We announced today the launch of the second stage of our Innovation Center, located at our Southfield office. The space, created to foster innovation within our employees, community and partners is part of a worldwide Stefanini initiative that has enabled us the ability to address clients’ needs, taking advantage of emerging technologies and industry standards. We use a human-centric immersive approach based on design-thinking, design-sprint, and lean-startup methodology.
We have been investing in our new Innovation Center since relocating to a brand new office in Southfield last year. “We just deployed the second cycle of our Innovation Center with several new experiences related to Smart Factory, such as IoT, cognitive, predictive analytics, augmented and virtual reality and more,” said Renata Galle, vice president of innovation and digital business at Stefanini. “These experiences are designed to help tackle the current challenges of the manufacturing plants. For example, a plant manager can interact with Sophie, our cognitive platform, to check the status of the plant and urgent issues, in a much easier and faster way.”
Innovation Center New Experiences:
1. Industry 4.0
Smart Factory is changing how businesses operate worldwide with new technology and insights. To reinforce our solution to Industry 4.0, we are presenting how we are able to transform enterprises through integration, digital expertise, and big-picture vision.
The experiences include a Smart Factory prototype where sensors are pushing data to our IoT platform, and is also connected to Sophie. “We also simulate and predict failures,” said Galle. “Based on that, we can involve the areas needed in a proactive way.”
2. Cognitive Experience
Our Innovation Center showcases the flexibility of Sophie and presents several ways in which she can be of use. For instance, a food processing company can use Sophie acting as a “cognitive chef.”
“Consumers can ask Sophie for nutritional information and recipe recommendations using brand-specific products through Facebook Messenger and other channels,” said Galle. “Sophie can also act as an insurance agent by interacting with a customer, opening a claim, and sending help to a location.”
3. Automated Warehouse
We deployed an autonomous drone solution to help our clients automate the warehouse inventory management process. The autonomous drone improves safety and increases efficiency.
4. Connected Building Experience
We have helped several clients to optimize their energy consumption and monitor their assets. Based on this experience, we implemented the Connected Building, where sensors are connected to our IoT platform, monitoring all the floors in Southfield and Manila. Based on this data, clients are able to take proactive actions to manage their assets and increase energy efficiency.
5. Augmented Reality
The fast environment and high-demanding reliability and availability requirements of data centers calls for a new operational model. HoloLens (AR glasses) make it easier to identify troubled zones and display real-time data by bringing information from the equipment to the glasses, a hands-free process and personalized experience. For example, if a customer at a car dealership wants to buy a car that is currently not there, the HoloLens can show them that exact car in the color and model they desire.
6. Virtual Reality
With virtual reality, we create a digital twin of the factory with all the sensor data duplicated for a real-time view of production. The simulation allows you to train and practice solving plant failures without crippling real operations. This is a safer and more cost efficient solution. “Through the prototypes implemented in our Innovation Center, we are making digital solutions tangible for our clients where they can be hands on, experiment, and see the true benefits of the digital journey,” said Galle.
