Digital & Communication Technology
Digitalisation of production systems: The right interfaces for late adopters
By Dipl.-Ing. Jakob Dück, global industry segment manager, HARTING T
he fact that digitalisation of production systems is progressing has become an established consensus among manufacturers, operators
and service providers in the mechanical engineering sector. At the same time, however, statements such as the following from T-Systems often cause uncertainty among OEMs in the mechanical engineering sector: “digitization is disrupting existing business models, and global markets become increasingly volatile” [1].
The correlation, as well as the resulting transformations of business models and the associated risks, must be viewed in a highly differentiated manner. The mechanical engineering sector in particular, featuring its typical structure of SMEs and “hidden champions”, is in a very good position worldwide to perceive digitalisation not as a threat but as an opportunity to expand existing business models and, over the long term, to open up new markets by leveraging new technologies. In the final instance, it is clear to all business players that digitalisation will secure the long-term competitiveness of OEMs in the mechanical and plant engineering sector.
Which arguments support such a view?
1.Digitalisation can only be successfully mastered in many individual steps. For those involved, this cannot be about all- encompassing umbrella functionalities, as described under the terms “IIoT”, “Industry 4.0”, “Digital Engineering” and the like. Far more, it is about concrete approaches that can be used to advance the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of machines along the entire “life cycle” with as little input and effort as possible. And because automation in mechanical engineering has been driven principally by digitalisation for decades, it is primarily those OEMs that can successfully implement these approaches based on their
26 December/January 2022
core competencies. Only OEMs are able to implement specific measures that combine existing functionalities and systems with the most promising new control and data transmission technologies! [2] 2. Digitalisation in industry is often mentioned along with the keyword "Industry 4.0“, a term which stands for the 4th industrial revolution: consequently, the disruptive potential of current technical developments is equated with the effects of the industrial use of steam engines, electricity and computers. Successful players such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google are often cited as prominent examples of the forces of change. In the case of the medium-sized mechanical and plant engineering industry, on the other hand, these developments appear at least partly as a threat. The protagonists of digitalisation are endeavouring to take the edge off this. Hans Beckhoff, the founder and CEO of Beckhoff Automation, aptly explained
Components in Electronics
during an IHK event in 2017 that these changes and shifts represent opportunities for industrial manufacturing and that the speed of the upheaval is slower than initially assumed: “From today’s perspective, the introduction of the steam engine seems like a revolution. However, at the time, it took more than half a century for its use in industry to result in substantial changes.” In a similar manner, he stated, one should regard the impact of digitalisation for industrial production today, which is triggering an evolutionary development at all levels and in all processes. At the same time, Beckhoff also emphasises that this realisation by no means guarantees that one should sit back and do nothing! According to Beckhoff, it is precisely the courageous protagonists who will be rewarded if they creatively develop new business models for production systems.
HARTING has analysed the
implementation strategies of its customers and can decidedly confirm Beckhoff’s theses. Accordingly, in order to achieve sustainable success with digitalisation projects, it is above all advisable not to want to achieve everything immediately [3].
Whether the development is revolutionary or evolutionary, all parties involved agree that data forms the basis of more rational processes - and indeed all types of data. The catchphrase “Data is the new oil!” originally referred to “Big Data” or the storage and availability of consumer data. But this characterisation can certainly also be applied to data in the industrial arena. However, to stay with the metaphor, this “new oil” still requires functioning “pipelines” and other structural elements. Consequently, “Data is the new oil” not least describes the current situation of many machine and plant manufacturers who are in the process of revising the generation, processing and transmission of data for their products.
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