plant management | Industry 4.0
form-based mobility services, such as Uber and Didi, strive to conquer the interface to the consumer and automotive manufacturers face the threat of becoming just hardware suppliers. In addition, Telco service providers struggle to keep their relevance to the client and not become mere bit-pipes. Banking and financial services firms are also struggling not to become obsolete and be just utilities, providing an infrastructure with commoditised products and services, without any opportunity to differentiate from the competition.” Krause says the potential advantages of Industry 4.0
Above: Industry 4.0 technolo- gies will transform the compounding process
production and use, to recycling. Sensors capture data everywhere and at any time,” he says. “Planning of complex manufacturing systems is
supported by so called ‘digital twins’,” according to Krause. “This generates full transparency both horizontally from raw materials supplier via component manufacturer, systems integrator, service provider to the end user, as well as vertically from the strategic and management perspective through administrative processes, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and production control down to the machine and tooling level. This transparency enables analytics to provide insights on strategies to maximise output through zero defects, reduced cycle time and downtime, for example, as well as minimising consumption of resources, such as raw materials, energy and labour.” Krause says that Industry 4.0 offers real opportuni-
ties for the plastics industry and could prove costly to it if not adopted. “New innovative companies will spot opportunities to either extend existing products and services based on data collection along the lifecycle from design via use to recycling, or dismantle integrat- ed offerings, improve high margin elements of the value chain and thus destroy existing business models with highly individual, flexible and low cost offerings to the existing client base of an incumbent. A potential danger for any company is to lose the direct interface with its existing customer base,” he says. This is already occurring in some other industries,
Krause believes. “The automotive industry is struggling to keep its relevance and profit margins as new plat-
36 COMPOUNDING WORLD | May 2017
either fall in the category of efficiency gains or in revenue increases. “Significant efficiency gains will be realised through wholescale automation of company internal processes, which can amount to 30-50% of the operating cost within an organisational function. Revenue increase can be achieved through highly personalised products, as well as generating new revenue streams by offering services extending the existing products. In addition, there are pay-per-use/output business models based on insight generated from data captured across the lifecycle of a product,” he says. Krause identifies several potential benefits that
Industry 4.0 technologies could bring to the compound- ing industry. Advanced data analytics may enable more effective predictive maintenance - reducing or even eliminating downtime. And there will be opportunities to provide augmented solutions in real situations. For example, specialists guiding lower skilled workers through set-up and maintenance activities, as well as providing intelligent assistance through context-de- pendent information. Smart data processing will also make information available, anytime and anywhere, through cloud storage. Looking further ahead, Industry 4.0 could lead to the integration of smart machines or robots that automatically move between different machines and change parts or reconfigure equipment.
Implementing Industry 4.0 So how should a plastics compounder go about implementing an Industry 4.0 strategy? A comprehen- sive strategy and specific roadmap of how to position the company in the new world of the Industry 4.0 is needed, says Krause. This starts with understanding the value chain, eco-system and the company’s own position. Figure 1 shows an example for the plastics packaging industry. “A successful transformation journey towards
Industry 4.0 requires a clear understanding of a company’s target picture at any given time. This target picture can be described in terms of overlapping domains, products and services, operating model(s) and business model(s), with technological and people
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PHOTO: COPERION
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