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JUNE 2020 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 59 Minutes, hours, or days could pass. There's so much increased opportunity for handling issues, further delays from failing equipment, missing materials, effects of engineering revi- sions, and contamination, resulting potentially in more inspection, cleaning, processing, and more delays and storage. Being able to digi- tally track the paths of products during assem- bly creates significantly more opportunities for efficiency improvement and cost savings. To do this, the data from individual machines and processes also needs to be used to create a live virtual "movie" of everything happening in the factory—a live manufacturing "digital twin" that's the real thing, not a simulation. Unlike people, software does not need to create fancy 3D animations and images to be able to apply a rules-based engine that takes contextualization of data holistically from machines, materials, quality, and planning, as well as knowledge of working line config- urations and products to create an omniper- spective-based digital twin model. The man- ufacturing digital twin "movie" extends back in time in terms of near-term performance history to learn what works well and where everything currently is. It also extends forward in time, as extrapolations based on current trends are analyzed, to detect any issues that could be avoided by implementing changes and decisions now. In effect, this rules-based manufacturing dig- ital twin is controlling and managing the whole production operation, creating visibility and automation around challenges and address- ing the core business needs and improvement opportunities within the factory. This is no ordinary MES solution; instead, it is the rede- fined, modern IIoT-driven MES solution built specifically around the rules-based digital twin architecture. Therefore, gathering data from around the factory is step one toward making digital solu- tions work for the betterment of manufactur- ing. However, you do need to take more than one step to get to the next level. How you use the data is far more significant than just having it, making dashboards from it, and performing machine learning and analytics. The true dig- ital twin for manufacturing within IIoT-based MES execution is here. SMT007 Michael Ford is the senior director of emerging industry strategy for Aegis Software. To read past columns or contact Ford, click here. where they could perform for more than a decade in this less demanding role. As a test case, the researchers examined in detail a hypothetical grid-scale solar farm in California. They studied the economics of three scenarios. They found that the new battery installation would not provide a reasonable net return on invest- ment, but that a properly man- aged system of used EV batter- ies could be a good, profitable investment as long as the bat- teries cost less than 60% of their original price. To read the full article, click here. (Source: MIT News Office) Modeling study shows battery reuse systems could be profitable for both electric vehicle companies and grid- scale solar operations. The study, published in Applied Energy, was carried out by six current and former MIT researchers. As electric vehicles rapidly grow in popularity world- wide, there will soon be a wave of used batteries whose perfor- mance is no longer sufficient for vehicles that need reliable acceleration and range. But a new study shows that these batteries could still have a use- ful and profitable second life as backup storage for grid-scale solar photovoltaic installations, Solar Energy Farms Could Offer Second Life for Electric Vehicle Batteries