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Digital transformation is turning into a significant concern for engineers throughout industries. Supply: Adobe Inventory

Over the previous yr, I’ve spent lots of time talking with producers about their digital transformation initiatives. All of them have very totally different tales to inform as a result of their utility wants are distinct. However whether or not it’s a meals producer, a beverage producer, an automaker or a machine builder, all of them have one factor in widespread: The necessity for neighborhood.

Seems, digital transformation is usually a lonely street the place engineers are given a directive to “go digital,” after which left on their very own to determine it out.

This precise state of affairs is going on at a big client packaged items (CPG) firm that makes many issues, together with toothpaste and dish detergent. A person in command of plant programs instructed me that he wants assist checking out the place to begin, what applied sciences to make use of, and who to contain within the course of.

“Having a reference to folks to bounce concepts off, or simply perceive what others have performed to unravel widespread digital transformation issues, could be useful,” he stated.

Attendees of Design World’s first annual Digital Transformation Discussion board, taking place Might 1-2, 2024 in Boston, will get that private storytelling from some main producers. Two of these in attendance embody Sikorsky Lockheed Martin and ALTA Refrigeration, each sharing expertise implementations that clear up engineering and enterprise issues whereas optimizing the way in which they work.

Study from Agility Robotics, Amazon, Disney, Teradyne and plenty of extra.

Sikorsky’s digital transformation story

Sikorsky makes industrial and navy plane, together with the best-in-class Black Hawk helicopter. It wanted to right years of manually setting thresholds which have contributed to alert fatigue on operators. The firm wanted a option to streamline actionable alerts in a busy manufacturing surroundings.

Along with expertise accomplice Strategic Upkeep Options, Sikorsky constructed a machine studying instrument that automates the threshold-setting course of for industrial metric knowledge and delivers the suitable info to the suitable consumer on the proper time. One of many key takeaways from this session is that you simply don’t should be an information scientist to take motion and discover worth with AI instruments.

ALTA Refrigeration will define a really totally different state of affairs that features the adoption of an edge management structure and the message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) machine-to-machine communication protocol to utterly change its enterprise mannequin.

The corporate has been designing and putting in refrigeration programs throughout the U.S. for greater than 45 years. For a very long time, they had been giant, custom-designed programs that used a central machine room to ship refrigerant to numerous facility areas via lengthy, overhead piping runs.

Now, with modular refrigeration management items, ALTA can monitor its whole set up base in minutes and vitality utilization per unit. When an alarm happens, the system creates an interactive timeline of occasions. Utilizing knowledge analytics with distant monitoring improves serviceability, scalability, buyer assist, and operational effectivity.

Join with the engineering neighborhood

These are simply two examples of the displays at this reside occasion. Attendees will even have the ability to work together with thought leaders from Intellic Integration, MIT, Deloitte, Siemens, PTC, and extra. Networking is inspired by way of a welcome reception and a mixture and mingle with attendees from the 2 co-located occasions, the Robotics Summit & Expo and DeviceTalks Boston, to supply ample alternative to satisfy engineers from different industries.

You possibly can freely trade concepts and make new connections at this discussion board. Extra importantly, it’s the beginning of your new digital transformation neighborhood. If you happen to’re an engineer, expertise decision-maker or an govt on a journey to modernize manufacturing, it is advisable be right here.

The inspiration out of your friends can result in new concepts in your group and, in the end, innovation that may make your group extra aggressive available in the market.

Editor’s observe: This text is syndicated from Design World, a sibling website to The Robotic Report, and the Digital Transformation Discussion board is co-located with the Robotics Summit & Expo. Registration is now open.