Since the Industrial Revolution 4.0, the Internet of Things is accelerating the integration and application of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, 5G and other new generation information technologies, bringing more development opportunities to the enterprise society. Based on years of accumulation in the Internet of Things and industrial fields, Advantech provides soft and hard integrated solutions to assist enterprises in digital transformation. In the process of continuously completing the industrial Internet of Things ecosystem, Advantech and Microsoft have established extensive and in-depth cooperation in the IoT field, and combined with the Microsoft Azure cloud service platform, to provide end-to-end, edge-to-cloud complete solutions. Among them, Advantech Smart Factory solutions help large manufacturing enterprises become more agile, more economical and more intelligent through hybrid cloud and edge collaboration.

Recently, Advantech and Microsoft joined hands with Lens to Advantech Collaborative Innovation R&D Center and Advantech Kunshan Manufacturing Center to witness the landing practice of intelligent manufacturing in the era of Industry 4.0. As a platform for “collaborative innovation” with industrial partners, Advantech Collaborative Innovation R&D Center is equipped with a complete technical service center, quality laboratory, etc., which can quickly realize product design, proofing, manufacturing, testing, one-stop service, and greatly reduce the process of collaborative innovation. In Advantech Collaborative Innovation R&D Center, everyone learned about Advantech’s development history, and visited intelligent factory solutions such as overall equipment efficiency management, plant energy management, intelligent production operations, and factory environmental safety management in the exhibition hall.

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With a strong interest in the program, the visiting party visited the Kunshan manufacturing center of Advanhua. In the manufacturing center, various production equipment are connected, production-related data are visualized, documents are paperless, and energy management is monitored online, effectively controlling product quality and improving production efficiency. Among them, Advantech Smart Factory program through the edge and cloud collaboration architecture, set the subordinate factories as edge nodes, through the intelligent upgrade of edge nodes, the production situation in a single factory unified feedback to the cloud side of the headquarters. In this way, it not only ensures that each factory can continue to improve quality and efficiency through smart factory solutions, but also realizes centralized supervision at the headquarters. At present, based on Microsoft Azure IoT, the smart factory public cloud platform built by Azure Stack HCI hybrid cloud can achieve factory management, equipment monitoring, alarm push, equipment reports, equipment forecasting, configuration templates and other functions.

After the visit, Lens had an in-depth exchange with Advantech and Microsoft. Lens said that this activity has built a good platform for communication and learned a lot through field visits, and looks forward to further cooperation with Advantech in the future. Advantech and Microsoft also took this event as an opportunity to deepen cooperation, give full play to the advantages of both technologies and resources, and boost manufacturing innovation and digital transformation.