of Industry 4

In conversation with Gesche Joost 8

The SmartFactory 16

A slice of reality

42

Expert discussion

78

the

quintessence

Issue 16 | 2015

of Industry 4.0

Manufacturing industry and IT experts all agree: the convergence of auto-

mation and the Internet will revolutionise the entire industrial sector over the

next 10 years. The technologies and processes underlying that trend can be described in

a few keywords: in Germany, for example, the term “Industry 4.0” has become established,

while in the USA terms used include “Industrial Internet”; others talk about “Smart Manufacturing”. But

what they all mean is the convergence of physical industrial machines, including their sensors, drives and other

components, with the virtual world comprising software applications and the Internet.

When analysing the market potential entailed by that convergence, however, market researchers reach different find-

ings: Wikibon, for example, predicts global investment in the relevant technologies of up to 514 billion Dollars by 2020.

By contrast, MarketsandMarkets forecasts a market worth just under 320 billion Dollars in 2020. Yet even that would

represent an impressive 8 percent annual growth rate based on 2014 market volumes.

Implementing Industry 4.0 offers major opportunities for the electronics industry in particular, because “smart” compo-

nents equipped with microprocessors and communication modules are its foundations. MarketsandMarkets predicts that the

smart sensors market alone will grow at an average yearly rate of 36 percent to reach a total value of 10.46 billion Dollars by

2020. Smart Manufacturing will also entail increasing use of RFID. The latest analysis by Frost & Sullivan predicts that RFID

applications in industry will quadruple by 2020 to a value of 5 billion Dollars. Industry 4.0 will also become a key market

for semiconductors. IC Insights’ “IC Market Drivers 2015” report predicts that sales of ICs will rise from their current level

of 1.13 billion to 4.14 billion Dollars by 2018.

High-tech communications, low-cost sensors and powerful computers are opening up new possibilities for collecting,

evaluating and integrating an ever widening range of data from industrial plant in order to enhance efficiency, optimise

maintenance and cut energy costs. Industry 4.0 will thus bring about a new era of economic growth and competitiveness.

In order to enjoy those benefits, innovative electronic components as well as specialist know-how in relation to Industry

4.0 technologies, markets and standards will be essential. EBV offers both – and so can support you in developing the

right solutions for the Smart Manufacturing world of tomorrow.

Slobodan Puljarevic

President & CEO, EBV Elektronik

A new erA of economic growthA new erA of economic growth

THE QUINTESSENCE | of Industry 4.0THE QUINTESSENCE | of Industry 4.0

3market overview

All you need is a cool Product and the right agency to advertise it

The advertising agency for industry and start-upswww.industryagents.de

Anzeige_TQ_EN.indd 1 01.04.15 11:01

Dear Reader,revolution! the cover image of this issue

of “the Quintessence” features a rather

dramatic revolutionary clenched fist. it is

apt because the subject of this latest issue,

“industry 4.0”, entails the digitisation and

interconnection of production systems,

which does indeed represent a fourth in-

dustrial revolution.

Yet – as the participants in our round-table discussion emphasise

– industry 4.0 is not linked to the sudden appearance of new tech-

nologies in the same way as the invention of the steam engine, the

conveyor belt, or industrial automation. Quite the contrary: some of

the technologies in our focus today have been in use in industry for

twenty or thirty years. a new feature, however, is that many of those

technologies are nowadays cheap enough for mass application –

thanks, among other factors, to developments in the semiconductor

industry. more and more objects in production are being fitted out

with intelligence, sensors and connectivity. as such, micro-electron-

ics is one of the basic building blocks of industry 4.0. there are of

course new developments in these electronic components, but they

are more enhancements than entirely new creations. So in techno-

logical terms, industry 4.0 is more of an evolution than a revolution.

But the possibilities it opens up are certainly revolutionary: Big

Data technologies enable the huge volumes of data generated by

electronic systems in production to be comprehensively analysed for

management and production control decision-making. machines and

products communicate autonomously among themselves and react

to their surroundings. the effects of that interaction are demonstrated

by the application stories in this issue: milling machines automatically

compensating for vibration; materials handling equipment adapting

automatically to different transportation tasks; and the achievement

of zero-defect production even with large numbers of variants.

So we are now in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution.

and policy-makers have their part to play, too: Gesche Joost, the

German Federal Government’s internet ambassador, explains in her

interview what government is doing to help industry 4.0.

i very much hope you enjoy reading this issue. and bear in mind:

industry 4.0 offers lots of opportunities for new business ideas.

Perhaps you will gain inspiration from this latest issue of “the Quin-

tessence” to come up with some of your own ideas to create in-

novative products or services for digitised production. as ever, i

look forward to receiving your feedback. You can contact me at

[email protected].

Best regards,

Bernd Schlemmer

vice President Communications, eBv elektronik

Industry 4.0 offers lots of opportunities

for new business ideas.

