Digitization of our tank production process: what it is and what are the benefits

Digitizing the production process of a tank plant is an integral part of the Industry 4.0 concept.

By this term we identify the trend in industrial automation to combine physical and virtual elements and integrate new manufacturing technologies to:

• improve working conditions
• increase plant productivity
• increase quality

Let’s find out together what the digitization of the production process is all about and what the benefits are.

What is digitization of the production process

Although technology and digitization are now an integral part of our daily routines, not all businesses are able to fully benefit from them by incorporating them within their production process.

In general, digitization of the production process allows a plant’s machinery to be connected online and have them communicate with each other so that a clear overview of its operation can be obtained.

With digitization, all data are collected and made available online.

This means that the plant communicates with the operator and that a machine’s information can be found:

• in real time
• anywhere in the world

In general, digitization of the production process makes it possible to automate part of the plants.

Simply equip machinery with smart sensors capable of intervening or signaling an action related to a particular input and, in the event of abnormal conditions, alerting operators to potential problems.

The advantages of digitization in tank production processes

In the previous paragraphs we have described what digitization of the production process is, but what are its benefits?

Digitization of the production process within a factory has so many advantages, some of the most important that we can mention include:

• Have the plant data available in real time
• Management of risks related to worker safety
• Ensuring the continuity of work phases
• reduction of wasted time and resources

In general, the company that embarks on a path of digitization of the production process improves its performance and increases productivity.

It also uses data available in real time to anticipate maintenance and reduce downtime, and also to assess and measure machine utilization and unproductivity times.

Baglioni’s solutions for factory digitization

In the previous paragraphs we introduced the concept of digitization of the factory and production processes . Now we would like to focus on the programs we have activated in the company.
Specifically, in this news we would like to talk about one of the first projects we have started: The automation of simple processes with Microsoft Power Automate.

Automating simple processes with Microsoft Power Automate

We chose to use Microsoft Power Automate to automate some simple processes that would otherwise require several manual steps.

Specifically, it is a Microsoft’s platform For the automation of recurring tasks. In our case, thanks to this solution we can:

• Automate some business processes
• Send automatic reminders for tasks that are due
• Move business data between different systems according to a schedule

For example, one of the situations where we use Microsoft power automate is the management of near misses, or “the near misses.”

Specifically, whenever a worker in charge detects a dangerous situation for the safety of workers, he or she will report it on the platform.

The platform automatically sends the report to the relevant figures who can intervene and resolve the situation in a short time, without having to wait for the year-end report.

In addition, both the report and the information collected during the investigation by the plant manager can be stored in the cloud so that it can always be found.

In this way, we are able to democratize information. This means that each plant manager can analyze data from one plant and, based on that, plan improvement actions in their own.

For us to be able to digitize this system is an important milestone. This is because every near miss that we prevent or investigate is an incident that we are likely to prevent.
Contact us for more information about our tank line.