Manufacturing, logistics and procurement - January 2019
Digital Twinning, blockchain and more technological trends
According to ABN AMRO (in Dutch), the manufacturing industry is on the eve of an important development: Digital Twinning, a collective name for all kinds of applications in which physical objects are linked to digital models. This way, a physical product or process is given a 'digital double'. Especially machine manufacturers and the electronics sector see a lot of advantage in the use of Digital Twinning in the design, production and maintenance phase. You can read more about the subject in a recently published report (in Dutch, 2.19 MB).
Recent events, such as the sale of horsemeat as beef and the deliberate contamination of strawberries with needles in Australia. highlight the topicality of the related issues of food fraud and food defence. The challenge of, and potential solutions to such events have been addressed by a recent safefood University College Cork-Teagasc research project. The findings from this work were the topic of a seminar in December 2018. The second part of the day focused on blockchain and its potential role in ensuring food supply chain integrity, as well as other strategic opportunities presented by the technology. All presentations from the day are available here.
According to a new report by Dimension Data, the application of game-changing technologies is becoming more pervasive, and their adoption across industries is growing steadily. Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics, and virtual and augmented reality have started to converge to deliver compelling outcomes for many businesses. This trend is set to accelerate in 2019. You can download the Tech Trends 2019 report after filling in your details.
In 2018 ISO, together with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), published ISO/IEC 30141, the world’s first harmonizing, standard reference-architecture for the Internet of Things (IoT) – the complex assemblage of billions of smart devices connected through the Internet. Applying the standard will make the IoT more effective, safer, resilient and much more secure.
Robot adoption around the world
According to Eurostat, large EU enterprises use robots much more (25% of enterprises employing 250 persons or more) than medium enterprises (12% of enterprises employing 50 to 249 persons) or small enterprises (5% of enterprises employing 10 to 49 persons). A recent report (147 kB) by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) finds that southeast Asian nations significantly outperform the rest of the world in robot adoption. The report examines 27 nations.
Sensor system that can detect failures in systems and machines
In operation, machines and plants generate characteristic vibrations and therefore noises: These noises provide information on the quality since defective mounting or other defects often induce a change in the regular operating noises. Fraunhofer researchers have developed AcoustiX, a sensor system that can detect failures or imperfections in systems and machines quickly and reliably by means of an acoustic noise assessment similar to human hearing.
Thesis - Case study on packaging at Scania
For their master thesis (2.42 MB) at Lund University, Arturs Rezancevs and Chaitanya Ramachandraiah performed a case study at Scania on how packaging options affect supply chain operations and costs.
NVC members receive this information with all the relevant links in the monthly NVC Members-only Update. If you have any questions, please contact us: info@nvc.nl, +31-(0)182-512411.