Accelerate your transformation

Definition of Industry 4.0

In terms of global meaning, the Industry 4.0 concept is widely accepted as representing the digitalization of manufacturing. The ‘4.0’ provides a historical context, positioning this new phase as the fourth transformation in production. The first industrial revolution was depicted by mechanization through water and steam power the second saw the concept of mass production through electric power and the third resulted in the rise of the computer and automation. Now we have the fourth breakup in manufacturing – the creation of truly smart factories with cyber-physical systems and communication across the Internet of Things.
According to global management consultancy McKinsey, Industry 4.0 is driven by four identifiable technology trends:

• The astonishing rise in data volumes, computational power, and connectivity, 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, augmented-reality systems and wearables
• Improvements in transferring digital instructions to the physical world, such as advanced robotics and 3-D printing machines.

Birth of Industry 4.0

Germany is widely credited as being the founding nation of the Industry 4.0 concept, with the name emerging from a national strategic initiative to establish the country as a lead provider of advanced manufacturing systems. The country has one of the most competitive manufacturing industries in the world, and it is supported by a network of state-of-the-art research and development facilities.
Germany’s strong machinery and plant manufacturing industry, its globally significant level of IT competences and its know-how in embedded systems and automation engineering mean that it is extremely well placed to strengthen its position as one of the world’s leading developers of Industry 4.0 technologies.

USA & Smart Factories

If Germany has set the pace in terms of adoption of Industry 4.0 and the emergence of smart factories, it is sure to face a stiff challenge to its position of leadership from the US, which over the next five years is expected to invest more capital into the digitalization of manufacturing than any other nation or region. In the US, the Industry 4.0 better known as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). With this rapid advancement of technologies in the manufacturing environment, many US organizations are busy preparing themselves for the massive change that lies ahead.
According to Harvard Business Review’s From Data to Action report, the most difficult aspect for organizations to change on the route to smarter factories is their internal culture. For Industry 4.0 to reach its full potential, businesses need to establish one undisputed source of performance data, and give all decision makers the ability to receive data in real time. The philosophy of making fact-based decisions using quantitative manufacturing data will need to be coached into all levels of management.

China Manufacturing 2025

While China remains the largest manufacturer in the world, when it comes to the adoption of Industry 4.0, the Asian powerhouse is playing catch-up with many of its economic rivals in Europe and North America. That’s largely due to historical factors: while Germany, for instance, has traditionally focused on advanced production systems, China’s strengths have always been at the lower-value end of the global manufacturing sector, where price is key. This has led to some stark imbalances: at present, there are only approximately 14 industrial robots per 10,000 factory workers in China, as opposed to 282 in Germany.
But times are changing, and fast. Labour and raw material costs are increasing in China due to environmental concerns and resource limitations, and other low-cost rivals have emerged. China’s position as the ‘world’s factory’ is under threat. As a result, the Chinese government is now keen to forge ahead with an alternative development path, replacing outdated production facilities and investing in modern technologies based on the Industrial Internet of Things.

Final Assembly

The automotive industry currently signals growing demand for process control to further improve the quality of production processes at the same time as reducing operating expenses. This industry is welcoming the age of Industry 4.0 euphorically.
As an innovation driver, the industry is already implementing changes in the fields of automation, data interchange and production technologies with a view to benefiting from the resulting opportunities.
Safety-critical bolting is already monitored and analyzed the data recorded is used for process optimization. Sensors record process data, with real-time transmission to higher level databases.

Tiers Assembly

Powered by the Internet of things, Industry 4.0 promises automobile component suppliers significant effects at low cost. Steadily progressing digitalization offers this sector a tool for better reactions to growing market pressures. Key factors are reductions in system downtimes, improved productivity through automation and resource optimization and reduced maintenance expenses. Industry 4.0 allows agile processes, improves competitiveness and promises new sales opportunities.
At component production plants, Industry 4.0 implementation offers considerable potential, especially in predictive maintenance. Continuous recording and analysis of process data allows plant and system failures to be predicted, inefficient developments to be corrected and productivity to be improved.

Smart Aerospace Factories

Aerospace is a fantastic and extremely demanding industry, often synonymous with highly skilled personal and cutting-edge technologies. But with a production characterized by relatively small volumes, long cycle times, large components and high variability in the production processes, this industry offers specific challenges when it comes to the dissemination of smart tools and solutions.
As volumes continue to grow with people travelling more & more, all major OEMs need to increase the overall process efficiency, limit quality costs and cycle times, and exclude human factors as a source of error. With intelligent software and digital networking, assembly tools can now make a key contribution. They offer far greater flexibility and can be fully linked both to each other and to manufacturers’ production and quality systems.

The big challenge

Customers within the General Industry sector want innovative, unique, high quality and cost effective products. There is strong competition within the GI market that offer similar products with shorter product life cycles due to new technical advances. Therefore, there are high demands on the GI sector for rapid production of new innovative products for the market. We achieve this by completely digitalizing the product development life cycle. This in turn allows us to provide customers accurate traceability, quality control, and cost effective new products. When digitalizing the product life cycle, a complete digital data model is required. To meet these requirements industrial companies rely on intelligent and adaptable manufacturing. The vast range of products are embedded with systems, sensors, and actuators that are all linked to one another via the internet.

Accelerate your Transformation

The Desoutter 4.0 white paper aims to present you the Desoutter vision, helping you to accelerate your transformation through Industry 4.0.
Desoutter 4.0 offers you much more than a unique solution, providing you connected products and experience. Boost now your up-time, your flexibility and your productivity by downloading the Desoutter 4.0: Accelerate your transformation white paper.