What is digital engineering and manufacturing?

Digital engineering and manufacturing

Utilizing the power of data and digital to help organizations reimagine the products they make and how they make them, every step of the way.

Digital engineering in the context of designing new products and services, includes a set of core digital processes, capabilities and behavioral factors that form the backbone of intelligent products such as data architecture, software design, software engineering and software development. With digital engineering, digital computer models identify all the elements of a product or system and technologies like digital twins, cloud, robotics, 5G and AI to create products and services that are more personalized and intelligent.

Digital manufacturing solutions utilize computer systems to create products, services, supply chains and other aspects of manufacturing. Digital manufacturing unifies the design and production process to ensure that all steps are connected and improves decision making. Digital manufacturing also incorporates customer and consumer data into the production and design process to better predict supply and demand. Through this more streamlined digital manufacturing process, manufacturers can achieve efficiencies, cost savings, waste reductions and faster times to market. Implementing digital manufacturing intelligence in manufacturing embeds greater resilience, productivity, and sustainability into an organization’s core operations, creating hyper-personalized experiences for consumers.

Digital transformation in manufacturing utilizes new technologies in traditional manufacturing to improve production, increase speed to market and improve equipment performance. Digital manufacturing transformations can involve introducing a variety of newer digital manufacturing technologies like AI, digital twins, machine learning, cloud computing, 5G networks, virtual reality and more. However, digital transformations involve much more than technology tools. A successful digital manufacturing transformation is a continuous operational improvement to achieve a new business initiative. Driving improved manufacturing performance involves streamlined tools, equipment, processes, systems, and people.

Digital manufacturing solutions are important because they can help organizations to be more resilient and sustainable. Underpinned by data, digital and AI, digital manufacturing solutions allow plant or factory operators to make real-time production decisions to improve efficiencies. In addition to productivity and efficiency improvements, digital manufacturing can reduce raw material and energy consumption over time, helping organizations to achieve their sustainability goals faster. By utilizing digital tools to monitor and maintain equipment, digital manufacturing solutions can help predict when machinery will require servicing, avoiding unexpected downtimes and raw material waste.

And why a tectonic shift is underway

Put simply, digital engineering and manufacturing is quickly becoming the industry standard for how companies design and make products for today’s discerning consumers. This involves making seismic changes to traditional engineering and manufacturing methods that have existed for decades, by utilizing advanced technologies such as digital twins, robotics, AR/VR, cloud, data and AI. We call this Industry X.

This is bigger than the digital transformation of your front office and back office. It requires a complete reimagination of how to meet customer demands and expectations. And it’s creating new levels of productivity, growth and sustainability.

To get it done, organizations need to transform the core operations of their business and build a digital backbone and thread that runs from their consumers all the way through their value chain—and back again.
In a world where you can digitize what you make and revolutionize how you make it, looking at products from ideation to end-of-life and how you can recycle them becomes possible.