Are You Ready for the Factory of the Future?

There’s a lot of data tied up in medical device manufacturing processes—but it’s been challenging to capture and process this information from historically independent and disjointed machines and processes, say experts. In addition, skilled operators with a deep understanding of such processes have often served as the keepers of the knowledge. Connecting those processes and machines so that they can communicate with each other and then collecting and analyzing the data from those processes could yield several benefits. Such connected, highly automated environments—often called smart factories, smart or advanced manufacturing, or Industry 4.0—offer opportunities for process improvements, improved quality, reduced costs, faster fulfillment, and more, said experts at The Medtech Conference by AdvaMed. Speakers explored how medical device manufacturing could be transformed through smart manufacturing in the panel discussion, “International Perspectives on Industry 4.0 and the Medtech Factory of the Future.” Moderated by Seamus Carroll, vice president, medical technologies division, IDA Ireland, the panel included Vivian Farrell, CEO of Modular Automation; Dan Grant, CEO of MTP Connect, based in Australia; Colm Hynes, director of engineering, science, and technology, joint reconstruction, DePuy Synthes, Johnson & Johnson; and Toby Sainsbury, technologis...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Assembly and Automation Source Type: news