Mention Industry 4.0 to most manufacturing executives and you will raise eyebrows. “If they’ve heard of it, they are likely confused about what it is. If they haven’t heard of it, they’re likely to be sceptical of what they see as yet another piece of marketing hype, an empty catchphrase,” Cornelius Baur, director in McKinsey’s Munich office, says. “And yet a closer look at what’s behind Industry 4.0 reveals some powerful emerging currents with strong potential to change the way factories work. It may be too much to say that it is another industrial revolution. But call it whatever you like; the fact is, Industry 4.0 is gathering force, and executives should carefully monitor the coming changes and develop strategies to take advantage of the new opportunities.”
Start with some definitions. Industry 4.0 is defined as the next phase in the digitisation of the manufacturing sector, driven by four disruptions: the astonishing rise in data volumes, computational power, connectivity, and especially new low-power wide-area networks; the emergence of analytics and business-intelligence capabilities; new forms of human-machine interaction such as touch interfaces and augmented-reality systems; and improvements in transferring digital instructions to the physical world, such as advanced robotics and 3-D printing.
Living up to the hype
Industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, big data, IoT, and advanced manufacturing intelligence… you’ve heard all the buzzwords, but what do they really mean, and what’s their relevance to your manufacturing business?
“If you’ve considered any of these concepts, you may have decided that Industry 4.0 is something for the future,” Jeremy Harford, managing director at manufacturing software provider Mestec explains. “It’s for big manufacturing companies with highly automated production lines, and if you ever do something about it, it will be a major, high-risk, expensive project that takes months – if not years, to roll out. If you believe Industry 4.0 is not for your business, it might be time to think again.”
Harford points to their most recent customer, who encapsulated the core concepts of Industry 4.0 using Mestec software in a matter of weeks. “It equipped every one of its factory floor operators with touch screen tablet devices procured from a store on the High Street for just £80 each,” he says. “The devices provide operators with up-to-date schedules of work and live references to drawings and work instructions and allow them to feed-back inventory consumption and job progress data in real-time. Managers now have live visibility of work in progress and inventory levels allowing decision makers to proactively drive planning decisions and improvement activity. All this would have been impossible or prohibitively expensive before the proliferation of easily networked, low cost devices and associated services that are the core to the Industry 4.0 revolution.”
He believes that Industry 4.0 is more than a buzzword, it is the way that forward-looking manufacturing companies are moving their businesses. “They are ditching paper-based timesheets and manual job tracking in favour of automatically collecting accurate manufacturing data using affordable devices, and then allowing Big Data analytics to manage their companies by fact instead of guesswork.
“Sooner or later, manufacturers will need to harness smart factory principles in some form. Those choosing to ignore such principles will get left behind.”
A leap of faith
Taking the leap into Industry 4.0 can be daunting for some manufacturers. However, there are plenty of opportunities for engineers to digitise parts of their existing manufacturing processes. “There has been so much talk about Industry 4.0 and how it is transforming our manufacturing landscape that you might think everyone is doing it,” says Kieron Salter, managing director of high-performance consultancy KWSP. “Full factory data collection, big data analysis, flexible manufacturing and a connected world – leading to printing new shoes, replacement knees, complex parts or even a new car – we’ve all ‘gone digital’.”
The reality for UK manufacturing is more sobering. EEF research in 2016 found that only 11% of manufacturers think that UK industry is geared up to take advantage of Industry 4.0. Furthermore, statistics from accountants PwC show that UK companies are planning to invest on average seven times less than their German counterparts in Industry 4.0 over the next five years.
“Many firms are finding it difficult to commit investment in digital manufacturing technology, as they’ve usually got many thousands of pounds tied up in existing CNC machining, tooling and other equipment,” Salter adds. “I’ve found that identifying easy wins, or low-hanging fruit can be a good way of demonstrating tangible benefits of 4IR.
“Industry 4.0 is often regarded as a total digital manufacturing system, which uses huge amounts of real-time data to produce production quantities of ‘one-off’ items without the cost of new tooling. However, there is another interpretation of 4IR that is more appealing to, whereby parts of an existing process are digitised.
“Whether it is a complex component part that is currently made up of several different bonded materials, or a lamination process such as windscreen or worktop manufacturing – these are instances where 4IR can help.”
Salter suggests that instead of applying bonding resin or adhesives in an uncontrolled process, with likely inherent material waste, manufacturers could introduce a digital deposition process for this type of process. “This not only gives greater control over deposition quantities and positional placement, but also allows flexible manufacturing of the product via software-controlled instructions,” he explains. “Replacing inaccurate, manual methods like this with a digital process allows you to print only where the adhesive or resin is needed. This cuts down on material use and provides endless opportunities for personalised products and flexible processes.
“Adopting Industry 4.0 need not involve huge amounts of cost, risk and major process change. By bringing digital and connected controls into a manufacturing process, businesses can cut costs, reduce waste and achieve better quality control. It offers huge opportunities for UK manufacturers. It’s not all about totally digitised processes – you can adopt software to use 4IR tech where needed.”
Tapping into real-world advantages
Industry 4.0 is the latest manufacturing buzzword, but there are precious few real-world examples in the UK that offer tangible and quantifiable benefits. In Germany however, it is different and the Bosch Rexroth factory in Homburg is a prime example. For some time now the company has been employing a dual strategy that sees them develop Industry 4.0 technologies in its own factories, before rolling out proven solutions to industry.
