I wrote (sort of) a long post Friday defining strategy and practice definitions of Smart Manufacturing. I used Claude.ai to research. I also wanted to see what Claude would write if I told it to put all the research together in an essay in the style of The Manufacturing Connection.
It did write—3,000 words.
What did I discover about the process?
I asked for citations; Claude provided several
- With every question, Claude was always most agreeable, never questioning my request but proceeding to tell me a story about the new research
- When I asked about writing in my style, Claude was most complimentary
- When I asked about holarchy of holons as a philosophical model, it interestingly returned the Purdue Enterprise Reference Architecture, aka The Pyramid model (without citing it)
- It did what I asked as a loyal copy editor, not as a collaborator
- On another project, I received a press release disguised as an article, it identified that the cited example was actually not relevant to the point providing an alternative example which is leading to further research on the subject—it can be helpful
Smart Manufacturing
Smart Manufacturing is a continuing evolution of better data for improved management with smoother processes in manufacturing.
The head of the product center of the manufacturing company where I worked in 1975 picked me to (among other tasks) become the czar of data. My task (and I chose to accept it) was to verify the accuracy of all data generated by product development, provide it in the correct and usable format to the various consumers—manufacturing operations, costing, procurement, accounting in my case.
By 1976, we were exploring how we could utilize the IBM model 3 minicomputer the company owned to help with this task. I believe this is called digitalization 😉
Fifty years later, I’ve witnessed the explosion of digital technology—sensors, networks, compute power, edge, IT applications like containers and databases, data science. Now CESMII wants to provide an open standard API to help connect all this (something its predecessor the SMLC proposed a decade ago).
Smart Manufacturing is not a thing—it’s a journey!
