Sensor, machine, and process data is generated constantly. Data is collected across locations and around the world. Existing machines can also be integrated into the Digital Factory with open interfaces.
Digital Factory: the future begins today Increase productivity, enhance sustainability, strengthen data security
Take advantage of the opportunities of the Digital Factory for more value creation
Digital Factory solutions are the key to efficient, sustainable, and safe production. In turn, they are the key to increased added value. Make the transition from being the owner to the manager of your data, making active use of it. With Digital Factory solutions, you simultaneously improve the productivity and sustainability of your factory while strengthening the security of your production for more resilience and stability.
Increase your productivity
The more efficiently production and process chains run, the better the cost and profit situation. Our Digital Factory solutions generate transparency and knowledge of all process data. The analysis enables you to systematically optimize and automate your processes. This leads to a significant increase in productivity while reducing costs.
Improve your sustainability
Consumers prefer sustainable products and brands, while laws and regulations are creating additional pressure. Our Digital Factory solutions generate transparency and knowledge about all consumption data. Analyzing them enables you to draw conclusions about your resource consumption. This lowers costs, helps reduce climate-damaging gas emissions, and increases your company’s sustainability footprint.
Strengthen your data security
360° data security is the basis for secure and reliable production in Industry 4.0. Increasingly growing production networks, more stringent legal requirements, ands the networking of all stakeholders of a production facility underline the necessity of a holistic cybersecurity approach in the factory.
An analysis of the entire network in accordance with IEC 62443 is required to ensure that data and access (across locations) are always secure. This is the only way to holistically monitor and evaluate the security status. Compliance with laws and regulations such as NIS 2.0 and the German IT Security Act, securing supply chain agreements, and protecting expertise against unauthorized access are key components. This can be realized with the 360° security concept (certified in accordance with IEC 62443) from Phoenix Contact.
What we only had as a gut feeling in the past, we can prove today. We evaluate data and use the software expertise, enabling us to identify anomalies at an early stage, improve product quality, and optimize production processes more quickly.
Your room for maneuver - unlimited with our solutions
Data is the key to increased productivity, sustainability, and security. And mastering the data is the key to remaining competitive in the future. There are four segments in which you can take up the reins for yourself. From solutions for data collection to intelligent, AI-based solutions for smart production. Our digital factory solutions are as individual and targeted as your production.
Dealing with complexity simply - easier said than done. This is because data is generated in all levels of the Digital Factory - from the sensor to the cloud - and the network is becoming ever larger. The data flow is a basic requirement in order for production to run smoothly. Flexible structures and real-time network diagnostics capabilities create a future-proof, extendable infrastructure.
The more complex the network, the more relevant the data security. This applies to both the IT and OT levels. A full 360 degree security system for all trades within the network is the be-all and end-all for the success and stability of the Digital Factory.
The systematic use and networking of data are essential for the Digital Factory. The intelligent networking of ERP, MES, DCS, and production generates new knowledge that provides the decisive edge.
The Digital Factory in practice: use cases in the food and beverage industry
Process optimization in existing workflows is one of the most effective levers for making production and manufacturing more resource-efficient. With our solutions, you can implement your digitalization projects during ongoing operations: step by step, without major engineering effort, downtimes, or costly machine retrofitting.
More and more consumers are demanding transparency on the carbon footprint of their food. Holistic utility metering provides this information and much more on consumption and resource use in production. The decisive advantage: All information is currently available in real time, regardless of location. On top of that, this is achieved without affecting your production processes.
It must be possible to evaluate recorded data accurately. We make your data understandable and intelligent. Our solution provides accurate and suitably prepared information about the current status of production in real time. And there's more: adapted to the requirements of different employees or groups, the data is made available via intuitive user interfaces. This generates knowledge and trust, and is the basis for realistic forecasts and correct decisions.
We take a holistic view of companies and do not see sustainability and efficiency as contradictory. Efficiency grows through the optimization of control and production. This saves energy and resources - a reduction in costs, a strong increase in sustainability.
Data are at the heart of every production facility. In our networked world, the threat of data loss and manipulation is growing every day. Top security risks and legal requirements comprise the framework conditions. With the 360° Industrial Security solution, Phoenix Contact is enabling all-round security for customer data, communication, and the operation of machines and systems - and makes your production resilient and reliable.
Taking new paths with the Digital Factory
Digitalization also requires a new way of thinking. We have done this in our PLCnext Factory, the production facility of Phoenix Contact Electronics. We took a new path in the facility where our products for automation, safety applications, and network security are manufactured. The result is amazing and convincing at the same time.
Experience the Digital Factory interactively
Experience the options available to you with Digital Factory solutions in our interactive tour. Learn how to increase your factory’s productivity and improve sustainability while keeping it safe from unauthorized access. We will show you how we have implemented this at our own production site in Bad Pyrmont.
Dr. Till Potente will welcome you virtually to our 360° Digital Factory and show you the possibilities available directly in the production process.
Our experts are there for you
Our digitalization experts will be happy to talk to you about your specific conditions on site. Together, we will look at your needs and your current level of digitalization and highlight where you have the potential for leveraging increased productivity and sustainability - from efficient solutions for brownfield applications to comprehensive digitalization concepts for smart production.
Shaping the future together
We are creating technical solutions for a world worth living in based on our passion for technology and innovation. We develop individual customer solutions around the world, work as partners in expert committees, and shape new technical ideas for a world worth living in.
Certified security today - in accordance with the standards of tomorrow
The profound transformation of digitalization requires new standards in order to act quickly and securely. Our experts provide valuable input into a variety of technical and standards committees. Together with our partners here, we are developing new data security standards for complex networks on the IT and OT level. They are already being incorporated into our product development processes today.
The implementation of cybersecurity in the Digital Factory results from the interaction between technical and organizational measures which must always be adapted to the use case. With our expertise and experience, we will support you in its successful implementation.
The Digital Factory in the All Electric Society
Carbon-neutral energy is an important building block on the journey towards an environmentally friendly, sustainable world. Phoenix Contact is pushing ahead on this path with sector coupling, whose goal is to achieve the intelligent networking of all sectors that generate and consume power. The Digital Factory has various future-oriented solutions at the ready for this.
For example, in order for people to reach a high level of productivity within the framework of resource-conserving operation, various pieces of information are required from the infrastructure of your factory. It is essential that the correct approach is taken to acquire, manage, and use the growing number of data points. By using current communication standards, Digital Factory solutions provide the optimum basis for a clean future.
Digital Factory now on YouTube
On YouTube, our experts from the PLCnext Factory show you how the various challenges can be successfully overcome with the use of smart solutions. Discover your solutions for responding to the growing infrastructure in your production. And alongside the intelligent use of data and the implementation of state-of-the-art technologies in your production, learn how you can rethink existing work processes.