Sandvik Coromant hosts digitization panel

Sandvik Coromant hosted a “Digitalization on Machining” panel of leading digital manufacturing industry experts on Nov. 1, 2017, at the Center for Manufacturing Innovation in Greenville, S.C. Participants included William Sobel of VIMANA and representatives from GE Power, Cisco, Sandvik, Okuma, Microsoft, Mastercam, Rockwell Automation, MakeTime, Praemo and the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing.

The panel went into detail on what it means for manufacturers to go digital. They reviewed the difficulties of starting from nothing and offered simple solutions and valuable tips on how to begin. 

There were three key takeaways from the panel:

1. Digitization, the digital factory is an imperative

• It’s here now and growing exponentially
• Within 5 years, the digital factory will be ubiquitous
• Early adopters will stay in business and gain a competitive advantage

2. Why go digital?

• Improve profit: grow revenue and reduce operating costs
  • Achieve an average of a 3 percent boost in incremental revenue on each machine. This alone can justify the technology investment
• Return in investment is quick
  • ROI can be achieved within 6 weeks by understanding device utilization
• The investment is reasonable
  • The cost is not prohibitive, just get started
  • Think big, start small and expand rapidly

 3. How to get started on the digital journey

Some solutions are turnkey and can be implemented today and leveraged as technology evolves. Some software providers enable:

• Connect and capture data from disparate devices: CNC, manual machines, additive manufacturing equipment
  • Start with three data elements and see improved operational performance
• Analyze and visualize the data for insight
• Have experts help interpret the data and guide improvement actions

The full video replay of the panel is available on the Sandvik Coromant's Facebook page.