Let’s Talk: Smart manufacturing
Opportunity knocks “Ultimately, this is all about opportunity via a long-term strategy that can benefit the machining community as a whole,” he says. “Small-to-medium sized machine shops may think that Industry 4.0 and digital transformation is out of their reach. Our aim is to make it within every machine shop’s reach, working with them to facilitate their transformation [at their own pace] so they remain relevant, competitive and in-step with customer requirements.” He continues: “At the end of 2023 we held a round table with executives from a cross-section of machining companies, asking them about their biggest concerns and priorities regarding the market from both a macro perspective and that of their individual company. The skills gap came top of the list. For us, it therefore becomes about how digital transformation can help mitigate or solve that challenge. Culture within the organisation was another issue raised: namely as a barrier to transformation. Some are resistant to new technologies because of the perceived threat to jobs. But that’s the exact opposite of the intended purpose, which is to automate and implement technologies that help streamline repetitive, non-value adding activities, releasing operators for deployment on more added-value tasks. With a focus on digital adoption and transformation we can help machine shops address current challenges and build better futures.” n hexagon.com At the MACH 2024 exhibition (Birmingham NEC, 15-19 April), Hexagon will showcase its scalable digital transformation solutions on Stand 731 in Hall 19, bringing everything to life via a number of real-time demonstrations. Company experts will be available to discuss individual machine shop challenges.
past 20 years the company has acquired close to 200 companies, building a complete portfolio of smart manufacturing solutions, including those for design, digital engineering and total enterprise quality. Hexagon also partners with external specialists whenever advantageous for the machine shop, while still acting a single point of contact. The vendor-neutral Nexus platform not only connects Hexagon technologies, but also those of partners and even competitors. Free benchmarking tool Notably, the company will be offering a free digital benchmarking tool that helps machine shops see where they stand in comparison with peers: thought to be a market first. The tool identifies, within the seven-step process, which areas could be improved immediately and what optimisations could come later as part of an overall business transformation project. At no point is there any obligation to adopt Hexagon technology. Of course, if selecting Hexagon then plenty of support is available to refine the machine shop’s transformation roadmap, and help implement technologies and connect to existing software systems, for example. Says Jason Walker: “It’s not simply about installing a new machine, but looking at the overall business and holistic technology adoption process. Every machine shop is different.” The free benchmarking tool will be launched at the MACH 2024 exhibition and Hexagon already has multiple machine shop transformation projects underway in the UK. Recently launched is the ‘Nexus for Developers’ kit, which imparts further democratisation. The kit is a set of programming interfaces that allows machine shops to connect their own technologies to the system. It’s free to sign up, with relevant costs applied as machine shops start developing/ using the system.
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