Deloitte announced the grand opening of The Smart Factory @ Wichita. This new experience center is married to an ecosystem of world -leading, innovative collaborators, including founders: AWS, Dragos, Infor, SAP, Siemens, and Wichita State University, and builders: Check Point, HPE, Tenable , ServiceNow, UiPath, Verizon, and more using strategy and innovative technology to demonstrate the power of smart factory technologies.
Why it matters
As organizations continue to respond to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing demand for products amidst volatile supply chains, labor shortages and the world’s volatile economy, many manufacturers are hoping to old legacy systems to enable their operations. Organizations that engineer an end-to-end smart manufacturing operation can increase efficiency, sustainability, and cybersecurity, build stability, and create new levels of growth and competitive advantage.
Experience Industry 4.0 in action
Smart Factory @ Wichita showcases advanced manufacturing techniques in a variety of applications on one store floor to help organizations navigate their biggest challenges. Visitors to the new and immersive facility will experience smart factory concepts that combine the Internet of Things, cloud, artificial intelligence, computer vision and more to create coherent systems that use data to drive smart actions. They will also participate in real-world demonstrations, hands-on workshops and see practical life-giving applications designed to help their organizations build a road map to accelerate growth.
Smart Factory @ Wichita also serves as a catalyst for operational changes and improved business results. For example, Deloitte has created a technology platform, the Smart Factory Accelerator, with a range of managed services that allow manufacturers to navigate the complex digital transformation landscape to efficiently achieve their performance goals in operations. The new, cloud-based, turnkey set of solutions with advanced analytics, along with Deloitte’s network of ecosystem relationships, solves for today’s most important operational challenges, such as end-to-end visibility operations scale, provides proactive, predictive operational insights, and helps achieve step change performance goals.
Sustainably smart
Living in a net-zero building, 60,000ft2 Smart Factory @ Wichita is powered by a renewable energy smart grid and equipped with wind trees, solar assets, and smart lighting. The factory-made science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) kits use 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) collected from the local recycling stream as the primary raw material, giving life to the circular economy.
STEM education: Smart Factory @ Wichita enables the next generation of innovators
In line with its commitment to philanthropy and STEM education, The Smart Factory @ Wichita has teamed up with Elenco Electronics and AWS to help create and distribute a new STEM education product: the Smart Rover kit-a STEM-forward 21st century learning experience . Made on the factory’s innovative production line, the Smart Rover kit incorporates one of Elenco’s award-winning Snap Circuits kits, the Snap Rover, with a Raspberry Pi microcomputer and camera module to teach middle school students in design of product, coding and engineering. The program’s mission is to inspire the next generation of diverse innovators to fill the growing talent gap in critical STEM -focused areas. With initial donations affecting 1,000 middle school students in Metro Detroit, Philadelphia and Wichita by 2022, Deloitte aims to reach 800,000 U.S. students within four years to stimulate long-term systematic impact on STEM education.
Wichita: A center of precision manufacturing and technology
In support of a community known for its deep manufacturing roots, The Smart Factory @ Wichita is partnering with Wichita State University, which hosts the factory on its Innovation Campus, to integrate Deloitte’s technology experience with research, education and innovation of the university capabilities. Wichita State University also uses the factory in its curriculum as an applied learning experience to enrich the experiences of its students and help inspire the next generation of STEM manufacturing talent.
The factory is expected to attract more than 5,000 visitors, including leaders of well -known companies around the world, to the local area next year, with future growth expected. Smart Factory @ Wichita also engages with many parts of the community including local vendors, suppliers, and businesses.