Unlocking the Future: The Crucial Role of IT-OT Integration in Realizing Smart Factories
The integration of IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) plays a crucial role in achieving the concept of smart factories by enabling seamless communication and collaboration between traditional manufacturing processes and modern digital technologies. This integration enhances operational efficiency, data-driven decision-making, and automation, leading to improved productivity, reduced downtime, and overall optimization of manufacturing processes in smart factories.
IT technology concentrates on leveraging key value systems to develop diverse smart factories, utilizing electronic enterprise applications like ERP, SCM, CRM, and TPS to handle comprehensive enterprise operational data. Meanwhile, OT technology is responsible for real-time monitoring of factory infrastructure, control, and operational processes, encompassing all physical equipment across various manufacturing industries. The evolution of factory-wide sensing technology has transformed MES into a smart manufacturing system operating at the OT layer, capable of capturing, aggregating, analyzing, and optimizing data to achieve operational control and safety management.
The merger of IT-OT represents a fully intelligent automated production technology that seeks intelligent optimization. This synergy incorporates AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) and Cloud computing with big data, continuously adapting and exploring the most efficient production models.
Realizing a smart factory with automated optimization requires the adoption of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology, now a prevailing trend in factory manufacturing for achieving real-time production optimization and enhancing production quality. Developing smart factories demands the utilization of advanced technologies to automate, enhance intelligence, and engineer big data into the manufacturing process, creating a more efficient, flexible, and high-quality production model.
The Industrial Internet of Things encompasses three technological dimensions: Information Technology (IT), Operational Technology (OT), and Communication Technology (CT). The AIoT Cloud integrates developed industrial IoT software to investigate how these core technologies of IT and OT can be harnessed for smart factories, ultimately improving productivity and enhancing the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry.
1. Comprehensive Overview of IT Advancements in Smart Factory Development Based on the Value Chain System
Information Technology (IT) in smart factory development centers around the value key system, incorporating various electronic enterprise applications such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management System (SCM), Customer Relationship Management System (CRM), Business Intelligence (BI), and Transaction Processing System (TPS). Real-time data derived from Porter's five forces analysis is seamlessly integrated, not only automating production line optimization but also incorporating enterprise business strategies into factory operations.
This integration results in automated, intelligent, and data-driven manufacturing processes within smart factories, with IT technology playing a pivotal role in the following aspects:
Industrial Big Data Collection and Real-Time Monitoring
The distinct 4V characteristics of industrial big data—volume, variety, velocity, and veracity—coupled with value and visibility, are harnessed for real-time data collection from machines and production lines. Sensors and monitoring equipment at the Operational Technology (OT) layer facilitate the collection of these data, enabling real-time monitoring and management at the IT layer.
The creation of a "handheld factory" transforms industrial production operations into an APPized format, offering real-time insights into factory dynamics, including utilization rate, yield rate, output achievement rate, equipment failure rate, production schedule delivery, industrial safety, and factory warning signals. The IoT Cloud Portal conducts real-time sensing at the OT layer, transmitting data through AIC OPC UA to facilitate machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, culminating in visual representation on the Integrated Data Portal's Situation Room video wall.
Data Analysis and Mining
Industrial big data undergoes a comprehensive process of data exploration, delving into correlations through in-depth data mining. Closed-loop data is utilized for real-time monitoring and heterogeneous analysis of repetitive fieldwork, extracting differentiated values that, when combined with machine learning, facilitate predictive analysis through business intelligence. This approach results in feed-forward judgments for intelligent operations and the optimization of digital factories.
Smart Control
Evolution from Industry 3.0 to Industry 4.0 brings forth new technologies for smart control. Through the integration of Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), which combines artificial intelligence with the Internet of Things, machines and equipment communicate and optimize production in real time without human intervention. This advancement enables the automation of work processes, transparency of equipment and production status, automation of production instructions, and machine networking. Consequently, smart factories achieve smart product development, production scheduling, scrap material management, equipment maintenance, supply chain management, operational management, and financial services. The comprehensive implementation of IT technology contributes significantly to corporate operations and enhances production value across various domains.
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