“„

Download the “tQ by eBV” App for iPad or Android tablet free of charge.

TABLET?5eDitorial

THE QUINTESSENCE | of Industry 4.0

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SupplierSComprehensive networ-king between suppliers and production sys-tems makes it possible to analyse alternative sources and their capa-cities in real time.

The SmarT FacToryThe concept underlying Industry 4.0 impacts on every element of a modern-day value chain – from the supplier, through the machine tool and the skilled worker at the factory, to the end-user customer. The Smart Factory enables flexible response to individual customer wishes, is less susceptible to malfunction, and enhances production efficiency.

Supply chainMaterial selection and supply chains respond dynamically to the de-mands of production.

raw maTerialSResource-efficiency increases: the ma-nufacturing and recycling information saved directly in the product simplifies the re-use of raw materials.

producTIntelligent products know all about their own ma-nufacturing process while it is in progress.

machine ToolIntelligent machines adapt flexibly to varying work jobs and environments.

manual labourPeople are supported in their work by low-cost au-tomation and Augmented Reality.

roboTRobots are highly flexible, and play a key role in the Smart Factory.

warehouSeIntelligent loaders are identi-fiable and can send informa-tion about their position and contents.

end-uSer cuSTomerManufacturers have access to data detailing how their products are used; customers benefit from new services.

reSearch & developmenTEngineering is implemen-ted throughout a product’s life-cycle. Individual cus-tomer wishes can also be quickly met.

ServerSAs the interfaces to the Cloud, powerful servers are required which must be comprehensively protected against cyber-attack.

cloud compuTingPlatform for storing, proces-sing and analysing the large volumes of data created in the Smart Factory.

inTerneT oF ThingSLinks the factory and all its production systems to an intelligent envi-ronment.

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TheSe TechnologieS are whaT make induSTry 4.0 poSSible:


overview overview16 17

We have to be faster

In conversation with Prof. Dr. Gesche Joost, the German federal Government’s Internet ambassador

Teaching is her mission: as Professor of Design Research at the Berlin University of the Arts, Gesche Joost builds bridges between technological

innovation and the real needs of people in their everyday lives. She regards the Design Research Lab that she heads as an intermediary between humans and machines. How can innovative technology be integrated into everyday human life? How can it be handled and utilised properly? Elected one of the “100 Brains of Tomorrow” as far back as 2006, the Kiel-born scientist is currently probing such questions together with her interdisciplinary team. A typical project, for example, is a knitted jacket with built-in electronics which automatically calls for help in an emergency. “We simply could not do any of our research without the Internet. It is the foundation of everything,” Gesche Joost asserts. She is very much at the heart of the online world, and knows how to bring technological innovation closer to people. “I cannot imagine a better Digital Ambassador for Germany,” says Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel. He it was who appointed Prof. Dr. Gesche Joost Digital Champion for Germany in 2014.

The Quintessence: Is the digitisation of politics so alienated that it needs an Internet Ambassador?Gesche Joost: Things have changed enormously. In the new Federal Gov-ernment everyone is looking to get involved in digitisation – which is a very good thing, and in keeping with the breadth of the subject. Previously digiti-sation was approached in a rather half-hearted way. Today there are in fact three ministries working on it. We now also have the first Digital Agenda for Germany – though there is still plenty to be done in terms of vision, and making us fit for the future. T.Q.: What are your duties as Digital Champion?G.J.: The role was created by the former EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Her idea was that every EU member-state should send an Internet Ambassador to Brussels. The thinking is that the Ambassador should help drive forward the digital agenda, and promote the idea of the digital single market within the member-states. So my role really is that of an Ambassador, an intermediary between Europe and Germany. T.Q.: You say that there are three ministries in Germany working on the subject – would it not be more efficient to bundle all the initiatives under one roof?G.J.: It would have been advantageous to have forged a single digitisation strategy for Germany from the very beginning. But digitisation crosses over a lot of other fields, and has to be covered by all the ministries in their various spheres: digitisation-related aspects in education; the skills shortage; the digital strategy for business; and so on. We are still currently having some issues in terms of co-ordination between different departments – there is no single, coherent vision. But once everyone has understood how important this subject is, we will doubtless be able to make good progress with the current set-up too.


interview interview8 9

automate production processes. The portfolio comprises more than 1,000 product variants, and the plant produces some 15 million of the PLCs a year. At 230 working days a year, that means one rolls off the production line every second. The plant celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2014. It has increased production volumes eight times over in recent years, without increasing its footprint and with almost constant workforce numbers. Production quality levels are 99.9988 percent defect-free.

One uni� ed barcode label

That performance is made possible by a highly automated production system in which the products control their own manufacture. The basic prerequisite for this is that all objects in production – all components, all process steps, and all products – are identifiable. To that end, the Siemens Amberg plant has introduced a unified barcode label, holding all the relevant information, across all processes and departments. Based on the product code, the PLCs tell the machines what they need and which production steps are next in the process.

