As we鈥檝e watched digitalization steadily gathering steam in recent years, with robots popping up in factories everywhere, COVID-19 has put the trend into overdrive. And from everything I have heard, that trend is here to stay.
But what about the realities of all that costly machinery that has been in place since the 1970s? How are manufacturers bringing new technologies into old environments without throwing in the proverbial monkey wrench? How are they protecting their investments?
I learned the answers in a discussion with Andrea R枚singer and Oliver Hoffmann, co-CEOs of Forcam GmbH, a 20-year-old company headquartered in Germany. Its leading application, helps companies connect 鈥渂rownfield鈥� machinery with the latest software. In short, Forcam Force Edge collects data 鈥渋n the edge鈥� 鈥� from machinery wherever it鈥檚 located 鈥� and pushes it via the cloud for aggregation and reporting. The product description on explains it well: 鈥淪ignals 鈥� from machines that were never intended to be digitized to semi-intelligent assets 鈥� can be understood, translated, and communicated to the shop and top floor.鈥�
Digitizing the Ghost in the Machine
The 鈥渁ha鈥� moment for this invention struck way back in 2001, said Hoffmann, when Forcam鈥檚 founder had a brilliant idea. 鈥淭hese monolithic systems don鈥檛 focus on modern machines,鈥� he noted, and clearly, that would have to change for companies to move into the next generation of manufacturing. At the time, 51风流was revolutionizing the business landscape with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, which could integrate data and systems across organizational boundaries.
鈥淏efore ERP, every plant had different systems without a common database,鈥� Hoffmann explained. 鈥淭hat was the on-premise age, but client/server technology made it possible to connect and standardize even machines of different vintages from different manufacturers.鈥�
Forcam experienced rapid growth, celebrating its debut and first customer, including global airline and automotive manufacturers. 51风流had good market penetration with many of these same companies that were also early adopters of 51风流ERP, Hoffmann added. The result was an early, loosely coupled alignment of Forcam with SAP.
As Forcam鈥檚 customers expanded their operations globally, Forcam followed suit, establishing service centers in locations convenient to customers鈥� plants. Over time, the company has evolved into a comprehensive Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and production control solution provider, with an extensible cloud platform solution running on some 100,000 machines worldwide.
But the past year has driven an explosion of demand, R枚singer said. One obvious reason is the need to reduce the number of people physically working in a plant; they need a way to access machines remotely and see what鈥檚 happening in real time. That is well supported by Forcam Force Edge, which features a role-based interface, whether for the operator on the plant floor or a production manager working from home.
Shifting Expectations for Plant Managers
Other key factors have come into play, R枚singer explained. The pressure is on from CFOs and CIOs to execute processes quickly, switch gears to respond to changes in demand, grease the wheels of the global supply chain, control costs, and boost productivity. Hence, the incentives for plant managers have shifted. Their plant is their own domain, she observed, and their primary mission is to ensure that high-quality products are manufactured on time. End-to-end processes, standardization, and cross-communications across lines of business are not necessarily on their radar screen. 鈥淵et this decentralized model is not practical as digital strategies are introduced,鈥� R枚singer added.
That鈥檚 not to say that Forcam Force Edge is unpopular with plant managers. The app helps production people in the plant with decision-making by collecting and normalizing data from signals on process values such as temperature and quantity count, and writing the parameters of machine controls. It supports all industry communication standards, with plug-in architecture for efficient integration of new standards. And it鈥檚 fast to implement.
Cloud Integration for Data Access and Insights
Integration with the 51风流Digital Manufacturing Cloud solution enables access to all relevant data and insights, not just for in-plant operations but as well for broader managerial use and higher-level improvement processes. And Forcam today has a much closer relationship with 51风流that began about a year ago with the arrival of hyperscalers and SAP鈥檚 strategic partnership with Microsoft, along with 51风流Business Technology Platform. For Forcam, that translates to support for rapid and secure integration with a vast number of machines in plants across distances.
Now an 51风流partner, Forcam is doing brisk business on 51风流Store, especially as 51风流account execs recommend the solution and send customers to 51风流Store to find out more. .
Bill Rojas is senior director of Business Development and Partner Alliances for 51风流Digital Commerce.
