Industry 4.0 / IIoT

Digitalisation and networking are key issues facing industry – and will also feature prominently at EMO Hannover 2019, which opens its doors in September. This year's theme is Smart technologies driving tomorrow's production! – the impact of which extends to the vocational training of future metalworking specialists.

By definition, the food and beverage industry is fast moving and always changing; milk goes off, bread gets eaten, and we want to eat more salads in the summer. But the combination of changing consumer demand, increasing regulation, complex supply chains for global sourcing and distribution, and competition from agile new competitors means food and beverage companies have to move faster than ever.

congatec has introduced a new rugged class of embedded edge server technologies designed for the digitisation of the upstream and midstream oil and gas industry. Both sectors are characterised by distributed assets and infrastructures in harsh environments and therefore require ultra-robust embedded platforms for the digital transformation challenge that offers a huge potential for cost savings.

Critical Manufacturing has officially released version 7 (V7) of its modern Manufacturing Execution System (MES) for Industry 4.0. This Augmented MES release delivers four new modules: Augmented Reality, Experiments Management, Weigh and Dispense, and BI Cards. This latest version takes the already feature rich, modular solution to new levels; enhancing users’ experiences; speeding new product introduction (NPI); improving safety, reliability and visibility of processes and key performance indicators (KPIs).

It is worth stating that implementing smart manufacturing is a very worthwhile exercise, successfully applying a level of smart manufacturing will bring greater efficiencies and flexibility to any given production process. It is also a significant step toward ‘futureproofing’ a production enterprise. That 'forward thinking' mind-set is essential when implementing smart manufacturing projects where intelligent machines, systems and networks are capable of independently exchanging and responding to information to manage industrial production processes.

At the recent Unbound festival there was a panel discussion on digital transformation encompassing the digitalisation of business processes, assets and products. As with the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, high UX standards and increasing security threats, businesses need to be agile and embrace digital transformation. Moderator Kenneth Cukier, Senior Editor at The Economist started by asking the panel experts: “When we think about digital transformation do we think failure or success?”

DMG MORI will be presenting the new CELOS APPs in line with its focus on integrated connectivity at EMO Hannover. The new APPLICATION CONNECTOR, for example, enables the operation of all web-based applications directly via CELOS. So direct interaction with MES or ERP systems is possible as is access to specialised customer applications. 

One of the world’s leading automation companies Mitsubishi Electric is hosting a national event where visitors can explore the very latest technology being applied in smart manufacturing and discover how leading companies from a variety of industrial sectors are navigating their path towards digitalisation.

Industry 4.0 is a hot topic for everyone in the industry at the moment, and it is no different for SICK. The sensors company are inviting PPMA Total Show visitors to gain an exclusive behind-the-scenes insight into its pioneering new Industry 4.0 smart sensor production facility in Freiburg, Southern Germany.

As Industry 4.0 turns into a reality, businesses that are introducing more robots into the production environment will be able to benefit from increasingly efficient maintenance regimes. As with any asset, these critical machines will run at peak efficiency when operators have access to predictive maintenance tools. The latest predictive analytics solution supplied with Mitsubishi Electric industrial robots uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a key feature for optimisation.