The stronger and stronger boost to digitalization does not only concern the finished product, but it directly involves the manufacturing process and the in-house organization of the Appliance world, both domestic and professional. And it reaches final customers by enlarging and implementing the performances of remote service and assistance. Key tools that are driving the deep innovation course in the sector range from state-of-the-art software, calibrated on specific production requirements, to Digital Twin that paves the way towards Artificial Intelligence applications.
Digital brain
How much does digitalization weigh on the machining process and on the internal corporate organization? By BSH Household Appliances, which groups Bosch, Neff, Siemens and Gaggenau brands, «the digitalization is relevantly integrated into every corporate sector and process, playing different but synergistic roles to support innovation, resource optimization and higher efficiency in performances and production processes – answers Sabrina Zago, Head of Marketing of BSH Household Appliances – For several years now, we have integrated on all of our household appliances a real Digital Brain “SystemMaster” providing manifold advantages for end-users, because for instance it can make our products dialogue through Apps and Smart Devices, and for the manufacturing process, because it eliminates manual interventions for the software update». In the past, when a new software was released, it was necessary to intervene on products directly in the assembly line. «Today, with SystemMaster we can mass-upgrade software without needing to stop the process, quickly and automatically. Highlights extend also to utility products where, the possible remote update allows also solving eventual problems connected with the software without home interventions. Moreover, SystemMaster allows final consumers to update the software of their household appliance or to download new programmes, as we are accustomed to doing with smartphones».
The main target of BSH Household Appliances is implementing concrete and intuitive solutions that improve the life quality by saving resources and time. Downstream, the digitalization urges to the product innovation by developing new modalities of usability and interaction with users. Another example of how digitalization has shared in developing innovative functions and has revolutionized the way of cooking is the application of the Artificial Intelligence to ovens. «The artificial intelligence represents for us the study of consumers’ requirements, analysing the feedbacks in the product use. A concrete example is the new Siemens iQ700 oven able to recognize dishes (up to 40) with the artificial intelligence and to propose the best cooking, leaving users free to modify their temperature at will».
Digitalization to innovate
«Our strategy is based on the development of an IoT ecosystem and on the experience economy: Haier Europe aims at promoting this mission in Europe, relying on a competitive industrial footprint and on strong R&D and hi-tech skills – states Alfonso Zoia, Head of Industrial Engineering of Haier Europe -. Therefore, besides the process, a key element is the possibility of knowing precisely how our products are manufactured” Digitalization, for Haier Europe, stands for “defining the identity card of the process that actually collects all the data developed by our 100% connected plants».
In this context is framed also the traceability of subcomponents and not only of process parameters, which allow controlling in much more precise and punctual manner the final quality as well as product performances, «up to our consumers and beyond. This amount of information has generated the creation of data scientist figures who have the task of developing analysis algorithms aimed, also, at anticipating trends of drifts or of potential failures before they happen, in order to maintain the always high service level of our processes and of automatic processing lines».
Digitalizing is the action that paves the way to innovation. «Each company ambit is pervaded by digital data and the development of new products starts from here, inside an engineering phase managed according to criteria of transparency, simple process control, filter capability and prevention of potential drifts by means of digital collection and analysis systems. The development of functional and aesthetical tests fully guarantees each household appliance manufactured in our plants, up to IoT, connectivity and applications of Artificial Intelligence».
Benefits are valid for the present and, even more so, for the future. «Digitalization has allowed a more accurate measurement of all of our manufacturing processes and the definition of constant improvement actions, due to the use of various technologies for the digital models of the different manufacturing sites. The digital infrastructure allows laying the essential bases to be able to use cutting-edge technologies such as collaborative robots and systems to increase information at operators’ disposal». Providing final customers with more and more customized answers needs processes with a high level of flexibility and agility. For this reason, Haier Europe has a double propensity: «on one hand standardized processes in all of our manufacturing centres and on the other hand agility in the traditional automated manufacturing lines and modules interconnected by anthropomorphic robots, to have the possibility of adding or removing elements according to specific product and process requirements».
Smart customization
Digitalization, for IMESA, moves on two interconnected fronts: the information flow management and the production management. A synergy that will be strengthened by the introduction, in the short term, of MES (Manufacturing Execution System). «In IMESA we produce everything: raw materials enter and finished products exit. From sheet metalworking to profile and heavy carpentry processing –Luca Cestaro, R&D Manager explains -. The first digitalization step was the complete elimination of paper documents from the technical office to the research and development sector up to the workshop, designs and operational solutions move on videos on the line. Same thing for job orders».
Digitalization strongly simplifies production orders for a company that makes the product customization its highlight. As it happens in the automotive world, «we produce about 600 codes of finished product every year, including professional washing machines, dryers and ironing systems. Machines are equipped with dozens of different options or they are characterized by branding with specific colours for customers all over the world, without forgetting the variants that concern the supply voltage. This results in the need of generating an impressive combination of BOM (Bills Of Material). Developing the base BOMs for these machines has led us to implement an in-house software that allows us to perform up to 11 combinations at complex levels with full control».
Enlarging the scale, digitalization advantages are extended to the interaction with customers, who «are more and more aware of the product thanks to a remote-control platform of appliances. Most of our machines are delivered with an on-board IoT system that can be entered by dealers and final customers to browse use data and this enables the constant real-time control of functions, of processing times, of energy and water resources or of detergents, as well as the management of maintenance interventions, with the addition of the introduction of a dedicated ticketing system for the monitoring and the interaction with users». Following this course, the next evolutionary stages include the use of smart systems for the data collection and processing. «We are starting the collection of big data with the target of creating specific predictive patterns, which will allow understanding what is happening inside the machine and its operation before a failure takes place. This will permit to know well enough in advance the need of a technical intervention, so preventing a machine downtime».
No prototype with the Digital Twin
The digitalization process concerns the various ambits, from manufacturing to final customers, according to two dimensions: the stakeholders inside the company and external ones. An approach that, in the opinion of Maurizio Tursini, Chief Product Marketing and Solutions officer of Cimbali Group, leads «on one hand to the digitalization of all processes of product development, production and management of current activities, on the other hand to the implementation of digital services and solutions to improve the use experience of our machines, to the extent that in our vision we no longer speak of products but of solutions. The professional coffee machine, installed inside an ecosystem, is called to provide a series of digital services addressing different stakeholders, from the consumer to the barman and up to the technical service».
The CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has the task of monitoring and managing all data concerning the relationships with customers. The process digitalization is enabled by the Digital Twin, methodology based on the implementation of digital models on cloud that, in design development phase, allows optimizing the machine performances through the comparison with a digital twin. The next step will be the use of the Digital Twin also as predictive element for maintenance. A change of mindset and competences mirrored in the internal organization, too. By using simulations, the Digital Twin «allows us to speed up, to optimize and to improve the efficiency of the process, sizing the machine and assessing all of its operation parameters without needing to test the prototype”. Fewer wastes and faster production. “The combination of these technologies with the artificial Intelligence will allow taking further steps forward».
From the product point of view, Cimbali Group has in-house developed algorithms and machine to machine connectivity systems, for both the control of extraction parameters of the drink in cup and for the operational management of appliances from remote. One thing is certain: due to the all-round digitalization «the coffee machine becomes intelligent. In the case of the new M40, for instance, energy consumptions are optimized by the digitalized technology and by the simulations carried out during the process that have allowed reaching savings up to 60% compared to the previous version. The use experience as well as the relationship with the machine deeply change, as well as internal processes of manufacturing, of order and stock management. An irreversible course».
