Software is Key to Realizing the Idea of a Dark Facility

Other Videos in This Series

• Part 1: Lights-out: Are Fully Automated Facilities the Future?
• Part 2: Automated Factories: A Discussion on Challenges in Automation
• Part 4: Labor, Power & Security in a Lights-Out Factory
  

Guy Courtin, vice president of Industry and Advanced Technology at supply chain software and services business Tecsys Inc., spoke with Sharon Spielman, technical editor at Endeavor Business Media’s Machine Design, about the concept of a dark, or “lights out” facility. 

In this third part of a four-part video series, Courtin talks about the notion of AI, machine learning and big data and how software really is the key to the future of a dark-factory concept. He looks at the parallel paths of mechanics alongside software. 

Controlling the data is also a concern. Software providers, integrators and consultants all want to become the player that controls all of it. “Why? Because if I control all of that, commercially, that puts me in a very strong position,” he says. “At a mass level, we need to figure out the software.”

READ MORE: R&D Spotlight: Manufacturers Automate Through Robotics  

Courtin asks, “How do we leverage things like smarter or artificial intelligence? How do we leverage things such as much more or much more plentiful data? Can we get access to more relevant data?”

More Lights-out Manufacturing Coverage

Barely There: Replacing Manual Operations with Lights-out Processes

Dark Factories: Science Fiction or Reality?

Lights-out Manufacturing: Myths Versus Realities