From Precision to Production: Azure for Manufacturing

The manufacturing sector has been swiftly progressing towards digital solutions to be able to increase operational efficiency. Azure, as a cloud solution, has propelled the sector towards its rapid advancement in a cost-efficient way.

As formidable as the manufacturing industry is, it still must face challenges that threaten its functionality and profitability. With extensive workflows, from procurement to production and delivery, the need to derive value from every aspect to be able to mitigate adversities is key for survival for manufacturers in today’s age. Especially when factors like geo-political instability, supply chain disruptions and customer insecurity loom over.

With the introduction of Industry 4.0, adoption of digital tools has become a huge need for manufacturers. The worth of the digital transformation market in manufacturing is projected to grow from $307.87 billion in 2023 to $33.75 billion by 2028. This materializes the rapid advancement of the manufacturing sector towards digital solutions.

This blog dissects Azure and how cloud computing can enhance the functionality of the manufacturing sector, under the principles of Industry 4.0.

What is Azure and What Can it Do for Manufacturing?

Azure is Microsoft’s cloud-computing platform which offers more than 200 services and products to help businesses access and manage cloud functionalities. It efficiently stores and unifies entire organizational data on the cloud and transforms it as per the business’ need. It incorporates the functionality of latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), data analytics, and more, to provide exceptional digitization experiences to businesses and organizations worldwide.

Similarly, Azure for manufacturing offers a plethora of tools and functionalities that help manufacturers digitize their processes and reap the benefits like top-notch data security, process agility and visibility across the entire manufacturing lifecycle. It replaces the high maintenance bulky data servers with online cloud servers which seamlessly unifies organizational data, without any maintenance costs. Azure also allows replication of organizational data across various regions to protect it from data breeches. This data duplication also allows real-time access to manufacturing data, in case one of the databases faces downtime.

Let us analyze Azure’s manufacturing capabilities which have been transforming the realm:

• Product Innovation: Azure allows manufacturers to drive exceptional product innovation to improve performance and reduce costs. By using cloud-based digital engineering, design, and analytics, manufacturers can innovate their products and processes to introduce efficiency.
• Resilient Supply Chains: With real-time data updates, manufacturers can enjoy visibility across all aspects of their supply chains. They can also foresee any disruptions and plan accordingly to mitigate hindrances. A unified view of supply chains also propagates agility across processes.
• Smart Factories: Azure supports the latest technologies like AI, ML, and IoT which bring automation and smart functionality in manufacturing processes.
• Remote Monitoring and Operations: By integrating factory machinery and assets with IoT, manufacturers can operate and monitor them remotely and automate processes which do not need any human intervention. This optimizes workflows and enhances accessibility for the operators.
• Deceased Downtimes: By automating machinery with the capabilities of Azure AI, manufacturers can empower machines to anticipate their downtimes and report it to the managers so they can take necessary steps to mitigate it. Predictive and preventive analysis allows manufacturers to prepare for disruptions which enhances operational productivity.

Azure Products to Upscale Manufacturing

Azure offers a plethora of services and products which can introduce digital efficiency across the manufacturing lifecycle. With data being the currency of innovation in today’s age, Azure products efficiently utilize manufacturing data and enhance all steps of the manufacturing cycle in the most optimal way.

Azure Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Azure AI service allows manufacturers to infuse intelligence into their manufacturing processes, without employing ML engineers. They can incorporate AI attributes like Natural Language Processing (NLP), Sentiment Analysis, and Computer Vision into their products to enhance their performance.

Manufacturers can also incorporate ML models to execute self-inspection and automation across factory machinery to optimize their performance. It also allows data summarization and analysis which helps manufacturers drive strategies to boost results. It can also aid inventory planning and demand forecasting which can mitigate over and underproduction of products. Moreover, by incorporating Azure AI with factory machinery, quality and consistency in production can be achieved which drives customer satisfaction and significantly reduces wastage.

Lastly, Azure allows access to Open AI models which allows manufacturers to leverage their data to build intelligent applications to custom use cases.

Azure Synapse Analytics
Data is an asset for manufacturing companies due to the vast quantity it is generated in. The true power of data lies in how it is analyzed and how that analysis is used. A theme in the manufacturing data landscape is being data rich but information poor (DRIP). This is due to the improper utilization of data. Having a dedicated analytics system, like Azure Synapse Analytics, allows manufacturers to utilize their data to highlight performance discrepancies and drive strategies to combat it.

It accelerates time-to-insights from big data and gives manufacturing data analysts the freedom to query data on their own terms. The results of enterprise-grade data analytics are supplying chain visibility, optimized equipment performance, and predictive and preventive maintenance.

Azure Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT)
IoT has revolutionized the way industries function with its seamless connectivity. As an innovative confluence of Platform-as-a-Service, intelligent edge computing and machine learning, IIOT can expedite agile manufacturing. It connects industrial equipment, assets, and floor managers into a network of real-time data and actionable insights for machine health-status and remote operating.

IoT incorporates sensors and temperate devices which note machine movement and temperature data. This data is often analyzed by machines themselves using machine learning so that they can drive predictive and prescriptive self-maintenance. Moreover, this maintenance is monitored by machine technicians so they can jump in if the need arises. Data-backed maintenance optimizes performance due to the mitigated risk of faulty maintenance.

All the IIoT data is visible on a unified IIoT dashboard, for enhanced experience. IIoT adds value especially if a company has manufacturing plants in various locations. The unified view of data makes it easy for managers to be updated, from all locations.

Azure Compute
Azure Compute, as a suite of cloud services, allows manufacturers to run their data-heavy applications and workloads like Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Computer Aided Design (CAD) on virtual machines and containers. It allows users to choose the most suitable option for specific requirements. By allowing capabilities like automatic scaling and health monitoring, virtual machines empower users with robust hosting of PLM and CAD workloads. This ensures seamless management of data, from inception to retirement.

Azure HPC are special virtual machines which are an integral part of Azure Compute.

Azure High Performance Computing
By integrating Azure HPC with manufacturing workloads, manufacturers can accelerate their processes. It infuses Microsoft-managed workload orchestration with manufacturing compute, network, and storage resources to curate a purpose-driven infrastructure to process heavy workloads like product design and simulation at scale. It allows:

• Optimized and cost-effective performance
• End-to-end process agility
• Intelligent processes

Let Dynamics Solution and Technology Align Your Manufacturing Business with Industry 4.0

Incorporating digital practices in your entire manufacturing lifecycle brings monumental productivity at a fraction of the cost. However, digitally transforming all manufacturing operations is a complex feat and improper strategy usually causes manufacturing companies to remain stuck in the pilot phase and a huge chunk of the budget goes to waste.

Choosing an end-to-end implementation partner can mitigate the risk of failure. Dynamics Solution and Technology specializes in Microsoft’s vision of digitally transforming businesses and has the team and expertise to plan out a customized implementation strategy according to your manufacturing needs. Our post-implementation support will keep your business always aligned with the latest tech practices. As Microsoft’s Gold and Solutions partner, we have digitally transformed scores of businesses across the Gulf, MENA and European regions who now enjoy enhanced ROIs and improved processes.

You can enhance your manufacturing time-to-market too with Microsoft Azure. Contact us to get a personalized demo and kickstart your digital transformation today!