Industry 4.0 | plant management


Compounding the smart way


The factory of the future will be smart. Industry 4.0 technologies are set to make production more flexible and efficient and they will do that by breaking up the hierarchical structures of today and replacing them with interconnected networks of people and machines. Smart machine sensor technology, external networking and information exchange will improve the efficiency of the machine and the process. Increasing computerisation will turn machines into decision-makers, requiring less intervention from the operator to maintain quality and efficiency and to significantly reduce cost. Some industries are already moving down the Industry 4.0 route and the plastics industry is now taking that direction, too. While the initial developments have been seen in injection moulding, the compounding industry is also looking at what is possible in terms of digitalisation. One company offering assistance to the plastics


industry with implementation of Industry 4.0 concepts is the international management consultancy Arthur D Little. “Digital transformation and Industry 4.0 are driving forces which are reshaping today’s industrial eco-systems,” says Dr. Oliver Krause, Associate Director based at the company’s offices in Berlin in Germany. “In order to understand the potential impact on compounding and the wider plastics industry, it is important to be aware of the new aspects of this


www.compoundingworld.com


Industry 4.0 technologies are coming to plastics compounding and


promise to radically change the manufacturing process.


Mark Holmes finds out more


development. The concept of Industry 4.0 – and the related or overlapping conceptual terms of industrial internet and internet of things, services and everything – is a term used to describe the joint application of a whole range of manufacturing, communication and ana- lytics technologies,” he says. These technologies will reach beyond the automation


of today’s existing value chain and internal processes if they are embedded in a comprehensive strategy that covers the customer perspective and business model, as well as organisational and workforce capability aspects. However, Krause says that the core of Industry 4.0 is the smart product. “A smart product is any physical device which is equipped with sensor technology generating data across the lifecycle of the product, from design via


Main image: The plastics industry, including


compounding, is planning its move in the direction of Industry 4.0


May 2017 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 35


PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK


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