In the modern business world, efficiency is the key to success - especially in manufacturing, where end-to-end automation of order processing is becoming increasingly important. But seamless automation is no easy task. It resembles the interaction of an orchestra: every department, every system and every employee are instruments that need to be perfectly harmonised. Without clear process control, the result is not harmony, but disorganisation. This is exactly where a conductor is needed to bring all the elements together.
A conductor knows the score, he knows when which instrument is to be used and how the balance between the parts must be established. Applied to business, this means that data, systems and employees must also be coordinated in production to create a coherent whole.
Rigid middleware that executes processes purely sequentially is not enough. What is needed is an intelligent platform for process control that reacts flexibly to changes, recognises patterns and makes automated decisions - in other words, a kind of conductor that keeps an eye on the entire "soundscape".
Traditional middleware solutions are like musicians who only play to a metronome: reliable, but without room for interpretation. In the reality of manufacturing, however, processes are dynamic. Supply chains fluctuate, customer requirements change or are complex, machines send unpredictable signals. Only a solution that offers more than standard processes enables genuine end-to-end automation with flexible process control.
Complete end-to-end automation encompasses all steps - from order entry to production planning and control through to delivery. Only when they are integrated and orchestrated does a symphony emerge that creates real added value for production.
The task of a modern automation platform is to draw the right conclusions from a multitude of inputs - customer orders, stock levels, machine data, supplier information - and to convert these into concrete actions through intelligent process control.
Process control is particularly challenging in the engineer-to-order (ETO) business. Here, almost every order is unique and is individually designed and manufactured. This makes production extremely complex, as all resources, data and process steps have to be coordinated in real time. Without a platform that reacts flexibly and delegates tasks dynamically, seamless end-to-end automation is almost impossible to realise in this environment.
adesso has developed FIRE Automate to master this complexity. It goes far beyond classic middleware and acts as an intelligent conductor:
FIRE Automate demonstrates its strength in the ETO environment in particular by intelligently linking individual production processes and reacting to changes. This creates an adaptive platform for end-to-end automation that makes companies competitive in the long term.
If you want to orchestrate the entire value chain, you need more than just technology - you need intelligent process control that masters complexity and distributes tasks automatically. The result is a system that not only works efficiently, but also acts with foresight.
As in an orchestra, coordination ultimately determines average or excellence. With the right platform for end-to-end automation, companies can coordinate their manufacturing processes to create a symphony of efficiency and adaptability.
Accumulatorenwerke HOPPECKE Carl Zoellner & Sohn GmbH, founded in Brilon in 1927, is fully dedicated to industrial energy storage systems. The main areas are divided into emission-free drives (trak), secure power supply (grid), storage of renewable energies (sun) and railway and metro systems (rail). The company, which specialises in lead-acid and nickel-cadmium, has expanded its portfolio to include modern lithium-ion storage media through its subsidiary INTILION, founded in 2019, and thus also covers the areas of stationary storage systems for buffering renewable energies, drive storage systems for industrial trucks such as forklift trucks and high-voltage systems for driving trains and other heavy-duty applications.
Author: Marvin Zeeb
