ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE COVER STORY
INDUSTRY 4.0: NO-ONE CAN GO IT ALONE
When HARTING built its Industry 4.0 demonstrator as part of the SmartFactoryKL
concept five years ago,
one thing became clear: no one can implement Industry 4.0 by themselves. A circle of partners quickly coalesced which joined forces and found a way to meet this challenge. In the course of the first few meetings, it became apparent that Industry 4.0 would see a whole new form of co-operation arise, as Gavin Stoppel, product manager, explains...
W
hile there is always going to be competition between the various
companies in the marketplace, these companies realise that generating solutions to complex challenges requires them to come together and co-operate as partners – which means that their solutions must work together as well. This process sees the specific competencies of the different participants bundled into an overall solution. In the case of the SmartFactoryKL
, the
result was the world’s first Industry 4.0 demonstrator. The partners involved in the project co-operated as equals, openly and unconditionally. Consequently, the results are available to all partners: something that has proved highly advantageous in developing industry standards in the field of system architecture. There are numerous reasons for not opting to develop solutions in a monolithic manner. In complex systems, co-operation obviously leads to efficiency, since it would take a very long time – possibly infinitely long – to achieve results with a fragmented approach. Another driver for greater co-operation is the fact that ever shorter technology cycles mean that a solution must also function and be stable in the face of a rapidly changing industrial environment. Modern IT systems are generally designed with these challenges in mind, but this is typically not the case for industrial production systems. The service orientation of Industry 4.0 provides a further chance to escape the vicious circle of a monolithic architecture. The new SmartFactoryKL
project on the
subject of edge devices will demonstrate how, in future, data exchange between
8 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018 | AUTOMATION
HARTING is strongly focusing on Integrated Industry, which together with digitisation and artificial intelligence raises many new research questions
the field level and different applications will need to be end-to-end in order to efficiently supply the most diverse applications with relevant data. For example, the temperature reading of a sensor can be used for process control as well as for predictive maintenance or energy management. This results in an exponentially increasing effort for new applications if the solutions are not open and interoperable and so cannot always access the same field-level data. Consequently, for complex value-added networks, Industry 4.0 requires the appropriate partner networks in order to meet this challenge. In this way, the SmartFactoryKL
network of partners which goes far beyond the original demonstrator. In this extended network, the partners
work on two levels: • first, in the SmartFactoryKL
as an equal
partner on the team. • secondly, in the marketplace, in order to offer the customer the best solution – and often even jointly, because no one can do everything by themselves.
PARTNERSHIPS WITH UNIVERSITIES In addition to its partnerships with industrial companies, HARTING maintains numerous partnerships with universities. Joint research with university partners creates the basis for innovative products and new concepts for Integrated Industry. University partnerships enable HARTING to work closely with science and research entities. The results lead to innovative products, novel production concepts and new business models. In conjunction with research partners, targeted funding can be used to set priorities that generate new insights and
applications for both sides. Currently, HARTING is strongly focusing on the field of Integrated Industry, which together with digitisation and artificial intelligence raises many new research questions. Consequently, in the regional
has established a genuine
environment, at the University of Osnabrück, five years ago the technology group established the HARTING Endowed Professorship for ‘Distributed Systems’, headed by Prof. Nils Aschenbruck. The joint effort has resulted in important developments for the intelligent connector which is identified via RFID (radio-frequency identification) and accessed via a smartphone or tablet to retrieve additional information. In addition to bilateral financial support
for higher education institutions, HARTING also participates in co-operative partnerships or projects which are conducted in conjunction with universities and other partners from the industrial sector. One example of this is the extraordinarily successful leading-edge cluster of German businesses, universities, research institutes and organisations known as ‘it’s OWL’, where the HARTING Technology Group is engaged in two research projects involving flexible production and intelligent software structures in smart factory applications. HARTING also maintains partnerships
with universities on an international level. China’s Robotation Academy Foshan numbers among these in the field of robotics, automation and Integrated Industry. There is also a collaborative effort with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston.
HARTING
www.HARTING.co.uk /AUTOMATION T: 01604 827500
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