50 million items of process data per day

All the plant’s process data is recorded. Solder tempera-tures, machining times, torques – over 50 million items of process data a day are measured. The production facility is equipped with 1,000 scanners, and over 1,000 machines relay their data directly online. Software tools convert this “Big Data” into “Smart Data”, with the resultant analyses

The Siemens electronics plant at Am-berg in Bavaria is already deploying some key elements of Industry 4.0. Products communicate with machines, and all in-plant processes are comput-er-controlled.

PRODUCTS CONTROLLING

Industry 4.0 is an initiative of the German Federal Govern-ment. In late February 2015, Federal Chancellor Angela

Merkel toured the Siemens electronics plant at Amberg in Bavaria to see for herself how far the ideas underlying the concept can already be turned into reality. At the plant, Siemens makes products including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) which control machinery and plant and

serving directly as management information. In addition, relevant systems are equipped with so-called “watchdogs” – components that monitor the correct functioning of a system. In the event of an error, the monitored system notifies the responsible personnel by e-mail.

People are still vital

Production is largely automated. In-house transportation is also handled with no human intervention. A fully automatic conveyor system ensures that the material gets from the ware-house to the machine in 15 minutes. 75 percent of the value chain is handled autonomously by machine and computer, with the employees handling the rest. Only at the start of the pro-duction process is the initial component – a blank printed circuit board – touched by human hand, as a member of staff places it on the line. From then on, everything is controlled by machine. Nevertheless, people are still a vital element – in developing products and production processes, in production planning, and when it comes to dealing with unexpected incidents.

Chancellor Merkel was clearly impressed by the possibilities of Industry 4.0 following her visit to the Amberg plant: “This process will substantially change industrial production. The availability of data will in turn open up opportunities for design-ing entirely new products.”

THEIR OWN

MANUFACTURE

From left to right: Prof. Dr Karl-Heinz Büttner, Head of the ElectronicsPlant Amberg of Siemens AG; Joe Kaeser, Chief Executive Of� cer ofSiemens AG and Dr Angela Merkel, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.


PRACTISE AND APPLICATIONS46 PRACTISE AND APPLICATIONS 47

Lots of the ideas from Industry 4.0 are already being implemented in state-of-the-art, fully automated logistics centres. They are quite in� exible and struggle to handle change, however. A new conveyor truck offers a remedy.

In-house logistics is without doubt one of the areas in which the ideas un-derpinning Industry 4.0 are already in most widespread use: goods, work

centres and load carriers such as pallets and containers are fully intercon-nected. Technologies such as barcode labels enable pallets and the articles on them to be uniquely identified, so the warehouse management system “knows” exactly where articles are currently located, and in what quantities. Incoming purchase orders and subsequent order confirmations are handled automatically, with orders being passed on to the relevant operational de-partments. Materials handling systems provide the picking-and-packing staff

with the articles needed to fulfil an order, appropriately sequenced as necessary. Light signals or monitor displays indicate exactly how many of which articles need to be picked. The warehouse management system continuously monitors all the processes involved and logs all article movements. The Internet plays a key role. Customers order their goods online, often also incorporating the upstream supply chain – in many cases including manufacture and assembly. All the parties involved are able to track product features and availability and monitor the status of an order in real time. The data stream controls highly complex automated goods movements in order to fulfil orders and ship them to their recipients.

Industry 4.0 demands � exible transport options

However, transport procedures are currently still reliant either on “immobile” materials handling systems such as conveyor belts – or on people, such as forklift truck drivers, who have the necessary flexibility to handle a wide variety of different transport tasks. Even state-of-the-art driverless transport systems can only operate on pre-programmed routes.

sh INTELLIGENTa p e - ch an ge r

By contrast, the CubeXX system from Still offers the flexibility essential to Industry 4.0: though still a research project, the prototype demonstrates how materials han-dling in the Smart Factory of the future might look. The system is able to assume different forms based on a mod-ular design, enabling it to transport loads as a low-lift or high-lift pallet truck, a picker or a forklift, for example.

The truck is aware of its surroundings

With its extensive sensor and scanner technology, the system becomes an interactive robot, capable of analys-ing its immediate vicinity and responding appropriately to any obstacles in its way or unexpected events. A laser scanner enables the CubeXX to determine its own position based on pre-determined orientation points, for example, and analyse its immediate vicinity in three dimensions. Still Corporate Communications Manager Matthias Klug explains: “The new innovations will enable the CubeXX to respond flexibly to changing situations, adapting its hardware and software so as to pick up pallets where they are actually located rather than where they were supposed to be, for example.” Nicola Magrone, Sales Manager of another of the companies involved in the project, Sick, adds: “Industry 4.0 poses new challenges to sensors. For machines to communicate with machines, sensors need to be one thing above all else: intelligent.”

