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Manufacturers have always leveraged the latest technologies to enhance key outcomes such as productivity, efficiency, agility, and safety. However, the rapid acceleration of technology at the edge in recent years has left manufacturers grappling with the challenge of incorporating and integrating these innovations. This disparity creates a significant opportunity gap, favoring early adopters with a competitive edge.

A recent survey, Smart Factories Are Still a Work in Progress, highlights the struggle manufacturers face in integrating emerging technologies into their overall business strategy, as shown in the following figure. While AI is not new to manufacturers, only about one in five currently use it in their production operations.

Figure 1. Smart factory integration

Manufacturing customers encounter substantial challenges, particularly at the edge, when harnessing the potential of emerging technologies including AI. In addition to delivering critical functionality at the edge, the ideal solution must be:

• Easy to integrate, manage, and upgrade over its lifetime
• Designed to scale across diverse applications and systems
• Able to drive sustainability with greater digitization and efficiency of operations  
• Able to securely protect the edge estate

Successfully meeting these demanding requirements in a sustainable manner necessitates innovative thinking and a robust ecosystem of partners to support the diverse needs of our manufacturing clients.

Say hello to the new and improved Dell Validated Design for Manufacturing Edge.

Dell Technologies’ extensive experience in the manufacturing and industrial sector, coupled with the trust of 82 percent of Fortune 100 companies using Dell for edge computing, has inspired us to enhance our edge solution with AI-driven features and to expand our partnerships.

We have accelerated key manufacturing outcomes by adopting AI and related technologies. This provided a comprehensive edge solution that bridges the gap between the promise of AI and its practical implementation on the factory floor with essential features such as:

• Simplified edge operations with Dell NativeEdge–Setting up AI capabilities on the plant floor is simplified. Dell NativeEdge streamlines deployment, ensures secure scaling without disrupting operations, orchestrates critical workloads, and manages the life cycle of the application and the endpoint automatically. These increased operational efficiencies drive greater sustainability, even in air-gapped environments.
• Strategic partnerships–Collaborating with Hyundai AutoEver (HAE), a Hyundai subsidiary, we deliver a crucial set of AI-driven capabilities and intelligent OT/IT convergence. HAE develops smart factory solutions such as NeoFactory IoT that integrate with existing IT/OT infrastructures, promoting streamlined operations and digital continuity across the manufacturing landscape.
• Flexibility of choice–Manufacturers can choose from a rich array of partners including Telit Cinterion, PTC, Litmus, Cognex, Claroty, and XMPro, each contributing unique capabilities. Whether it is edge analytics, connected intelligence, machine vision, predictive maintenance, or OT cybersecurity, the options are abundant.
• AI-driven insights–Dell Validated Design for Manufacturing Edge does not stop at deployment. It continues to evolve, adding features and supporting applications that enhance operational excellence. AI-driven insights empower decision-makers with real-time data, enabling proactive responses.

The Dell Validated Design for Manufacturing Edge empowers manufacturers to capitalize on their edge and leverage the potential of AI to gain business advantage. They do this by:

• Providing faster time to value by unifying IT and OT. This is done by eliminating data silos from edge devices from the factory floor to enterprise applications in the multicloud.
• Deploying innovative technologies for operational agility and improved production quality to expedite industry 4.0 and sustainability goals.
• Protecting the manufacturing edge from malicious actors using proven cybersecurity solutions.

Incorporating and integrating innovations quickly into production lines creates a competitive advantage.  This end-to-end offering addresses this challenge from data collection and analysis to cybersecurity, all integrated and scalable in a single solution. The Dell Validated Design for Manufacturing Edge offers the best of both worlds, a trusted platform built by a proven market leader that is designed to accelerate manufacturing outcomes by leveraging AI.

To learn more about our validated designs for manufacturing edge, see Manufacturing Edge Solutions. Visit our exciting booth at Hannover Messe (#53, Hall 15).