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www.us-
tech.com Industry 4.0 in Action: productronica Surpasses Expectations By Philip Stoten (@philipstoten)
deadline from urgent to desperate, so being booked on a flight to San Fran- cisco for IDTechEx Wearable event on Monday I decided to explore whether productronica met my previ- ously published Industry 4.0 expec- tations. In 2013 there had been a lot of
I
Industry 4.0 talk at the show, lots of companies pinning their colors to that German-led smart factory mast, but very little in real solutions. This year, I felt, it was time for less talk and more action, so I was hoping to see some companies actually telling us how they would deliver that solu- tion and providing real clarity on the route to this manufacturing utopia. As it turns out I wasn’t disap-
pointed, and the halls were full of companies promoting more than just the philosophy or concept of Industry 4.0. There were plenty of examples of real solutions and a lot more clari- ty on what it all actually means. Asys Group had done a great job of showing a joined-up approach with clear graphics that explained the concept alongside a connected line that used smart-watch technology alongside the more traditional inter- face screens. ASM had packaged its offering
as the Smart #1 SMT Factory and had real examples of automation,
just returned from productronica in Munich to get an email from my editor updating my copy
process integration and materials lo- gistics in its booth and at the show- case at the company’s facility on the other side of Munich. I was lucky enough to have been asked to moder- ate three roundtables on the ASM stage during the event, which will be available as video downloads by the time you read this. The three de- bates dug deep into some of the is- sues, challenges, opportunities and benefits of Industry 4.0 and brought together panelists from all along the supply chain,
including Flex,
Lacroix, BMK Group and Aros Elec- tronics from the EMS world, all of whom had embarked on the journey to the smart factory and all of whom shared their success and experience. Also represented on the panels were Kuka, E2Open and Avnet, covering robotics, software and component distribution. I spoke to many people during
the week, both on and off camera and my impression was that, while a few were still either confused or uncon- cerned, most people understood the opportunity and were taking it seri- ously.
The software sector of the mar-
ket is clearly key to the successful de- livery and there were examples in Munich of a real understating and readiness to provide a solution that operates within the parameters of In- dustry 4.0. In a roundtable discus- sion filmed on the Scoop booth for US
Tech, Jason Spera, Aegis CEO, ex- plained how the FactoryLogix solu- tion was enabling Industry 4.0 throughout the enterprise, going be- yond the SMT line and into box build and lean cell manufacturing and in fact into areas where SMT wasn’t al- ways a part of the process. The soft- ware specialist’s background in man- ufacturing, its knowledge of CAD da- ta and its broad industry experience certainly gives the company an ad- vantage and it clearly gets the whole development of Industry 4.0. Alongside Jason on the panel
was Bjorn Dahle, CEO of KIC Ther- mal and Jeff Timms, who leads ASM Assembly Systems in the Americas. Bjorn talked at length about the im- portance of intelligence all along the line and how they were working to “make ovens smarter” using its own software and profiling hardware. He also explained the importance of process monitoring compared to ma- chine monitoring and the extended benefits that could be offered beyond just using the right recipe for a given product, solder paste and oven. The whole panel agreed that a holistic ap- proach was essential and that only real collaboration and openness would lead to the right solutions. Another software vendor pro-
moting its Industry 4.0 offering was Mentor and the company had a neat example of software control in its booth that not only drew crowds but
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simplified the whole concept. Mentor had built a model car racetrack in its booth that had intelligent cars with built-in cameras that sensed the envi- ronment and each other. The cars read data from all around them and responded by changing direction or speed. The cars were also able to learn through the week and develop their own racing strategy, becoming faster and more aggressive as the
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December, 2015
Philip Stoten is an internation- ally recognized EMS industry expert. Known for his skills as an inter viewer, reporter and
panel moderator, Philip is a fea- tured multi-media contributor to U.S. Tech on a regular basis.
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