There is a growing need to create more profitability from production lines while dealing with aggressive global competition and ensuring worker safety.

Many manufacturers see technology as a way to overcome these pressures, more specifically through connecting people, machinery and processes to build the ultimate Smart Factory.

Gartner define a smart factory as:

The smart factory is a concept used to describe the application of different combinations of modern technologies to create a hyperflexible, self-adapting manufacturing capability. Smart factories are an opportunity to create new forms of efficiency and flexibility by connecting different processes, information streams and stakeholders (frontline workers, planners, etc.) in a streamlined fashion. Smart factory initiatives might also be referred to as “digital factory” or “intelligent factory.”

Listen to Sean Fitzgerald discuss the future of smart manufacturing in Motorola Solutions podcast.

“At the heart of effective communication plants are people, although automation can help to speed up the production line you still need people to run those lines, and by connecting them effectively and into physical assets you can support your smart factory initiatives.” Sean Fitzgerald.

Listen to episode one now > Smart Technology for Manufacturing