How to create a "smart plant": Key characteristics of a modern digital enterprise

In the unity of all processes

The term "smart factory" is unlikely to surprise anyone today. The world has entered the era of digitalization of industry, when production machines and all life support and safety systems of the enterprise are integrated into a single system in order to achieve a comprehensive increase in its efficiency. The operational interaction of various physical objects takes place in a virtual environment, programmed and without human intervention. It is noteworthy that we are talking not only about the automation of individual stages of production, but also about the financial and organizational activities of the enterprise.

The transition to a digital enterprise requires general digitalization of processes both vertically (product development, production, logistics, maintenance during operation) and horizontally, with coverage of a circle of partners, suppliers, customers.

It is believed that the idea of a digital enterprise was first formulated in 1996 by Nicholas Negroponte in his book Being Digital. And today, in connection with the problem of processing the growing volumes of data, there was an urgent need for digitalization - in reality, and not in fantasies. Modern technologies can actually solve this problem: they can allow machines not only to perform automatic actions, but also to interact with each other in different processes that ensure the activities of the enterprise.

Having set out to carry out the digital transformation of the enterprise in the desire to make it more efficient and competitive, managers will invariably come to the conclusion that the interaction of the modern technologies necessary for their enterprise should be based on a special digital platform that combines digital data, models and tools into a single automated management system. A fleet of equipment and workplaces are combined into one information network. Moreover, the digital platform ensures the availability in real time of all data on operational and business processes.

Currently, digitalization occurs in almost all industries industrial: in economies,,, mechanical engineering, metallurgy to power mining industry aircraft industry, etc. Technologies are actively developing in the reference area - in the so-called Industrial internet of things Internet of Things,. IIoT In accordance with the project "Smart Manufacturing," developed as part of the government strategy for digital transformation of industry, Russia the implementation of: Russian software computer-aided design systems (//), CADCAECAM product lifecycle management (PDM/), etc.PLM

Optimal functionality

Do I need to agitate for import substitution today? Apparently not. Domestic software today has never been demanded. There are also a lot of consumers who, without risk, switched to domestic software in advance. After all, Russian vendors have been supplying high-quality and effective programs to the market for many years. This category includes the domestic production management complex - the TechnologiCS digital platform (PLM + MES + QM + CAPP + MDM + APS + WMS + MDC (IIoT) -0 + EAM).

Digital production technologies are developing at a rapid pace, and we are pleased to present our domestic solutions that help make enterprises more efficient, reduce the cost and timing of production, and achieve an increase in production margins. In particular, the TechnologiCS solution, which has existed since 1987, "said Boris Babushkin, director of engineering consulting at SiSoft Group of Companies (CSoft), opening the practical conference" Experience of digital transformation of domestic industries "(June 21, 2022, Moscow).

It is clear that an integrated approach to the implementation of "numbers" in the enterprise dictates a picky choice of software. This was noted, speaking at the conference, by representatives of those enterprises that carried out a digital transformation on the TechnologiCS platform. They also noted the optimal functionality of this digital platform, which covers the entire range of enterprise activities and includes such opportunities as:

• creation and use by all services of the enterprise of a unified electronic database of manufactured and designed products (products, specifications, 3D models, design, supporting and other documentation, technological processes, material and labor standards, accessories);
• organization of collective work of designers, technologists, standardizers, workshop and other services with electronic information and documentation, use of technical data in electronic form in coordination and decision-making;
• automation of development of technological processes, calculation of material and labor standards, preparation and issue of design, technological and other documentation, including any summary of the product or order;
• calculation of the standard and planned production cost of products and orders;
• forming the composition of production orders taking into account the individual configuration of specific copies of products, design and technological changes, the current state of work in progress, balances in warehouses and other factors, as well as their operational management;
• development of production program and plans of subdivisions (workshops, sections) with accuracy to specific technological operations;
• creation of production tasks for specific subdivisions, employees or workplaces, release of various production documentation in automatic mode (route sheets, shift-daily tasks, work orders, etc.);
• organization of operational accounting of work performance at work (including the use of barcode equipment), monitoring of the actual state of the planned work, readiness of parts, assemblies, products, orders, status of work in progress, material residues, finished parts, etc.;
• control of applications and delivery of materials and components for production in accordance with the plan, technological processes and current standards;
• taking into account the actual (direct) costs of manufacturing the order.