Control by app or over the Internet

To provide flexible operation of entire fleets in large-scale logistics centres, the truck can also be controlled using a new beermat-sized universal Smart Device rather than on a tablet. The “Coaster” developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics IML will make the CubeXX highly user-friendly and cost-effective to op-erate. The app installed on the Coaster – likewise devel-oped in conjunction with Fraunhofer IML – communicates both with the warehouse management system and with the truck’s robotics system. This means staff can receive an order while the Coaster calls the nearest available CubeXX and configures it as needed to handle the job. The Smart Device, slimmed down to the essential functionali-ty, features a high-definition camera and is able to detect barcodes, machines and people. This enables it to scan products, storage bays and destination containers during picking-and-packing operations, for example.

The CubeXX can also receive and autonomously process transport jobs directly from a Cloud-based ERP solution. Using the supplied data indicating the type, location, quantity, weight or size of the articles to be picked, it can automatically transform into the appropriate handling system, such as a pallet truck or forklift.


PRACTICE AND APPLICATIONS50 PRACTICE AND APPLICATIONS 51

Sensors are indeed the sensory organs of Industry 4.0, because without them production plant would be deaf and blind. The trend towards decentrali-

sation in automation – culminating (for the time being) in the Smart Factory – is driving the demand for more and more smart sensors. In its recent study "Sensor Trends 2014", the German Association for Sensors and Measurement AMA found that previously quite simple sensors are increasingly being de-veloped into more highly integrated and intelligent sensor systems. And the range of functionality which sensors provide is continually increasing: they perform their own error correction computations, monitor themselves, or have their own communications interfaces. In distributed sensor networks, they are even able to generate their own power, using energy harvesting to draw power from light, heat or vibration.

Image processing and the associated imaging sensors play a key role in Industry 4.0. Production and imaging are already closely interlinked today. Image processing systems collect, interpret and evaluate data. With appro-priate configuration and preparation, they are able to identify trends and

The EYES and EARS of the SMART FACTORYCyber-physical systems need to be aware of their surroundings. That is only possible with sensors which are becoming more and more intelligent as Industry 4.0 advances.

potential sources of defects in the production process at an early stage. The possible applications for image processing systems will increase even more in future, in areas such as classic quality assurance procedures, automated parts feed, completeness monitoring, and in helping robots to see.

MEMS in focus

Thanks to their capabilities and their compact form factor, micro-electro-me-chanical systems (MEMS) are a key factor for Industry 4.0. They are tiny devic-es usually combining one or more sensors, actuators and control electronics on a single chip. MEMS sensors contain micro-structures made of silicon which shift when their housings are moved even fractions of a thousandth of a millimetre, and change their electrical properties as a result. That change can be measured, and converted into a data stream. State-of-the-art MEMS sensors are able to measure an increasingly wide range of variables – such as pressure, acceleration, rotary motion, mass flow or the earth's magnetic field – in a single module, and are becoming steadily more intelligent too.

Only relevant information is transmitted

They are tiny, with some components measuring just four micrometres – that's a seventeenth of the breadth of a human hair. Because micro-mechan-ical sensors transmit only weak electrical signals, the modules house integrated electronics alongside the sensor – or in some cases even directly on the same chip. The electronics unit processes the small signals, amplifying them and converting them into digital data. This enables MEMS sensors to send data directly to control units. Dedicated software is enabling MEMS increasingly to evaluate data as well as merely processing signals. The aim is not to transmit raw data, but only the actually relevant information. So instead of lots of measurements, only limit values or disturbance variables are sent. Here's an exam-ple: Whereas conventional temperature sensors continuously transmit the current temperature, a smart sensor only reports if a critical temperature is exceeded. That is a key factor in minimising net-work data volumes, especially in view of the large number of interconnected cyber-physical systems in the Smart Factory.

A key technology

MEMS units comprising sensors, signal processing, power supply and transmitter components are now so small, energy-saving and cheap that billions of them can be deployed. Consequently, MEMS represent the key technology when it comes to interconnecting the Internet of Things. They have found a strong market in recent years particularly in smartphones and tab-lets. But for MEMS also to be used in the industrial environment, they must be made more robust.


BASIS TECHNOLOGY BASIS TECHNOLOGY28 29 ROUND-TABLEROUND-TABLE

EXPERTSEXPERTSEXPERTSEXPERTSEXPERTSEXPERTSEXPERTSEXPERTSEXPERTSEXPERTS

The experts around the table all readily agree that Industry 4.0 is not really a revolution in technology

terms: “Cyber-physical systems, combining hardware, software and connectivity, have been around for quite some time,” states Georg Kube, Global Vice President In-dustrial Machinery and Components at SAP. He therefore sees Industry 4.0 more as a much accelerated evolution than a revolution. Prof. Dr. Alexander Ferrein, head of the Institute for Mobile Autonomous Systems and Cognitive Robotics at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences, also believes that the technologies needed for Industry 4.0 already exist and are being used: “A new feature is that the technologies have been getting steadily cheaper, and now are affordable to smaller businesses too.” As a result, more and more sensors are being used in manufacturing industry, so providing the basis for machines to become intelligent and act autonomously within unstructured en-vironments. For Prof. Ferrein, whose research is focused on artificial intelligence and cognitive robotics, that is

