Sandvik Coromant to collaborate with Microsoft to shape future manufacturing industry
April 4, 2020
Sandvik Coromant, Sandviken, Sweden, reports that it has entered into a venture with Microsoft to accelerate the development and digitalisation of the manufacturing industry. As part of the collaboration, Sandvik Coromant will combine its expertise in machining with technical solutions from Microsoft, with the aim to link up parts of the production chain to create solutions for the next generation of manufacturing.
According to Sandvik Coromant, the venture also includes an acceleration of the internal digitalisation network for the company with its CoroPlus® offering, developed in part with Microsoft, is reportedly based on Azure IoT Suite, Cortana Intelligence Suite and Dynamics 365 for Field Service. Among other things, the offering connects people, machines, tools and data on a single platform to offer Sandvik Coromant’s customers a better basis for decision making, and provides an overview of the various developments in the manufacturing process. This is said to enable savings such as reducing machine downtimes.
Additinally, data is not only gathered at machine level to adjust equipment, notify technicians about maintenance requirements and warn managers about potential problems. Data is also gathered at tool level, meaning that the customer’s industrial tool becomes “smart” and can be adapted and adjusted at any time for efficient use and to prevent production stoppages. Sandvik Coromant explains that the partnership with Microsoft adopts an integrated approach to digitising the data, expertise and experience used on a daily basis by Sandvik Coromant to guide its customers, and will serve as an additional tool to facilitate streamlining of production.
“We see this collaboration with Microsoft as key to the success of our digital strategy,” stated Nadine Crauwels, President of Sandvik Coromant. “We have a historic relationship with them and look forward to continuing our journey, creating value by working together to develop and implement solutions for the manufacturing industry to guarantee efficiency, sustainability and growth. This unique partnership represents a new way for our companies to work together more closely to develop our competence.”
Hélène Barnekow, CEO of Microsoft Sweden, commented, “Sandvik Coromant is a world leader in machining and has a track record of driving development in the industrial sector both in Sweden and internationally. It is incredibly inspiring that they have chosen to take the next step of the journey with us, and this is a really striking example of how digitalisation can create new opportunities for the company to develop and become even better at what it does.”
