Meet Industry 4.0 challenges thanks to LIST Data Analytics

At the dawn of the Industry 4.0, also known as “Connected Factory”, companies are seeking to optimise their decision-making process and businesses by making use of cutting-edge technologies. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, following those of mechanisation, mass production and automation, then becomes synonymous with digital transformation.

At the core of a competitive interconnected global system, in which humans, machinery, systems and products are in constant communication, is data. Each event, action or value chain process represents key data which can be leveraged for better decision making, smarter production lines and optimised production flows.

LIST developed this strong knowhow, which has already made it possible to support many of its national partners with their digital transformation, such as Ceratizit. Uzma Iffat, researcher in Data Analytics at LIST, tells us more about this successful Luxembourgish partnership.

How is Data Analytics the foundation of any digital transformation?

Digital transformation and the Industry 4.0 revolution is data fuelled. The transformation to intelligent systems and smarter processes within an industry is driven by making key insights derived from the data and AI/ML models learnt from the data available to the stakeholders.

With its strong expertise in Data Analytics, LIST is helping Ceratizit to assess and improve its business for the Industry 4.0 of tomorrow by drawing insights from data collected. We have carried out a wide range of projects that come together in a much-consolidated way for Ceratizit's digital strategy.

As a Luxembourg industry established for several decades, it has to deal with data which is either not digitalised or difficult to access. One of our missions has therefore been to transform these data into accessible, usable and digitalised data using state of the art ML tools and techniques. Another LIST project is about creating predictive models and optimisation strategy for some key parameters in their manufacturing process. Being able to do so will allow Ceratizit to optimise its production pipeline and can potentially lead to savings in cost and resources. We are also exploring the possibility of using Augmented and Virtual Reality technologies in areas such as safety, personnel training and product routing.

How does LIST transfer its knowhow and cutting-edge technologies to the industry?

Beyond our scientific expertise, working in a Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) such as LIST allows us to transfer our knowledge to industries challenges. Our experiences in projects with partners enables us to foresee pressing needs of the industry and work on relevant research topics such as explainable and trustworthy systems, learning models from highly dimension data with limited volume, and adapting to non-stationary processes.

We mostly work with open source tools and are also adopting our new state of the art Data Analytics platform which equips us with a suite of cutting edge software tools and hardware accelerators to co-create targeted, innovative solutions with our partners.