Digital transformation is often mistaken for a significant disruption in manufacturing operations, which involves high-tech implementations and considerable capital. Under these notions, a common concern shared among manufacturers is that undergoing such transformation journey requires fundamental changes in their systems and a huge effort on their behalf. Consequently, this becomes a put-off factor for the implementation of digital solutions with positive impact, that are so needed today. “It is our belief and conviction that digital transformation is mostly a cultural change in a digitally-oriented manner”, explains Theodore Papadopoulos, co-founder at Alpiconn, a company that handholds manufacturers through their digital transformation journey. “We help businesses overcome these concerns by designing and showing them straightforward, customized optimization plans that are based on digital thinking, so that they have clear goals and measurable results,” adds Papadopoulos. The team at Alpiconn makes it easier for manufacturers to understand how these solutions can be implemented and what will the processes involved be.

Alpiconn helps manufacturers embark on their transformation journey through its key solutions—Flexus and Plantecho, managing both automation and back-office operations of the clients’ business, respectively. Flexus, the company’s industrial IoT platform, offers enterprises the opportunity to obtain and take advantage of critical, decision-making data emanating from various sources such as machinery, equipment, and other information systems. Flexus can operate independently as an accelerator that processes data and responds to events and can relate information between systems. “It is a unique and powerful platform that merges business and automation logic and creates more value even for existing systems,” adds Papadopoulos. Plantecho, on the other hand, is a platform that delivers an ecosystem for Industry 4.0. It is developed in compliance with international standards and best practices and provides real, end-to-end solutions for manufacturers. By creating a digital thread of information that interconnects all processes across the entire product value chain, it affects positively both product quality and plant performance.

Both solutions, in tandem, create a layer of digital operations that drive optimization and performance in a factory.

Alpiconn’s solutions enable manufacturers to embrace digitalization so that they can connect shop floor activities with the business objectives, empowering decision-makers in the organization

Most importantly, these solutions enable manufacturers to embrace digitalization so that they can connect shop-floor activities with business objectives, thus empowering decision-makers in the organization. It is commonly seen that execution and business layers are not operating in alignment, but Alpiconn has efficiently tied them together. This approach has benefitted several businesses that the company has assisted over the years. A great example is a flour mill that Alpiconn team managed to transform into a smart factory. In this case, Alpiconn implemented the Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to manage the production plant along with three remote distribution facilities. The company also implemented Flexus to automate the procedures spread across the entire supply chain activities, right from shop-floor operations to the SAP system. By leveraging RFID, machine vision, and sensor technologies, Flexus merged different components into one “thinking” entity. “With all this, we eliminated practical limitations and managed to achieve 24/7 plant operation with minimum personnel requirements. In many cases, the system itself acted as an employee, making decisions based on facts, operating machines and equipment and coordinating software systems, even to the level of ERP”, remarks Papadopoulos. With Alpiconn’s support, the company managed to disengage their production operations from managerial tasks. Most importantly, the laborious and time-consuming tasks were automated by Alpiconn, which proved highly beneficial for the client.

In each of its projects, Alpiconn aims to add value to the clients’ existing systems and help them capitalize on their assets before investing in new technologies. “I believe that this a part of our successful implementations because our focus is primarily on offering customer-oriented solutions and not so much on the underlying technologies that will be used to realize them,” adds Papadopoulos.

To further extend automation in manufacturing and warehousing operations, Alpiconn is integrating robotic technologies with its back-office and IIoT systems. Moreover, the company will be introducing their new platform that uses the technological advances of AI and ML to create autonomous supervisors and decision-makers that will drive production and warehouse processes based on live information feeds. This will offer new capabilities and more opportunities for manufacturers to streamline, automate and optimize not only their day-to-day activities, but their company’s operation as a whole.