Industry 4.0 is changing the world of manufacturing, but what – if anything – does it mean for the UK’s SME heartland?
It is – we’re frequently told – the grand concept that’s going to usher in the next industrial revolution, change forever the way that we make things, and shape the world’s balance of industrial power in the decades to come. But what exactly is Industry 4.0?
Despite everyone – from politicians to captains of industry – trumpeting its transformative power for the last few years, it’s not often that you come across a coherent definition of the concept. And when you do, it often differs from someone else’s coherent definition.
Nevertheless, the technologies at the heart of the Industry 4.0 concept are already having an impact. Across Europe – and particularly in Germany – large manufacturers are increasingly exploiting the benefits of smart sensing systems, and advanced connectivity to introduce new levels of flexibility, speed and reliability into their production processes.
Things are moving fast. So far, mainland Europe, and specifically Germany, leads the way. Although China which recently unveiled a bold ten-year industrial plan is catching up. And there’s a genuine concern that the UK could get left behind.
So what do we need to do to ensure that we stay in the race?
Whilst large multinationals frequently have the money and the structure to implement grand visions, Industry 4.0 won’t be truly transformative unless the whole of industry gets on board. The challenge in the UK is ensuring that the whole of industry is on-board – and this includes the many thousands of smaller engineering firms and manufacturers that form a huge chunk of Britain’s industrial landscape.
In an effort to shed some light on these issues and explore what the concept might really mean for the UK’s SMEs The Engineer has convened a special roundtable debate towards the end of next month.
Drawing on the thoughts of experts from throughout industry we hope to arrive at our own coherent definition of Industry 4.0, and explore what it means in practice for the UK’s manufacturers.
So if you work in UK manufacturing and you’re puzzled by Industry 4.0, want to know how your organisation can extract value from the technology or simply can’t see what the concept might mean for your firm, we’d love to hear from you. We’ll then put the most incisive and thought provoking of your questions, comments and misgivings to our expert panel and publish the answers here in The Engineer.
You can also learn more about Industry 4.0 – alongside 3D printing, Britain’s biggest ever warship, the Rosetta mission, and much, much more at The Engineer Conference, which kicks off at the NEC, Birmingham in just under two weeks time.
Well, MY understanding of the next industrial revolution is:
Products are developed and the design is stored on a hard disk in encrypted form.
Products are produced in automatic CNC production centres all over the place, close to where they are needed.
Product data are transmitted between the designers and the producers via Internet.
Using information technology products can be highly customised by the customers on the website.
That order then goes to a manufacturer nearby who orders from the designer of his choice the necessary product details which are then sent in tamperproof form from the designer to the machine, to be deleted after the product was made and delivered.
Similar technology is used for recycling plants, where product details inform the plant how to disassemble a product, and what material can be recycled how.
Those recyclers will be able to produce pellets that can be sold to 3D printing companies.
Maybe this is Industry 4.0 or maybe this is Industry 8.75?
As far as I can tell, it is an efficiency increasing tool, but will remain the preserve of multinationals, as it is expensive to implement.
An infrastructure anology seems approriate.
Consider a manufacturing plant with several hundred employees connected to the road network by a narrow lane. Several times of day this is going to create a bottleneck, and delay personnel being at their posts, items being deliverd/despatched etc.
The plant is prevented from doubling the width of the track because it would destroy the habitat of an endagered species of frog.
In desperation they turn to a smart mangement system to maximise the flow of traffic on their lane, think airport traffic control.
The system allocates slots to all employees, communicates such in good time, establishes their position in real time, can reallocate a slot due to absence, and so on.
By making this system smart and flexible the plant productivity is increased.
The important bit though is that the productivity increase allows the plant to offset the cost of the smart ‘infrastructure’ installed to optimise the traffic flow. It is a large plant after all, where 5% amounts to millions.
The plant has an SME supplier with a £2m/y turnover that notices the difference and investigates its own smart solutions, only to find that the investment required will take 15 years (life of system) or worse to achieve payback.
Another day… another buzzword to brighten up boardrooms!
Oh joy!
Meanwhile, over on the machine shop floor…
Always thought the future was going to be additive manufacturing, brings the whole process back to being a local thing, always imagined walking into a shoe shop, choosing a design, they scan my feet and after lunch I pick up the result or have it sent to my home.