Building software that works inside the practical constraints of manufacturing and engineering is a complex undertaking. Any downtime is costly, and most production environments are far from simple. A plant can’t depend on cloud services in the way that office-oriented software can, for example, so it’s never going to be a case of spinning up a SaaS to solve all problems.That’s not to say that software companies don’t try to solve facilities’ quality and reliability issues, and there are several noteworthy platforms on the market that may be attractive to operations managers looking to improve output and quality standards.But an important distinction in this specific market sector is the term ‘software companies’. It seems logical that a software solution provider should start with a general product – perhaps leveraging the presence of existing software in the business, like an ERP – and extend it so it manages and attenuates physical operations. Much rarer is software that’s grown up from the factory floor, rooted in solving the day-to-day head-scratchers that face decision-makers every day.LG CNS (a company specializing in AI Transformation) comes from the latter environment. The LG Group might be best known in the West as a manufacturer of consumer goods, but its white goods and electronics sold under the LG brand are only a part of what is a global industrial group.We spoke exclusively to Bryce Barnes, who’s helping bring LG CNS’s smart factory software platform to the US market. During our conversation he defined LG CNS: “We’re new as a brand in the manufacturing space, but we’re not new in manufacturing and we’re not just a software company. We’re a company with deep operational experience and the software is an expression of that learning.”Software that’s factory firstSomething that may ring bells with readers is that software projects in factory environments, especially in companies with multiple facilities, can fail to produce the desired outcomes because factories are places that aren’t ‘clean’ software demo rooms. Old and new plant and machinery co-exist, systems as basic as networking vary from facility to facility, production targets and shift patterns change according to demand…in short, the complex detail on the ground trips up many attempts to digitally transform in the industry.Bryce Barnes, LG CNS.LG CNS has been around for at least three decades, beginning in its native Korea with the remit of systems integration, software development, and IT services for the larger LG Group. LG Group was and is comprised of businesses in chemicals, electronics, battery tech, energy, manufacturing, and many more. LG CNS developed for the Group as a whole a smart factory platform that played a major part in the company’s runaway success. (If you need proof of LG CNS’s abilities, check out the LG Group’s manufacturing and engineering divisions’ finances.)Today, the LG CNS smart factory platform covers nearly all aspects of production: IoT Systems, SCADA, manufacturing execution, quality and process control, AI vision systems, digital twins, cutting-edge world models, and all the associated, necessary layers that are needed to run the world’s most advanced production systems.Into North AmericaThe emergence of LG CNS into the North American market is coming at the right time. Factories are under pressure to compete with more efficient facilities abroad and at home, and US companies need to be more automated, more flexible, and – to use a tech buzzword – more data-driven. There may be discrete areas in any factory that are automated, and there’s likely little shortage of data, but pulling it all together across a multi-plant US company is a massive challenge.Barnes’s career could have been written for his evangelizing role. He’s a mechanical engineer by training (working in manufacturing early on in his career), before moving to spend 21 years at Cisco, where he worked on industrial systems, the internet of things, Industry 4.0 technology, and – no surprises here – digital networking. Later, he worked on the AI platforms Microsoft designs for manufacturers, and helped develop that company’s manufacturing cloud platform.While LG CNS believes that cloud platforms are strategic for manufacturing, he notes that: “Most software still lives and runs in a plant. The cloud is very important, but it is a balancing act.” This is where LG CNS shines. It will bring Cloud technology to its manufacturing partners in a way that is flexible, allowing them to benefit from cloud while maintaining operational availability.Cloud, IIot, and latterly AI, can’t be treated as independent answers, he says – each is a set of tools. The value comes when tools accelerate business outcomes, which like-as-not come down to issues like better control, better quality, better visibility, better use of production data.East and WestLG CNS is in a position to bring together the best of both worlds. In the West, we tend to bring software to bear on series of problems. And, the competitors LG CNS is up against in the North American market are Western, who bring strong software capabilities but not always actual manufacturing experience. In Korea, he says, “Software is an expression of manufacturing. For Korean companies, it’s like, ‘We have this incredible background in manufacturing. So how does the software best express what we do? How does it unify it?'”The most advanced, connected factories anywhere on the globe can look and operate almost like they’re the most advanced, semi-conductor fabrication plants, Bryce says – fewer people, more machines, digitally-driven with the business’s goals as the target. “We’ve developed a full software platform that runs some of the most advanced manufacturing plants in the world,” he says, and these aren’t confined to Korea and its immediate neighbors. You’ll find LG-powered plants from Canada, through the US, to Mexico, and right throughout Europe. LG CNS not only developed the end to end Smart Factory platforms that run these plants, LG CNS runs and operates these digital platforms day to day. “Our capabilities make us unique in the world”.It’s the best of a global story, distilled and brought pre-baked to the North American industrial sector, for North American businesses.Manufacturers now operate in global markets. By taking guidance from the world’s leaders, America’s factories have a better chance than most to realize the Industry 4.0 dream.You can hear how at the Edge Computing Expo, held 18-19 May at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, where Bryce Barnes will be speaking to the US industry. Visit LG CNS’s presence on the show floor, or head to the web to find out more.(Image source: Pixabay under licence.)Want to learn more about IoT from industry leaders? Check out IoT Tech Expo taking place in Amsterdam, California, and London. The comprehensive event is part of TechEx and co-located with other leading technology events. Click here for more information.IoT News is powered by TechForge Media. Explore other upcoming enterprise technology events and webinars here.