Beyond the Buzzwords—A Replay of Dell’s SAP Shop Floor Webinar

You might have heard terms such as Industry 4.0, Smart Factories, Paperless Manufacturing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) lately. For those of us who are not confronted with these terms on a daily basis it might be difficult to understand what really lies behind these buzzwords. And, although the meaning of these phrases seems obvious to many, the need for insight and details remains high among those who ask exactly what they mean.

photo of man climbing stairs of a factory to illustrate Dell Services and SAP webinar on smart factory

That’s why Dell’s Business Application & Technology Services division hosted a series of webinars together with SAP to not only clear up the confusion, but also to demonstrate the strategy behind what it takes to build a smart factory. Showcasing two of Dell’s client implementations—with the Scapa Group and Landis+Gyr—we provided an outlook on how we might help manufacturing companies take those critical next steps towards digital manufacturing.

Scapa built a fully integrated technical design for each component of the SAP MII application at the Knoxville location to fulfill both the company’s end-user functional needs and backend SAP ERP data configurations. A shared Dell and Scapa IT team evaluated the factory’s networks, servers, and applications and developed a comprehensive plan to execute the solution, including requirement priorities, an implementation roadmap and key project phases. 

“The SAP MII deployment in Knoxville was a true team effort with Dell Services, just like the previous deployments were,” says Baillie. “We really shared the workload for the project.”

Attendance rates for the webinar broadcasts were high, but we have also made the content available for video replay on the Dell Services YouTube Channel. You can check it out here:

"On the way to a Smart Factory"

About the Webinar

In the age of Internet, mobility, Big Data and in-memory analytics, it’s no longer a secret that the link between production and IT into an efficient production system has increasingly developed as a success factor for manufacturing companies.

But how can companies make the leap to the new form of value networks? And are there already practical applications and experiences of other manufacturing companies that helps developing an own strategy on the way to become a “Smart Factory”?

Dell and SAP answer these questions during a free, one-hour webinar. 

About the Author: Christian Schmidt