new ideas on the basis of technologies that are already currently available.” And it is just that attribute which he regards as the revolutionary aspect of Industry 4.0: “Industry 4.0 brings together lots of elements that have existed for some time, and which now are able to enhance each other.” Examples in-clude Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), which has suddenly made available vast numbers of IP addresses to boost the connectivity of all kinds of objects, as well as the dramatic falls in mobile communication costs.

Finding useful business cases

Yet Industry 4.0 must not become an end in itself, according to Dr. Kugler. “If there is no customer benefit, even the most advanced technology is useless. The main priorities are throughput, availability and cost-effectiveness.” Georg Kube is routinely confronted by the question as to the benefit of Industry 4.0: “Many companies have become aware of Industry 4.0 due to the hype sur-rounding it, and they are asking themselves – and us – how they can utilise the technologies to their benefit.” Often there is even no need to install new hardware, as Kube reports: “One of our customers, a chemicals company, has been recording and saving all its sensor data and plant maintenance logs for years, but was unsure what exactly to do with them. We were able to analyse the data and search it for patterns indicating impending failure, such as of a pump. The plant can now be serviced before a failure occurs.” Maintenance costs have been cut as a result – and so the investment in the technology has been worthwhile. This illustrates precisely what Kube regards as the biggest challenge of Industry 4.0: finding useful business cases.

Varied bene� ts

Thomas Staudinger also takes the view that Industry 4.0 can only be suc-cessful if a balance is achieved between the cost of its implementation and its benefits: “If a smart product costs ten or twenty times more, it will be dif-ficult to find arguments in favour of it. But if, for example, I can spend five euros installing a sensor, a microcontroller and a communications interface in a 5,000 euro motor to warn me of impending damage to the motor, then I can offer added value that customers are willing to pay for.” Nevertheless, the benefits of interconnected products in Industry 4.0 can be quite varied, as Dr. Kugler explains: “One of the promises is that products will be cheap-er to make. But Industry 4.0 can also help enhance quality in the processes and the product.” Georg Kube cites the customisation of the manufacturing process as another benefit: “With Industry 4.0 it is possible to configure

LOOKING FOR SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS CASES!The technology exists, and standardisation and data protection pose no obstacles on the way to Industry 4.0, according to the experts participating in the round-table discussion hosted by “The Quintessence”. The biggest challenge lies in de� ning useful applications for interconnect-ed production which are also economically viable.

the foundation for one of the key innovations in Industry 4.0: “It will take us a major step forward especially in terms of collaboration between people and machines, or robots, in the near future.” That view is shared by Dr. Wilfried Kugler, Vice President Operations of viastore, a leading international vendor of turnkey logistics systems and warehouse management software: “We have been interconnecting our systems for the last 15 years. So it’s nothing new for us. Of course, robots are already being used in warehouses today, such as for picking and packing heavy goods. But they are rarely operated as assistance systems, collaborating with and supporting the people – which is one of the typical features of Industry 4.0. I see a lot more potential in that direction.” Thomas Staudinger, Vice President Vertical Segments and Technical Market-ing of EBV, also emphasises that specific Industry 4.0 products do not normally need to be developed. “Mostly it’s a case of adding connectivity and security functions to existing machines. That is generating some exciting è

“Technology is important to Industry 4.0, but

ultimately it is about business processes.”

Georg Kube, Global Vice President Industrial Machinery and Components, SAP, Walldorf

“In the logistics sector we are already well on with

Industry 4.0.”

Dr. Wilfried Kugler, Vice President Operations, viastore, Stuttgart


TRENDS AND VISIONS78


79TRENDS AND VISIONS

Micro-electronics already provide the com-ponents needed for Industry 4.0. Yet there is still very much a need for further development,

as Antonio Fernandez, Director Technical Marketing EBV Elektronik, asserts. He

regards Industry 4.0 as a fantastic oppor-tunity for the entire semiconductor in-

dustry. But rather more than elec-tronic chips will be required to

create successful applica-tions. Fernandez explains

how EBV developers are supporting the design

of new Industry 4.0 products.

