Manufacturers are implementing digital technologies to improve productivity, quality, and resiliency, while edge computing consolidates hardware and software. VMware Edge Compute Stack supports manufacturing workloads, delivering functions previously served by dedicated hardware as software, enabling better CPU utilization and building a digital manufacturing platform for IT and OT teams.
Manufacturing is in the midst of a transformation. To increase productivity, and improve quality and resiliency, manufacturers have to bring more digital technologies into their operations. Edge and OT are critical areas of manufacturing innovation. Many of the new technologies being implemented by manufacturers such as Computer Vision for quality inspection, or IoT gateways and sensors for predictive maintenance are delivered using dedicated hardware appliances or servers. Managing an increasing number of hardware devices is very complex and limits the ability to scale and replicate to other locations.
Edge computing also offers an opportunity to consolidate different hardware devices and software running on them into a common computing platform. The functionalities traditionally delivered by dedicated devices such as Programmable Logic Control (PLC) can also be delivered in software. The move toward more software components opens up the opportunity to be more software-defined, which means functions that used to be served by dedicated hardware are now delivered as software and can be orchestrated and managed just like other pieces of software.
VMware Edge Compute Stack (ECS) can support various types of manufacturing workloads or applications at the edge. Applications that require strict, deterministic latency such as PLC or robotics controllers can also run alongside other workloads such as engineering workstations or analytics. ECS Enterprise Edge manages and schedules the compute, storage, and network resources appropriately based on the latency requirements of that workload. PLC can get its deterministic latency and CPU assignment while engineering workstations can share the same CPU resources for better utilization and efficiency. Applications can be delivered as virtual appliances or as Kubernetes applications. Both of them can co-exist on the same Edge Compute Stack, enabling the manufacturer to scale or add new resources to serve their growing need of running more applications on the shop floor. ECS will leverage Ethernet field buses such as Profinet and EtherCAT to communicate with IO devices such as motors, sensors, and actuators. The Enterprise Edge will enable the IT and OT team to build a digital manufacturing platform.
