NTQxTIA Solution Workshop Recap: Pave The Way For Vietnam’s Sustainable & Smart Manufacturing 

On 7th August in Hanoi, NTQ and TIA Solution successfully co-hosted a workshop “Total Integrated Automation For Smart Factory” with the participation of leaders, executives, and strategists from Vietnamese manufacturing firms. The event opens a platform that elevates the connection between business leaders and seasoned experts, enabling them to delve into practical insights, ideas and solutions to harness smart factory implementation that raises the bar of competitiveness for Vietnam’s manufacturing landscape. 

 The 2-hour session features a series of high-quality sharing sessions around the landscape of Vietnam’s manufacturing industry, awaited potential for manufacturers to break through with smart factory models, trends of integrating MES & IoT, along with panel discussions between participants and seasoned experts from Vietnam & Korea. The session left high-quality ideas, fresh insights, and valuable perspectives that spark a clear navigation for Vietnamese manufacturers to grow with a smart factory. 

Break The Barriers For Vietnam’s Smart Manufacturing 

With a sole focus on Vietnam’s manufacturing aspect, the event began with a series of speeches covering the comprehensive aspects of the country’s current landscape, led by dedicated experts with years of experience in the manufacturing industry. 

While Vietnamese manufacturers are taking active steps towards smart factory investment, some businesses are still lagging behind the trends, hindering productivity & capabilities to adapt to the fast-paced demand. The experts highlighted several barriers for businesses, especially SME, in transitioning towards smart & high-tech manufacturing models, notably including: 

• Process Standardization: Many SMEs lack fully developed internal processes, reducing compliance and efficiency when adopting digital transformation or new technologies.
  
• High Investment Costs: Significant upfront capital is required, making it challenging for SMEs without strong finances or access to Equipment-as-a-Service/Software-as-a-Service models.
  
• Talent Shortage: Limited availability of skilled engineers in data, AI, and IoT; training programs are still in the early stages of widespread adoption.
  
• Cybersecurity & Legacy Integration: IoT connectivity increases security risks; integrating with legacy systems is complex, and there is a lack of common standards across devices and systems.

In response to those concerns, the guest speakers introduced several initiatives that Vietnamese manufacturers can adapt to develop a smart, sustainable, and efficient manufacturing model. Their recommendations emphasized the importance of adopting integrated automation solutions, harnessing the combination of automation solutions (MES, IoT…) to leverage operational monitoring & data visibility, and prioritizing a phased approach to transformation that aligns with each factory’s current maturity level. 

Finding The Optimized Roadmap 

While most of Vietnamese manufacturers are fully awared of smart factory as a strong catalyst for the growth of industry, the approach to build optimize roadmap remains a big question. Following the analysis of current challenge landscape, the workshop addressed on key highlights of what, and how should manufacturers approach to smart factory with a strategic, long-term efficiency driven & optimized route. 

Mr. Nguyen Huu An – NTQ MES Expert, covered this section through a detailed analysis of typical end-to-end manufacturing model, then coming along with a recommended roadmap for manufacturers build most efficient adoption of smart factory. He highlighted that manufacturers should follow a 4 levels of adoption approach: Beginning with categorizing manual documents & data, streamlining & transforming process into digital platforms, leveraging into real-time monitoring & reporting, and integrating AI for smart planning & manufacturing execution.

“The most important pillar that every manufacturer should keep in mind is to be aware of the areas that need to improve, the capability to scale further, and the ways to create a connection that forms every single adopted technology & automation solution into a completed cycle of operation. With a clear strategy and aligned with the specific manufacturing models, the pathway to smart factory success is bright”. 

Recapping this session, Mr. An Nguyen highlighted how NxFactory, a joint collaborative platform between NTQ & TIA Solution, is designed to help manufacturers navigate smart factory building at all stage, from beginning their journey to fully digitalization & scaling productivity with integration of smart technology likes AI & IoT. 

Global Collaboration To Leverage Vietnam’s Smart Factory Industry 

Understanding the challenges and vast opportunities for Vietnam’s smart factory landscape enter the new horizon in the future, NxFactory – A joint collaborative solution between NTQ & TIA Solution – was introduced as a key solution for manufacturers to strengthen their roadmap towards smart & sustainable manufacturing. 

The platform harnesses the combined power of A-IoT and I-IoT, designed to provide a holistic approach to smart manufacturing ecosystem building, integrating built-in modules that cover every aspect of production, from planning, monitoring real-time operation to equipment lifecycle management & maintenance, evaluation of the factory’s energy consumption, and cost efficiency. Through integrating scalable & flexible integration modules, the platform is designed to help manufacturers, especially SME sectors with limited resources, to enter smart factory within different levels, from approaching semi automation to fully integration into high-complex process. 

Thanks to the comprehensive approach of streamlining production process, NxFactory is expected to help manufacturers save 10–33% in implementation costs and significantly shorten deployment timelines compared to traditional factory models, offering several modules as follow: 

• Comprehensive Smart Production Management: Goes beyond traditional task planning by enabling real-time, device-specific production control. With NxFactory, manufacturers can assign tasks dynamically based on machine availability, track production progress live, and adjust operations instantly. This module offers a smart production methodology that adapts to each factory’s unique setup, ensuring optimized throughput and performance visibility.
• End-to-End Traceability & Defect Analysis: Tracks the full lifecycle of components and finished goods through batch and serial number tracing, allowing users to pinpoint faults back to specific processes, equipment, or production stages. With this module, manufacturers can perform root-cause analysis and implement preventive measures based on data-driven insights, ensuring product quality and compliance.
• Intelligent Equipment Efficiency & Loss Analysis: Monitors key metrics like OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness), analyzes downtime, speed loss, and defect rates by equipment. It also collects real-time alerts on anomalies and provides automated loss categorization, empowering engineers to quantify performance gaps and continuously improve operational reliability.
• Predictive Maintenance & Asset Lifecycle Optimization: Automatically triggers maintenance actions based on equipment usage thresholds or operating conditions. The system manages spare parts inventory, schedules periodic inspections, and can even initiate procurement or repair requests, helping manufacturers minimize unplanned downtime and extend asset life cycles.
• Real-Time Visualization & Shopfloor Intelligence: Visualizes live production flows, bottlenecks, and performance metrics on large dashboards in control rooms or shop floors. With trend prediction and target tracking, this module empowers managers and operators to make faster, smarter decisions and proactively respond to deviations from plan.
• Smart Quality & Cost Control: Captures inspection data, tracks defect trends, and links quality KPIs with root causes for immediate corrective action. It also monitors energy usage and cost breakdowns across materials, repairs, and labor, supporting sustainable manufacturing and cost-efficient operations.

The session sparked enthusiastic responses from many participating manufacturers, who expressed both excitement and interest in applying these innovative solutions to their operations. Their feedback reaffirmed the strong demand for practical, scalable technologies that can truly address the current challenges, elevating the motivation for Vietnam’s manufacturing sector’s breakthrough in the future.

This event not only reflected the shared commitment of NTQ and TIA Solution to technological excellence but also marked a strategic milestone, a step forward in delivering sustainable, localized innovation that empowers Vietnam’s manufacturing industry to leap ahead in the future.