T.Q.: What can EBV do as a distributor to tackle these challenges? A.F.: Firstly, we promote the key semiconductors from reliable partners –

reliable in terms of desired functionality, as well as in terms of support and delivery capability. We continuously train our technical team in all the relevant

technologies, and in the new chips being launched onto the market by our manu-facturer partners. This enables our field application engineers to provide customers with comprehensive support in the development process. We also work on reference designs incorporating our specialist know-how in the creation of system solutions. They provide our customers with turn-key solutions for many tasks – including, for example, to interconnect the various elements which have to communicate with each other along a value chain. We are able also to advise developers on the relevant communications interfaces and standards. T.Q.: What products does EBV offer for Industry 4.0?A.F.: Basically all the micro-electronic modules needed to create a complete

Industry 4.0 solution: microcontrollers, application processors and FPGAs for control; Ethernet transceivers, switches and wireless modules (WIFI,

BLE) for communications. Sensors and analog front ends to measure physical magnitudes also play a major role in our portfolio; as

do hardware-based solutions for data security.

A fantastic opportunity

The Quintessence: What does Industry 4.0 mean for EBV as a distributor of semiconductors and electronic

components?Antonio Fernandez: Industry 4.0 is inconceivable without micro-electronics.

Exciting possibilities are opening up for the entire semiconductor industry to pen-etrate a new market with new as well as existing solutions. We offer equipment and system manufacturers a comprehensive kit of micro-electronic components enabling them to create applications for the Smart Factory. For EBV it is a fantastic opportu-nity to service our customers in a revolutionary challenge, proving our competence in support and our applications know-how.T.Q.: Is Industry 4.0 currently purely a research topic? Or are there applications in industry that have already been realised?A.F.: Industry 4.0 is the next big thing happening in factory automation, moving to the next level of connectivity and distributed intelligence. But it is by no means just a vision: We have helped a number of customers to develop solutions for the Smart Factory which are already being applied in practice. Essentially, most of the technologies for Industry 4.0 already exist, and there are already lots of individual solutions being applied in the industrial sphere which have affirmed the promises of Industry 4.0: energy and cost savings, higher productivity and more flexibility. T.Q.: What do you regard as the biggest challenges on the way towards im-plementing Industry 4.0?A.F.: Rethinking the role of every single system in the factory; looking for

how to improve processes; taking advantage of the interaction be-tween the systems; and managing securely the significant

amount of data generated.

T.Q.: Are there any technological developments in electronics that are geared towards use in Industry 4.0? A.F.: The use of electronic chips in industry poses particular challenges in terms of robustness and reliability, but also with regard to long-term availability on the market – after all, industrial plant tends to be much longer-lived than consumer products for example.

We can already benefit from new derivatives coming from the automotive market for in-dustrial applications, higher integration of peripherals, focus on real time Ethernet software libraries and longevity programmes to support industrial life cycles.T.Q.: Industry 4.0 is also a major software topic – over and above the hardware issue, what else does EBV do to help application developers?A.F.: We push our manufacturer partners to develop valuable and easy to use software librar-ies and tools, we offer and support several reference designs and we build and maintain a network of third parties and design centres that can offer very specific support and services to our customers.

?!

is still very much a need for further development, as Antonio Fernandez, Director as Antonio Fernandez, Director

A fantastic


COMPANY AND PRODUCTS COMPANY AND PRODUCTS58 59

FOCUS ON

PEOPLEThe debate surrounding Industry 4.0 concentrates primarily on the technical aspects. Yet

Smart Factories will also entail major impact on the people who work in them. “There will be no deserted factories, without a human being in sight,” asserts Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sascha Stowas-

ser, Director of the Institute for Applied Work Study in Düsseldorf. He stresses, however, that “tomorrow’s world of work will change due to the implementation of interconnected systems.”

He believes work and work organisation are not being discussed enough in relation to In-dustry 4.0. That is also causing concern among employee representatives: Will people be

merely left with minor tasks, controlled by computers in cyber-physical systems? Not that the trade unions reject Industry 4.0. But Jörg Hofmann, Vice-Chairman of the IG Metall metalworkers’ union, sets out one particular demand: “We need a fresh start in terms of labour policy. There has to be a humanisation drive, whereby people control systems, and not the other way round.”

The people are the most � exible element

The prospects are very bright. As opposed to the CIM (Computer Integrated Manufac-turing) concept of the late 1980s, people play a key role in Industry 4.0: they will be the controlling, executive and supervising instances within the business. Because the people are still the most flexible element in production processes.

Correctly implemented, Industry 4.0 will not make people superfluous, but rather will expand their range of work skills, and so enhance their qualification profiles. Here’s an example: The connectivity and increasing autonomy of cyber-physical systems will mean that conventional control consoles or production planning systems will become less relevant. On the other hand, the staff working on the shopfloor, on the machines, will be empowered to make more decisions. They will obtain the necessary product and process information to do so from assistance systems.