The production facility in the Saarland region of Germany is a case in point. The plant manufactures hydraulic valves for mobile machinery such as tractors, and the company made the decision to introduce Industry 4.0 on one specific manual production line that was struggling to keep up with the demands of its customer base.
“We identified three areas where we needed to deliver significant improvement, namely quality of the product, cost and delivery times,” says Dr Matthias Moller, director of the technology and process planning department at Bosch Rexroth’s Homburg plant.
The core of the problem was that the line was manufacturing six main valve product types with 250 variants and 2,000 individual parts. What is more, the line had to be highly flexible, working with small batch sizes requiring assembly experts for each product family. “The key point is that we wanted to develop a zero-failure strategy because the market for hydraulic valves is very demanding in terms of quality,” Moller adds.
The solution was to use the Industry 4.0 philosophies of connectivity, open standards and the virtual representation of information while keeping people, namely the assembly line employees at the heart of the process. The valve production line at Homburg was re-engineered into autonomous workstations with RFID chips controlling the product as it flows through the line and sensors collecting and collating data which is used to frame the decision-making process. “To achieve such dramatic changes, we set about adapting the production unit, setting up nine autonomous intelligent workstations that can quickly switch between products as required,” Moller adds.
Work steps for each different product type are displayed to employees on screens at every workstation, using a technology called ActiveAssist, which facilitates the quick and easy learning of manual work steps, all the time aiding flexibility. The system guides assembly steps using a pick-to-light system that eliminates errors and checks all assemblies, via a 3D camera, whilst Kanban and part supermarkets provide the parts to the operator which are relevant to the specific valve being manufactured.
“The logistical task was driven by the quality requirement, namely that only essential components could be at the workstation, to avoid the incorrect assembly of components,” Moller explains. “Now we have the pick-to-light technology combined with RFID identification of each single product. We can leave all components at the line all the time, because we can now ensure that only the necessary components for the new run are able to be picked by the worker.”
Crucially, each workstation recognises employees via a Bluetooth tag adjusting the work area to individual requirements automatically including language, font size and individual qualifications, while a quality assurance app tracks the full process for any faults or deviation. “Every step of the process is recorded and relayed to production operatives in real-time using RFID chips to monitor the position of individual components. Using ActiveAssist, each worker receives exact instructions tailored to their qualification level and preferred language,” Moller adds.
The brain of the Homburg line is another Bosch Rexroth innovation, namely ActiveCockpit, an interactive manufacturing system that collects, filters and visualises manufacturing data continuously, giving employees and management real data to facilitate fast decision-making.
The results of implementing Industry 4.0 speak for themselves. Logistical and set-up time was reduced from 450 seconds in 2014 to zero one year later. Inventory days were reduced from three days in the same period down to 1.5 days. Cycle times reduced from 474 seconds in 2014 down to 438 seconds in 2015. Overall, the Homburg valve production line has undergone a 10% production improvement and achieved a saving of half a million euros.
“Each stage of the process is fully integrated from the customer placing the order with the OEM through to suppliers, component machining, assembly, test and shipment, with capacity fully scalable and adaptable to demand, based on short term order fluctuations,” Moller explains. “We’ve already seen a 30% stock reduction, eliminated set-up time, and achieved a 10% output increase, resulting in an annual saving of €500,000.
“It was realised with connectivity. The previous production set-up required the removal of all unnecessary components during changeover from one product to another and the restocking of lines between production runs took up to 450 seconds per changeover.”
Lack of education
According to a recent Eriks UK report, industry’s reluctance to share data is stifling the UK’s ability to reap the benefits of connectivity. A recent survey carried out by the company revealed that more than half of senior managers had average or below-average knowledge of Industry 4.0.
“What seems to be apparent is the awareness gap between the older generation of engineers, many of whom hold very senior positions in UK industry, on the topic of industry 4.0 and what is required,” Gary Price, international product manager at Eriks UK says. “They appear to be more sceptical and more risk averse. Conversely, the younger generation of engineers understand the importance of sharing data to reap the greatest benefits.”
In fact, a closed approach to data and communication will impact the ability of OEMs or third-party maintenance suppliers to diagnose, fault-find and prescribe solutions to production and operational issues. Price also cites the Hays Global Skills Index, which has reported that the skills gap has been widening at a rate of 8% year-on-year for the past five years. Highlighting several key stats from the research, he warns that two-thirds of employers have had difficulty filling their vacancies and have experienced direct financial impact as a result. The research also highlighted that five per cent of the existing UK workforce lack proficiency in their current role. More broadly, there are concerns across industry that UK graduates will not be able to meet the requirements for an engineering and manufacturing career.
“The solution is a more concerted effort in training and educating both the future and existing workforce,” he says. “Initiatives are in place to help with this, such as the recent Apprenticeship Levy. There is also evidence that employers are increasing their investment in training.
“Industry 4.0 will alter the state of manufacturing irreversibly, and the countries that can harness it will be the future global manufacturing leaders. The UK needs to invest more in training, but we also need more input from employers and more practical education for young people. Only then will we truly be able to unlock the potential of Industry 4.0 and reap its benefits for our economy and
our workforce.”