Forbes Innovation Improving Your Industrial Manufacturing Company Using A Model-Based Enterprise Approach Naveen Poonian Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Jan 30, 2023, 06:45am EST | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Naveen Poonian is the president and CEO of iBASEt , digitally transforming how complex products are built and maintained. getty Over the years, I've found that the average industrial manufacturing company loses revenue annually due to a lack of digital continuity. This likely comes as a surprise, as companies do not typically report lost revenue from a lack of digital continuity in traditional financials as waste but as the cost of doing business. Thanks to an industry that benefits from huge margins, these ongoing expenses can get easily dismissed, especially within organizations that do not understand a better way exists. As we discussed at our annual Excelerate 2022 conference—which hosted many of the largest complex manufacturers in the world—model-based enterprise (MBE) solutions can offer efficiency and cost savings as well as reduce idle time. MBE tools allow organizations to deploy advances in standards, test methods and measurement science, providing a needed bridge of data connectivity between engineering and manufacturing operations. In leveraging MBE capabilities, industrial manufacturers work from an immutable digital record. Many companies today still utilize a manual version of this process that requires human input and duplicative work to create a digital thread. MBEs simplify this process, building a manufacturing file that spans the entire enterprise and supply chain. Getting Started With MBE MBE tools combine advances in artificial intelligence, the industrial Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems. An MBE solution incorporates model data, pointwise mutual information (PMI) scores, visual designs, manufacturing sequences and more. The tool looks more at how something should be built rather than how it was already made. MORE FOR YOU The Inside Story Of Papa John's Toxic Culture Sam’s Club Reveals Exciting New Growth Plans UK Government Report Card On Tech Support ‘could Do Better’ The slight difference in wording makes a big difference. With MBE approaches, organizations can map the life cycle of a manufactured item with engineering and manufacturing, seeing in real time how design changes impact not only the end product but the manufacturing steps needed for completion. Many industrial organizations can quickly benefit from transitioning to MBE. Although not every produced item has the existing data to reach a top grade, even making a marginal performance improvement can provide significant financial and efficiency benefits. The goal is to look at the idle time and cut it in half. Once that is complete, cut it in half again. The starting point is almost immaterial. Creating A Cyber Version Along with improving efficiencies, using MBE tools allows manufacturing organizations to create a cyber version of their physical asset. The cyber asset serves as part of the larger product delivery, providing the customer with the historical data needed to make adjustments or improvements later. In many cases, the cyber asset has become or will soon become a mandatory part of the delivery, especially for major programs. In my experience, businesses often receive the majority of their payment for the initial product and the small remaining amount for that cyber asset. Manufacturers must prepare themselves now for this future. For customers that do not yet have that requirement, they likely will soon, as the changes are expected to come quickly, allowing those investing in MBE solutions to get a step ahead. Looking Toward MBE Capabilities The costs for any industrial manufacturing program come in high due to the complexity of designs and materials. For example, an airplane, which contains hundreds of thousands of individual components, requires much more emphasis on quality than an iPhone or even an automobile. The final product must be perfect. These items require expertise and machinery to get built and, as a result, feature a higher price tag. Manufacturing companies should no longer rely on paper-based, outdated models to keep track of changes and update data. What MBE provides changes the paradigm. It helps bring manufacturing organizations into the now, providing them with a unique tool custom-made for their individual situation. As your company continues to move forward and seeks to increase profits, look toward MBE capabilities to help make improvements. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify? Follow me on LinkedIn . Check out my website . Naveen Poonian Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.