Knowledge work instead of drudgery

A phrase also used in this context is “knowledge work”. Knowledge work has nothing to do with the conventional automated routine tasks of factory working. It is character-ised by an entirely new-style, complex and autonomous work environment. “We have to investigate how people work and learn, how they interact with new technologies, and how they can generate added value for industry based on an attractive and challenging

production workplace,” explains Martin Wifling from the Virtual Vehicle Research Center in Graz, Austria. He heads a European research project investigating how factory jobs

can be made more attractive and designed more intelligently in future. Placing people at the focal point of the Smart Factory is well worthwhile: responding

to people’s needs and wishes within the manufacturing process can enhance the satis-faction levels and motivation of production employees. This can bring overall increases

in productivity of up to 10 percent. The main focus of the research project, however, lies primarily in “making manufacturing jobs in Europe much more attractive, so that more

people choose this challenging and varied career path”, as Wifling puts it.

A better workplace

Interaction with intelligent machines and increasing automation also offers a number of opportunities to enhance the quality of the workplace, such as making it more flexible, intro-

ducing new working time provisions, and improving health and safety at work. At the same time, however, education and training must adapt to Industry 4.0. Jeanne Beliveau-Dunn, Vice

President and General Manager, Learning@Cisco: “Employees need to be adapting now to the changing demands of their job. Demand for skilled staff capable of working with IT networks and

conventional control systems is rising.”

In the public domain, Industry 4.0 is often viewed as a purely technical subject. Yet essential elements of the concept also relate to

new social infrastructures, empowering people to play key roles in Smart Factories.


TRENDS AND VISIONS TRENDS AND VISIONS84 85


Turning data into knowledge

US company Sight Machine, founded in 2011, has developed one of the leading produc-tion analysis platforms. The software-as-a-service solution transforms machine and sensor data into usable knowledge by which companies can improve their processes and manufacturing quality. Sight Machine uses flexible algorithms to analyse data from industrial cameras, sensors and factory software. Among other features, the system provides companies with real-time reports on quality problems, retrospective analyses of product variations and errors, or predictive analyses to improve processes. www.sightmachine.com

The convergence of information technology and production engineering offers scope for lots of new ideas – and opens up exciting opportunities for start-up businesses. “The Quintessence” pro� les six successful start-ups exemplifying the range of new businesses being established.

Build-your-own Augmented Reality

The Bitstars company has developed a software-as-a-service platform which its customers can use to create their own Augmented Reality applications. The concept is founded on very simple and intuitive operability. The platform is a user-friendly tool for creating 3D content for Web, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality applications. The generated 3D content can be easily integrated into websites as well as being used in Augmented and Virtual Reality apps for Google Glass, smartphones and Google Cardboard. Previously this almost always needed expensive custom-made software.www.bitstars.com

Developers of cyber-physical systems

Synapticon, which was established in 2010, specialises in hardware and software for connected systems involving the intensive use of sen-sors and actuators. The company offers flexible products and tailored solutions in the fields of robotics, self-driving vehicles, industrial auto-mation, special-purpose machinery, and the Internet of Things. Using the DYNARC platform, developers of cyber-physical systems are able to construct, configure and program distributed computer systems fully integrating actuator control, sensor data acquisition and broadband data processing. www.synapticon.de

Smart locating

Swedish company Locusense has developed a location system for in-door use which is able to identify the positions of objects solely over wireless communications networks. To do so, the objects are fitted with a Locusense tag. Based on a number of fixed reference tags with known posi-tions, smart antennas can determine the positions of any number of “mo-bile” objects. No complex and costly configuration is required. New tagged objects are automatically detected. The cost of this solution is kept down thanks to cheap components and the low power consumption of the tags.www.locusense.com

Precision automated handling

The aim of Magazino, founded in 2014, is to integrate warehouse logistics systems into Industry 4.0 and connect them to the Internet of Things. To that end, the company has developed a system that permits precision handling of single items. Equipped with a state-of-the-art camera system and a gripper mounted on a three-axis linear sys-tem, the Magazino Kado enables automated handling of single items in automatic picking and into-stock proce-dures. The imaging system precisely detects every object on both single-type and consolidated load carriers. The handling system can be linked to existing warehouse facilities. www.magazino.eu

Real-time imaging

Rialgo Realtime Systems develops complex real-time signal processing systems for its customers. Founded in 2010, the company develops soft-ware systems for Industry 4.0 and Smart City applications, as well as applications for automated moni-toring and quality assurance which demand real-time signal processing (imaging), bulk data processing and highly efficient data communications. One example of an application is the fitting out of production lines with camera systems that perform visual inspections and automatically detect defects. www.rialgo.de

Innovationsfor Smart

Manufacturing

InnovationsSmart

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83TRENDS AND VISIONSTRENDS AND VISIONS82

THE QUINTESSENCE | of Industry 4.0 THE QUINTESSENCE | of Industry 4.0

In conversation with Gesche JoostThe Internet Ambassador of the German Federal Government sees Industry 4.0 as a European project

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Thanks to Industry 4.0, increasing numbers

