way that each element virtual or digital will be able to define the network and empower it.
What is my conclusion? Complex connected manufacturing enterprise requires lot of data work. How existing technologies, standard and modern digital approaches will connect and evolve together? How to make disparate systems and organizations to collaborate and work as a single connected mechanism? Will Model Based Enterprise be able to answer on these questions? How future standard related activity will be impacted by new collaboration technologies and data management? Connected enterprise seems to me a big data factory these days. Just my thoughts…
PS. I will try to collect my past few years of experience in collaboration and data management and apply my abstracts to PDT Europe 2017.
Best, Oleg
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Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of openBoM developing cloud based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased
