The technology exists, and standardisation and data protection pose no obstacles on the way to Industry 4.0, according to the experts participating in the round-table discussion. The biggest challenge lies in defining useful applications for interconnected production which are also economically viable.
The experts around the table all readily agree that Industry 4.0 is not really a revolution in technology terms: “Cyber-physical systems, combining hardware, software and connectivity, have been around for quite some time,” states Georg Kube, Global Vice President Industrial Machinery and Components at SAP. He therefore sees Industry 4.0 more as a much accelerated evolution than a revolution. Prof. Dr Alexander Ferrein, head of the Institute for Mobile Autonomous Systems and Cognitive Robotics at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences, also believes that the technologies needed for Industry 4.0 already exist and are being used: “A new feature is that the technologies have been getting steadily cheaper, and now are affordable to smaller businesses too.” As a result, more and more sensors are being used in manufacturing industry, so providing the basis for machines to become intelligent and act autonomously within unstructured environments. For Prof. Ferrein, whose research is focused on artificial intelligence and cognitive robotics, that is the foundation for one of the key innovations in Industry 4.0: “It will take us a major step forward especially in terms of collaboration between people and machines, or robots, in the near future.” That view is shared by Dr Wilfried Kugler, Vice President Operations of viastore, a leading international vendor of turnkey logistics systems and warehouse management software: “We have been interconnecting our systems for the last 15 years. So it’s nothing new for us. Of course, robots are already being used in warehouses today, such as for picking and packing heavy goods. But they are rarely operated as assistance systems, collaborating with and supporting the people – which is one of the typical features of Industry 4.0. I see a lot more potential in that direction.” Thomas Staudinger, Vice President Vertical Segments and Technical Marketing of EBV, also emphasises that specific Industry 4.0 products do not normally need to be developed. “Mostly it’s a case of adding connectivity and security functions to existing machines. That is generating some exciting new ideas on the basis of technologies that are already currently available.” And it is just that attribute which he regards as the revolutionary aspect of Industry 4.0: “Industry 4.0 brings together lots of elements that have existed for some time, and which now are able to enhance each other.” Examples include Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), which has suddenly made available vast numbers of IP addresses to boost the connectivity of all kinds of objects, as well as the dramatic falls in mobile communication costs.
Finding useful business cases
Yet Industry 4.0 must not become an end in itself, according to Dr Kugler. “If there is no customer benefit, even the most advanced technology is useless. The main priorities are throughput, availability and cost-effectiveness.” Georg Kube is routinely confronted by the question as to the benefit of Industry 4.0: “Many companies have become aware of Industry 4.0 due to the hype surrounding it, and they are asking themselves – and us – how they can utilise the technologies to their benefit.” Often there is even no need to install new hardware, as Kube reports: “One of our customers, a chemicals company, has been recording and saving all its sensor data and plant maintenance logs for years, but was unsure what exactly to do with them. We were able to analyse the data and search it for patterns indicating impending failure, such as of a pump. The plant can now be serviced before a failure occurs.” Maintenance costs have been cut as a result – and so the investment in the technology has been worthwhile. This illustrates precisely what Kube regards as the biggest challenge of Industry 4.0: finding useful business cases.
Varied benefits
Thomas Staudinger also takes the view that Industry 4.0 can only be successful if a balance is achieved between the cost of its implementation and its benefits: “If a smart product costs ten or twenty times more, it will be difficult to find arguments in favour of it. But if, for example, I can spend five euros installing a sensor, a microcontroller and a communications interface in a 5,000 euro motor to warn me of impending damage to the motor, then I can offer added value that customers are willing to pay for.” Nevertheless, the benefits of interconnected products in Industry 4.0 can be quite varied, as Dr Kugler explains: “One of the promises is that products will be cheaper to make. But Industry 4.0 can also help enhance quality in the processes and the product.” Georg Kube cites the customisation of the manufacturing process as another benefit: “With Industry 4.0 it is possible to configure a product individually and put it into production quickly – at a cost close to that of volume production.” Generally, the SAP executive sees three objectives for Industry 4.0-related measures: being able to sell products more cheaply, generating new sales based on new services, or selling more products based on the facility for customers to tailor them individually to their needs.
Predictive maintenance a core application
Kube sees major opportunities in relation to service especially: “In my view that is a core application for Industry 4.0, and some of the applications are now being devised.” Wilfried Kugler cites an example from his own company: “We are currently working on a solution which implements agents into our software systems and links them to our service centre. The software agents detect impending problems in the customer’s plant and actively notify our service centre. A service technician is able to intervene actively on-site before anything actually happens. We offer customers this boost to plant availability as an additional service – and they are willing to pay for the benefit it delivers.” But Prof. Ferrein is confident that service will not replace traditional manufacturing industry: “Someone is still ultimately going to have to be making things. One of the ideas underlying Industry 4.0 is that the boundaries between machinery and service will be eliminated, and that there will be no defined production locations, but I do not see it that way. Present-day manufacturing industry possesses a wealth of know-how in making its products, and that is not so easy to simply shift to the Cloud.” Nevertheless, Cloud technology, in conjunction with high-quality communications networks, does open up entirely new possibilities: “It is today already possible to control all the operations of a warehouse in Singapore from a data centre in Germany,” Dr Kugler reports. “The vital question is therefore: what services will still have to be resident in a machine at all, and what services will be handled over networks or on the Cloud?”
