How big is the Industry 4.0? Although the phrase seems vast, it can be defined. It is various technology innovations which can make your job easier and more comfortable. Bellow, you can find use cases that emphasize each of the 9 pillars of Industry 4.0.
Managing Supply Chain Risk / Big Data
One manufacturer is using big data to reduce risk in the delivery of raw materials, no matter what happens in the supply chain. Using big data analytics, the company has overlaid potential delays on a map, analyzing weather statistics for tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. Predictive analytics allow the company to calculate the probabilities of delays. The company uses the analytics findings to identify backup suppliers and develop contingency plans to make sure production isn’t interrupted by a natural disaster.
Wifi-equipped robots triple work efficiency / Autonomous Robots
An online retailer Alibaba has opened the largest ‘smart warehouse‘ in China manned by 60 cutting-edge robots. These Wifi-equipped, self-charging machines are responsible for moving goods in the warehouse. They send the goods to human workers, who then arrange the products to be packed and posted to customers around the world.
Developing an automated flight service cart system for New Doha International Airport / Simulation
The process of testing a facility or plant to verify that it functions according to specifications is called commissioning. Advances in technology have made it possible to conduct significant portions of this testing using computer systems, which simulate in great detail the plant’s operation. This process can save companies substantial amounts of time and money by modeling and optimize operations long before construction or equipment installation begins.
Smart Factory / System Integration
For years Beiersdorf has advanced the digitalization of production on the path to the intelligent factory – improving agility and flexibility. In the beginning, it was a consolidation project to reduce the number of ERP implementations and in-house MES developments, and to standardize processes for all production sites. What emerged from this was an enduring relationship with many ideas leading to Industry 4.0.
Plant Safety and Security / Internet of things
IoT combined big data analysis can improve the overall workers’ safety and security in the plant. By monitoring the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of health and safety, like the number of injuries and illness rates, near-misses, short- and long-term absences, vehicle incidents and property damage or loss during daily operations. Thus, effective monitoring ensures better safety. Lagging indicators, if any, can be addressed thus ensuring proper redressal health, safety, and environment (HSE) issues.
The cyber risk in advanced manufacturing / Cybersecurity
Given its focus on innovation and an increasing reliance on connected products, the manufacturing industry is particularly vulnerable to cyber risks. To assess the landscape, Deloitte and MAPI conducted a cyber risk in advanced manufacturing study. The study examines six emerging themes and offers manufacturers insights into what they should do to be secure, vigilant, and resilient in addressing cyber risk.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) / Cloud Computing
There is a lot that goes into building and maintaining infrastructure. There are the hardware costs, the cost of the space, the electricity to power it, and the overhead to build and maintain it. Building out a data center can easily cost a company millions of dollars. For this reason, companies are opting to forego capital expenditures in favor of operational expenditures and host data in service provider run data centers. This allows companies to avoid costly infrastructure investments and easily access their data via the cloud.
3D printed Robot Arm / Additive manufacturing
BCN3D Technologies keeps taking important steps in order to achieve their goal of bringing the digital manufacturing technology to everyone. The BCN3D Moveo is a robotic arm design from scratch and developed by their engineers in collaboration with the Department d’Ensenyament from the Generalitat de Catalunya. Its structure is fully printed using additive manufacturing technologies and its electronics are controlled by the software Arduino. It has a Marlin based firmware developed for robot arms with steppers by Zortrax.
Procedures and Work Instructions / Augmented Reality
We developed a platform for effective knowledge, information and work process sharing. REWO solves the problem of sharing new principles of work with your workers. The hardest part of lean manufacturing is teaching new processes to workers when they have been doing it in a certain way for many years. REWO makes Single-minute exchange of die (SMED) simpler by visualizing the new process. It also allows you focus on TMP and to transfer basic maintenance operations from your maintenance staff to your machine operators.