Microsoft and BMW Group to introduce a fresh initiative to build an Open Manufacturing Platform (OMP) targeting at generating potential growth for IoT in small factory sectors.
The OMP will be designed on the Microsoft Azure Platform. For developing futuristic solutions under the hood of Industry 4.0, the association is aiming to partner with 4-6 more companies to help growth in the business ecosystem.
With the emergence of 5G technology, the sector of small factory business seems to become more promising than ever. But the fact remains the same that every time one sees promising gestures of any technology, the professionals need to take the lead and guide it to the finishing line of adaption success.
To note, BMW already has a healthy customer-provider relationship with Microsoft as it uses the latter’s Azure platform. More than 3000 machines, autonomous transport system, and robots linked with the IoT platform of BMW have been developed over Microsoft Azure Cloud.
The OMP has the objective of cutting down the barriers of data silos, slow productivity, the complexity of the proprietary system. This break down can be done through the development of an open technology strategy and cross-industry community.
The BMW team wants to improve operational efficiencies and cut down costs.
The BMW team also wants to take back control of the supply chain.
Microsoft, on the other hand, wants a maximum number of people, processes, and data on the Azure platform.
As Azure will encompass more customers, OMP platform will become more successful because of the high accessibility at the smart factory will make more cloud-first companies.
The platform will offer community members with an architected model of open source components based on open industry standards and open data model.
The partnership claims that the openness of the platform will be standardised to make data analytics/machine learning scenarios and use cases more accessible.
Not to ignore, everything comes with its pros and cons. While openness of such platform seems great concept yet this fundamental change will carry its own consequences along with it. A lot of companies are getting advantages from traditional methods including proprietary technologies which are being considered as a barrier for OPM platform. It is quite evident that those who resist growth and change will be the losers in the future. One needs to evolve with this dynamic growth budding around in our surrounding to drive potential efficient outcomes in business.