July 2019

| 10 | July 2019 www.smartmachinesandfactories.com | FEATURES – GAMBICA three-part digitalisation series | I n the first chapter GAMBICA’s members talked about laying the ground work and asking the important questions: Where are you now?; Where do you want to go?; Who do you need?; Do you have the skills to do it?, before even giving consideration to the question of what technologies to use. Fundamental questions asked and answered, in this second instalment, we will look at some practical considerations for your technology choices. Because as Andy Mills, sales and marketing manager at Phoenix Connect says: “At the moment people are very keen to dive into smart manufacturing and we [as manufacturers] are keen for them to do it because it’s the future for us as well, the problem is it’s got a lot of consequences if it’s not done properly.” To recap, smart manufacturing is fundamentally the use of data to improve business and production processes. It seems like the obvious question is; what data should be collected? Paul Streatfield, product manager for Bosch Rexroth is quick to remind us that IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things) “doesn’t only apply to cleverly automated machines, it can still be a manual process that you can connect and collect data from”. Pretty much everything in this universe is doing something that, GAMBICA: A practical journey to a digital future In December 2018 eight GAMBICA Industrial Automation members gathered around a table in Leicester to discuss IT, cyber security, cloud computing and of course automation and what it all means for Smart Manufacturing. The aim of the that conversation was to cut through the marketing hype and buzzwords that surround the subject and, in this special three-part serialisation in Smart Machines & Factories create an unbiased and pragmatic guide to getting started on your smart manufacturing journey. Victoria Montag – sector head for Industrial Automation, GAMBICA, continues the special three-part GAMBICA serialisation with part two of the King Power Stadium discussions on digitisation. PART TWO