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By cable,

radio and lightBy cable,

radio and lightThanks to Industry 4.0, increasing numbers





With machines and sensors producing an ever-in-creasing amount of data, companies are facing

an unprecedented challenge. They need to act in real time with the incoming data and work within the limits of available bandwidth.” comments Kip Compton, vice president and general manager of the IoT Systems and Software Group at Cisco. At the same time, demands in terms of minimising runtime and of reliability are also rising. These are all reasons why the Industrial Ether-net standard is being used increasingly widely at field level – that is to say, in the sensors and actuators used in production. It is based on the long-established Ethernet standard in the PC and office sector, and as such uses the base technology for the world's biggest network: the World Wide Web, or Internet for short. "In many respects, the value proposition for industrial Ethernet parallels those for emerging concepts such as Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things, adding further substance to its longevity prospects. Industrial Ethernet aligns well with both of these concepts by providing flexibility and ease of integration to support Industry 4.0 and connec-tivity for the Industrial Internet of Things,” according to Vice President Chantal Polsonetti, the principal author of ARC’s “Industrial Ethernet Devices Global Market Research Study”. In fact, according to a study by Swed-ish company HMS Industrial Networks, the number of Industrial Ethernet network nodes is growing at around 17 percent a year.

Into the gigabit age

But unfortunately not all Ethernet is the same. There are over 20 different application protocols for Industri-al Ethernet, such as Profinet, EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, FLNet, and many others. Those systems differ, among other ways, in their application areas, their technical properties and their real-time capabilities, but above all they are mutually incompatible. So open communications need interfaces with network processors which support all protocols as far as possible.

Industry experts expect that so-called Gigabit Ether-net will become the general standard for handling Big Data in future. It can manage transfer rates of 1 gigabit per second – though researchers are already working on Ethernet systems capable of running at up to 400 gigabits per second (by comparison: current commonly used DSL connections have maximum transfer rates of 100 to 200 megabits per second – 2,000 times slower).

Flexibility based on wireless communications

A key factor in the Smart Factory, however, is wireless communications, as Dr. Barbara Staehle, group leader Wireless Automation Networks at the Fraunhofer Institute for Embedded Systems and Communication Technologies ESK, highlights: "For the Industry 4.0 idea to work with flexible, adaptively self-configuring production plants, reliable wireless technologies are essential. This is where cable-bound solutions come up against their limits, par-ticularly when mobile machine components or production items have to be localised within the process and need to communicate in order to interact." For long-range trans-mission within a factory, WLAN based on IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) standard 802.11 will predominate. The new specifications 802.11ac and 802.11ad permit data transfer rates of one gigabit per second and more.

Robustness in demand

“The use of wireless technologies in industry offers lots of benefits. Wireless devices not only reduce installa-tion costs compared to wired components, they also give mobility to applications with difficult cabling. Us-ers should nevertheless be sure to verify the reliability and availability of wireless devices when using them in mission-critical applications," says Paul Hsu, Business Development Manager Industrial Wireless with Moxa Europe. Because there are numerous obstacles to stable wireless connections in warehouses and factory build-ings. Ceiling or wall claddings, machinery, shelving or items in storage can all block wireless signals. "Industrial wireless devices need robust design, including advanced EMC protection against electrical interference as well as uninterrupted wireless roaming for extended network availability," Hsu adds. This is achieved using so-called Seamless Roaming. In this, the "client", such as a forklift truck, is connected to two access points simultaneous-ly. If it loses contact with one of them, it automatically searches for the nearest and connects to it. This means seamless data traffic is continuously maintained even when such "clients" are moving around.

Chip as digital memory

Not only WLAN technology will be found in Industry 4.0 however. For short-range communications, systems such as NFC, Zigbee, Bluetooth or RFID may also be used. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) in par-ticular offers interesting possibilities for Industry 4.0. Objects fitted with an RFID chip can not only transmit information, such as their identity, they can also receive and store data, so creating a digital memory. This means that a workpiece fitted with an RFID chip can provide information at any time indicating which process steps it has already passed through and what the next step will be. The demands placed on industrial wireless systems are very high however, as Dr. Staehle points out: "They must above all be stable and robust, and have real-time capability, so as to guarantee cable-like quality. So the key factors are choosing the right standards, protocols and algorithms for the specific application scenario, as well as thorough planning and careful monitoring of wireless data transfer."

Communication by light

As an alternative to data transfer over radio waves, re-search is currently also being conducted into optical sys-tems. Back in late 2013, Dr. Frank Deicke, group leader for optical sensors and data transfer at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS, presented an optical wireless communications module capable of transferring data at speeds of up to 5 gigabits per second. He has since succeeded in doubling that speed. Deicke and his team developed a transceiver for optical wireless communication which is the size of a sugar cube and can transmit data at speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second via infrared. Compared to familiar wireless technolo-gies such as Bluetooth or WLAN, this communications module offers much higher data throughput, extremely low bit error rates and substantial energy savings. It does require line of sight between the transmitter and receiver however.

By cable,

radio and lightThanks to Industry 4.0, increasing numbers






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