Data protection can be properly implemented with the right levels of awareness
This does, however, give rise to another question which Thomas Staudinger highlights: “Who does the data actually belong to? The customers who generate it, or the service providers who analyse it at their data centres?” The experts around the table all agree that this is a question which has to be contractually agreed in detail between the customers and their service providers. They regard statutory provisions as helpful, but not essential. “The law is only ever of limited use in relation to access rights and data protection. The matters have to be contractually agreed, and that demands trust between the IT provider, the system integrator and the customer,” Wilfried Kugler states. Georg Kube adds that migrating data or processes to the Cloud is not necessarily insecure: “It is very difficult for SMEs, especially, to protect their servers against cyber-attack. On the other hand, IT security is the core business of Cloud service providers, so a Cloud environment is often better protected than an individual IT system.”
Integrating cybersecurity into security planning
“The cybersecurity risks will of course rise as autonomous components in industry are increasingly connected to the Internet,” Thomas Staudinger admits. But he is also certain that sound solutions exist to cope with them: “Appropriate software and hardware measures can be implemented to protect the system and the data.” That does, however, mean that a precise definition is needed as to what actually has to be protected: should the systems prevent manipulation of the production process, theft of company data, or copying of a new product by a competitor? “The technologies to handle all those tasks already exist today,” says Staudinger. “They are just not yet integrated globally into security planning.” The current debate surrounding Industry 4.0 can actually offer an opportunity in this respect, Prof. Ferrein thinks. “Many companies in traditional industry are still completely unaware of the security problems that exist. So Industry 4.0 should also be used to instigate an education campaign on the issue.”
Standardisation is helpful, but not essential
As in relation to data protection, the round table participants do not believe that higher instances should be the primary option in terms of standardisation. “I do not think that we can wait for Industry 4.0 to be standardised,” Thomas Staudinger claims. “If we do, there is a risk that the USA or other countries might overtake us in implementing the concept.” Wilfried Kugler takes the same view. He adds: “We already have lots of standardised technologies today, such as the Internet Protocol, helping to deliver good Industry 4.0 solutions.” Georg Kube sums up the standardisation discussion: “Standards would be desirable and helpful, but are not essential. A lack of global standards will not hold back Industry 4.0.”
Engineers will increasingly have to adopt a systematic approach
But what does that mean for the people working in Industry 4.0? “Engineering training will certainly change,” Georg Kube asserts. Interconnected, autonomous products will entail a convergence of mechanical engineering, software and electronics. So future engineers will have to adopt an even more systematic approach than they already do today, Kube believes. “But there is a yawning gulf between the methods and working practices of mechanical engineers and IT specialists, so the various fields will have to be converged even more closely.” This is already happening in universities, as Prof. Alexander Ferrein highlights. “Manufacturing and automation are already inconceivable without IT. What is important is that future engineers should be taught to view complex systems in their totality. Not everyone will be able to do everything of course. But the various subject areas must learn to talk to each other, and to understand the correlations between their respective work.”
Experienced skilled staff will still be needed
Industry 4.0 will also change the working environment for skilled production staff – in a positive way, as Wilfried Kugler confidently asserts: “As a symptom of demographic change, the skilled factory workforce will be getting ever older. Industry 4.0 will provide them with supporting technologies, including assistance systems such as collaborative robots.” In parallel, IT will increasingly be deployed to assist people within the production environment. That is perhaps not a particularly pleasant prospect for today’s older generation but, as Dr Kugler points out, the next generation will be entirely comfortable using tablets to monitor and control industrial plant. “That does not mean that everyone now has to be a computer expert though,” Prof. Ferrein stresses. “We will still in future need people capable of shaping metal by hand, for example. Smaller businesses not engaged in mass production will still be reliant on such people.” The general view around the table is that Industry 4.0 will not lead to deserted factories without a human being in sight. But as Thomas Staudinger points out: “Autonomous systems will take over simple work tasks in future. Unskilled jobs will increasingly disappear. On the other hand, a flexible Industry 4.0 system will create more manufacturing processes in Europe, and so in turn safeguard employment.” Industry 4.0 certainly offers a new major opportunity for the current generation of experienced skilled workers, Georg Kube believes. “Someone will have to feed the knowledge into the expert systems. Experienced staff will be needed to program the new applications.”