December, 2017
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Collaboration a Key Focus at productronica 2017
By Philip Stoten (@philipstoten) A
t productronica 2017 thousands of ex- hibitors, and tens of thousands of attendees passed through the halls of the Messe
München. I spoke with more than 100 industry ex- ecutives on camera, and many consultants, com- mentators and journalists off-camera to explore the most exciting topics in our industry today.
Collaboration and Communication. We spend so much time discussing the communication proto- cols between machines, but the most valuable progress is the communication and collaboration between companies and individuals. There were many exam- ples of deep and meaningful collabo- ration that go much further than the machine-to-machine (M2M) feedback loops that we have seen in recent years.
Companies are now much more
open to forming consortia and alliances to deliver what their customers de- mand. I like to think that this is entire- ly altruistic, but I suspect that the re- alization that no single company can deliver smart factory nirvana on its own is finally setting in.
Standards Success. When I wrapped up the “Standards Standoff” debate at SMTAI, I said that I would not hold another standards round- table until we’ve seen progress with the existing protocols. At productron- ica, the Hermes standard was offi- cially launched, and it, along with CFX, seems to be finding a home in many users’ software. Some companies have already
adopted these standards and were demonstrating them at their booths. One company, Aegis, that has been central to the development of CFX, has gone one step further and donat- ed a developer’s kit to the IPC, accel- erating the use and adoption of the standard. I am confident that come APEX next year, we will be coming out of the standards woods and mov- ing onward to real application.
Deep Domain Knowledge and Ex- pertise. Beyond standards and soft- ware is the need to produce reliable, accurate, quality data that can be used for action. This doesn’t just come from the right systems or com-
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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.
munications protocols, but from a real understand- ing of the manufacturing process and of all the dif- ferent dynamics. Two years ago, it seemed that every company
wanted to be a software provider, delivering an en- tire line solution. Each developed its own software and wanted to see it deployed up and down the SMT line and beyond. Now, it seems, people are re- alizing where their own value lies in the world of Industry 4.0. In the case of most companies, it’s
specific domain knowledge and subject matter ex- pertise. No one wants to buy reflow software from a
printer or placement machine vendor, or even from a company offering a so-called complete solution. Reflow software needs to come from companies that possess deep domain knowledge and expertise in thermal management, measurement and the soldering process. Companies that collaborate with
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DURABLE AND RELIABLE
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