The advantage of TechnologiCS also lies in the availability of various configurations, which ensures high enterprise performance, as it provides all the necessary tools for building an end-to-end production and business system. And this means that at all stages of the enterprise's activities, information support is carried out - from the design and technological study of the order to the control of its manufacture and accounting for the resources spent.

In general and in detail

You don't have to be a subtle psychologist to imagine the difficulties an enterprise that has embarked on the path of digital modernization of its business will face. Meanwhile, the creation of the concept of an IT solution, and the development of a targeted fundamental architecture of software tools, as well as a functional decomposition of full product lifecycle management processes, is the concern of the project developer, as well as consulting, training and support for implementation. At the initial stage of work on the project, the following basic parameters are formed:

• Budget assessment and duration of implementation of the product life cycle digitalization system
• Functional requirements for the product life cycle digitalization system
• Basic principles of performance of works on preparation, production and operation in the system of digitalization of the product life cycle;
• Final product specification for product life cycle digitalization;
• implementation roadmap.

On the basis of functional requirements, individual technical tasks are developed pedantically and consistently: NSI management, project management, design preparation of production, technological preparation of production, labor standardization, planning and dispatching of production, material and technical support of production, industrial Internet of things, warehouse accounting, quality management, maintenance and repair, digitalization of the life cycle. Functional solutions are worked out in the pilot zone.

During the pilot implementation of the functionality, the settings are coordinated with the integration capabilities of the customer's software, sources are determined for the initial formation of reference books and methods for loading historical data (if necessary). The main thing at this stage is to confirm the possibility of using the software at the customer's sites within each stage of preparation of production, production and operation of products.

"Smart plant" - trained personnel

The responsibility of the SiSoft Group of Companies in the implementation of projects of any complexity is emphasized by the presence of its own engineering and training center for the customer's employees. Standard training courses for a quick start include customized courses, as well as full-time and part-time training. Thus, SiSoft Group of Companies guarantees that trained employees will work at the new smart plant. In special courses, they will be taught everything.

As part of the training or professional development process, students learn to model real production and business processes. In addition, students have the knowledge and skills to record data on the actual execution of technological operations in TechnologiCS, as well as detailed information on the production process. For example, if necessary, they can record the actual modes of execution of certain technological operations, the results of measurements, notifications about the occurrence of scrap, indicating its type and cause.

As part of the training, the design service is engaged in the design and modernization of products. Course participants see that the software solution generates information about products, individual nodes, and parts in a common database. Technologists and standardizers supplement this information with technical processes and standards. And then the planning and economic service determines the regulatory and planned production cost of products. The system controls the composition of the production program and its changes. Based on the product and process database, the production program is detailed to the level of workshop plans, and, if necessary, further to individual technological operations: in fact, a list of works for each department is determined, as well as the amount of materials and other resources necessary for their implementation (according to the technology). Delivery of materials for production and execution of planned works are also recorded in the system. This data is used not only to monitor the current state of production, but also to solve subsequent tasks, such as quality management and calculation of actual costs for the production of an order.

The TechnologiCS digital platform provides all the necessary tools for building an end-to-end system, which allows you to provide information support at all stages: from design and technological study of the order to control its manufacture and accounting for spent resources.

Customers are taking advantage of these opportunities. Different configurations provide high performance because there is no need to integrate different software products. And this significantly reduces the time and financial costs of implementing the system, as well as relieves ordinary specialists and managers from many problems that arise in everyday work, especially in those dynamically developing industries where there are no sharp boundaries between the functional responsibilities of individual departments and all services work in constant close cooperation with each other.

TechnologiCS is an ideal solution for complex automation of both large plants and small production enterprises.

A wide partner and distribution network with more than 20 representative offices in Russia and the CIS makes it possible to organize high-quality and timely technical support in almost all regions.

You can ask a question of interest to software developers by calling the hotline: +7 (495) 913-22-22. E-mail address: technologics@csoft.ru.