Posts by Darren Kuik
Industry 4.0 Adoption – Part 6
Alright, if you’ve stayed with us so far, you’ve finally reached the end of this blog series. We’ve spent five articles going over the background, benefits and challenges, components and offerings related to Industry 4.0. You might be thinking, “This is all great, but what’s next?” How does you company move forward with a strategy for Industry 4.0 adoption? We’ll provide some direction for that in this final post by asking some thought-provoking questions. Industry 4.0 Adoption 5-Step Plan In the Digital Operations Signals report referenced in post one of this blog series Microsoft outlines a simple 5-step plan that some businesses use for an Industry 4.0 adoption project: Industry … Read more
Industry 4.0 and Microsoft – Part 5
Welcome back to the penultimate post in our Industry 4.0 series. In this post, we are going to look at how Industry 4.0 and Microsoft helps businesses with their modern factory adoption by providing services, tools and technologies to support the key components we reviewed. Azure IoT Hub & Event Grid/Service Bus Topics Ingest IoT sensor data from connected devices and then use event grid to push out the data to be consumed by other services in your enterprise architecture. Azure IoT Edge Run cloud workloads on the edge, faster and offline capable, containerized, including the ability to run AI and machine learning processes, custom services, etc. Hololens2 Augmented reality … Read more
Industry 4.0 Key Components – Part 4
In today’s Industry 4.0 post, let’s look at some of the Industry 4.0 key components. Whether these components fit into your scenarios, or you need to consider others is dependent on your business case. For example, you may want to include cloud computing in your solution, but if your factory needs to be able to run in full isolation in the event of a network or power grid failure, then you can’t be dependent on cloud solutions, you need to use edge computing or local cloud instead. We’ve selected 5 components you should evaluate for your Industry 4.0 solution. Industrial IoT as an Industry 4.0 Key Component Industrial IoT is a … Read more
Industry 4.0 Challenges – Part 3
In today’s post we’ll look at some of the Industry 4.0 challenges and risks presented by adopting it, to contrast with the benefits that we looked at in part two. Before adopting any strategy in this area, you should understand these challenges and see how they apply to your own business. Cost of Industry 4.0 Adoption In part two we made the case that Industry 4.0 adoption will lead to lower costs over time and observed that the return on investment time for adopters was decreasing. Neither of these points eliminate the very real cost impact of adoption. There are significant costs, from replacing equipment with modern IoT connected options, … Read more
Industry 4.0 Benefits – Part 2
In part two of the Industry 4.0 blog series let’s look at a few of the great benefits of adoption. More and more companies are increasingly adopting strategic approaches around digital transformation. The benefits of leaning in to new digital tools build on each other to yield undeniable outcomes for companies that successfully execute these strategies. Industry 4.0 – Visibility With highly connected devices and a vast amount of data within arm’s reach, the modern factory becomes visible in ways it never could before. Real time monitoring and big data analysis puts this all front and center for everyone from top level executive to factory floor worker, at any time. … Read more
Industry 4.0 – Part 1 – The History
What is Industry 4.0 Industry 4.0 is a term that has been around for about a decade already. Also known as the fourth industrial revolution, it’s a term that’s quietly slipped by a lot of people’s radars. A quick recap is required. The first industrial revolution occurred in the late 1700’s with the advent of steam and coal power and genesis of the manufacturing industry taking over from agriculture as the backbone of the global economy. The second industrial revolution took place in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s with the onset of new energy sources, electricity, oil, and gas, along with process refinements in the factory such as the … Read more
Avoiding the Cliff of Success: When to Back Out of Software Projects
Imagine you’re in a car on a road trip. Everything starts off smoothly and you make good progress. But as you are driving, the four-lane highway becomes a two-lane, then a dusty gravel road, and finally little more than a dirt track that winds up a steep hill. Somewhere along the way you’ve made a wrong turn or two. Now, the car you’re driving isn’t really meant to be off-roading, and the engine light is on, and it is leaking fluid badly. To make it up the last steep slope, you put the pedal to the floor and careen over the last few bumps and the fallen branch of a … Read more
5 Software Development Trends for 2024
In the last few years, we have witnessed unprecedented changes and advancements in technology, which have impacted the world of software development. These changes have presented organizations with additional opportunities and have allowed them to achieve new successes. The ever-changing world of technology can be difficult to keep up with. Trends change quickly and new products and solutions are consistently introduced. We have compiled 5 software development trends to help you understand what to keep an eye on in 2024. Artificial Intelligence Explosion Artificial intelligence is opening doors for software development both in enabling efficient work experience for developers through tools like CoPilot, and by augmenting the applications themselves. AI … Read more
Application Modernization: A Roadmap to Success
Do you know how many organizations have their own custom line of business applications? Do you know how many of those applications were built by someone innovative and savvy enough to produce a tool that made certain tasks easier, to then share that tool company-wide, where it slowly became central to day-to-day operations? At Imaginet we have seen this situation countless times. Often, these tools start out as Microsoft Access database apps. At other organizations, there is usually an individual in-house with a software development background or education who can create a desktop or web application and maintain and update it. This approach can lead a business to evolve into … Read more
The Imaginet Difference – Application Development Approach – Part Three: Development, Implementation, Stabilization, & Delivery
Learn how Microsoft is using number matching in their Authenticator App to improve the security of personal information. Discover how number matching is one of the best ways to enhance your organization’s cybersecurity and reduce risks of online threats.