Digital factories may have existed in the market for some time, but it is only in recent years that a growing number of companies have started embracing the concept at speed. In fact, adoption is gaining such momentum that digital factories are no longer an exception — they are becoming an expectation.
One might ask: What exactly is a digital factory? A digital factory is a plant that leverages digitalisation and automation to optimise continuous data flows, offering valuable insights into the lifecycle of products and production for smarter decision-making. This means that advanced technology, enabled by secure and robust connectivity, is used to streamline operations, boost productivity, reduce errors, and enable real-time monitoring.
What’s in it for businesses with digitalisation
From increased efficiency and faster speed-to-market, to data-driven maintenance and innovation such as hyper-customisation of customer products, there are numerous measurable outcomes and improvements in business performance metrics. Yet the hard truth remains: Not all digital factory implementations deliver the intended advantages. Turning a concept into a full-scale model can involve various challenges and bottlenecks during the deployment process.
Let’s take the example of a fully digitalised coffee factory to understand how a real-time digital or smart factory could transform the way we view a production line.
The transformative journey of a digital coffee plant
Most people would have seen coffee capsules or made coffee with them using an espresso machine. While they are mass-produced in factories, the end-to-end process—from raw material to finished product—is less widely known. A fully digitalised or automated plant can handle the entire process from start to finish.
Digitalisation steps include quality control and bean sorting, grinding, distribution of the pod base (empty capsules), dosing, tamping, and sealing. These steps involve various control and packaging devices across a network infrastructure, powered by different solutions.
For condition monitoring, systems like Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) provide real-time visibility into production lines — such as machine status or performance data — helping to improve productivity and operational efficiency. Indicators can be tailored to each production cycle, and the fluidity of manufacturing processes can be managed to minimise losses. Additionally, thermal imaging quality control helps detect irregularities or defects before they reach final quality checks.
Finally, filtering takes place to sort out non-compliant capsules by weight or colour, before they are sealed, packed, and customised for the appropriate market.
This example of a fully digitalised coffee factory demonstrates how transforming traditional manufacturing processes into a digital factory model can deliver multiple benefits to businesses.
At the outset, addressing challenges is critical to ensuring a facility’s successful conversion into a digital factory. These include:
- Employee training and talent recruitment
- Skilled workers are needed to operate machines intelligently and implement digitalisation strategies in a smart manufacturing environment. Humans must be upskilled or reskilled to evolve alongside technology.
- Beyond the IT talent gap, resistance to change is often a key challenge.
- Leadership support
- The management team must be fully on board with implementation, and have a comprehensive understanding of the requirements and challenges—what to invest in, how to manage complexities, and how to deploy in phases.
- A lack of vision or proper planning at the top is a common reason for failure.
- Integration of existing technology with new components
- Careful planning is needed to integrate an organisation’s existing technology stack with new components, or to interconnect machines and systems so they can “talk” to each other across various data sources and platforms.
- Legacy infrastructure may also pose challenges if it is difficult to migrate or replace.
- Acute interpretation and analysis of data
- Interpreting data from industrial equipment accurately is essential for enabling timely actions and improving decision-making.
- Cross-functional involvement and information transparency are needed to keep factory floor employees in the loop so they can take ownership of decisions and provide active advice when the situation calls for it.
- Budget allocation
- Upgrading to a digital factory requires investment. Identifying priorities and long-term impacts will help justify the necessary budget.
- Begin with small steps, then scale up gradually.
What you can do today
While more proof points are emerging that manufacturers can refer to when implementing digitalisation to scale their production, the process still requires navigating organisational challenges and developing a capable digital workforce.
Siloes between IT teams and business departments must be reduced so teams can better leverage the value of smart manufacturing to achieve meaningful outcomes.
It is also important to engage a partner that understands your objectives and pain points — particularly one with end-to-end capabilities in digital integration, connectivity, infrastructure, applications, and the sustainable digitalisation of assets, people, processes, and workflows.
Cybersecurity should be prioritised as well, with solutions that offer secure connectivity, strong recovery capabilities, and compliance with OT cyber regulations. These safeguards help ensure your production facility remains resilient and operational throughout its lifecycle.
