With the SmartIndustry show @NEC in Birmingham behind us, it is an opportunity to consolidate our thoughts about the development direction of the industry currently.
As buzzwords are flying around we witness more and more component manufacturers and system integrators declaring compliance with industry 4.0 standard or that they are at least “Industry 4.0 Ready”. With such a loose definition of the term ‘Industry 4.0’, this is relatively easy to say. But what do customers get out of this modern systems or components?
After following the development of industry in recent years, attending workshops on building control systems in the future, and recent discussions at the Birmingham show, I can say the Industry 4.0 is here to stay. All features of systems and components that comply with what Industry 4.0 can provide just can’t be ignored. This is strongly supported by engineers and decision makers who represent a younger generation. The generation much more used to working ‘in the cloud’ and staying connected with their virtual surroundings continuously.
Three days’ discussion about the industry at the show yielded a couple of successful pilot projects, a question mark on a face of an average engineer Joe and a discussion among panel members of what to call this new step in the industry.
Those behind pilot projects deserve a recognition for their efforts, achievements and no doubt perseverance. An average Joe will have to come to the realisation that they need a bit of extra effort at work to get themselves familiar with new functionalities and capabilities of modern systems and components (and how to use them in their projects) to retain their position at work and to become a go-to expert again. Meanwhile the panel has to do the homework and we should all help them.
Current terminology for the industry of the future is adopted from Germany (Industry 4.0) and USA (Internet of things – IoT). These both represent connectivity amongst machinery and components empowered by algorithms based on artificial intelligence theory. All strongly represented in the industry of the future. Based on trade press, online articles and discussions around these buzzwords and terminology, I can tell we are a bit lost at the moment, not knowing what to use, which also emerged during the afore-mentioned discussion at the show.
There is no doubt that both Industry 4.0 and Internet Of Things are products of strong marketing campaigns initiated by governments of countries where they originated. Every marketing expert will tell you that prior to composing and launching any marketing campaign, you need a vision. Out of that, a strapline will emerge and people will associate with what the line represents. Once this step is done there will be no more confusion how to name the next step in the development of the industry. Everyone will know what is behind Industry 4.0, Internet of Things or something else, developed to label Britain’s next step in industry development.
I am sure the government is cooperating strongly with top experts from different industry sectors like automotive, food, pharmaceuticals, energy and others to determine the post Brexit era. Having a vision might unite the industry behind the vision and speed up development of products and systems for a fair share. This will definitely keep Britain in the cluster of leading industrial countries.
There is no doubt that the Control and Automation sector will play a significant role in the industry of the future. If we look at future industry from a product perspective, we can distinguish between two directions: One is towards the design phase and how to produce products with less energy, engineering and manufacturing efforts while offering flexibility and bespoke solutions for the end customer.
The other is to design products of the future with strong connectivity features and artificial intelligence included to suggest predictive maintenance activity, use less energy for the same quality and offer functionality not possible with a conventional design and approach.
I am sure the market will accept this approach and will be prepared to pay extra for products that use Industry 4.0 (or whatever we want to call it) standards and design approach as long as it sees benefits from it.
After extensive experience in the classical design of Control and Automation systems, I look forward to the implementation of solutions using modern design and, most of all, a modern mindset.
Please feel free to connect to discuss this subject further, or get in touch if you face challenges from these topics.
