Mon, Apr 20, 2015 page15

• Smart factories of ‘Industry 4.0’ still at starting gate

  • AFP, HANnOVER, Germany
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  Collaborative robots and intelligent machinery might have wowed the crowds at this year’s Hannover Fair, but experts see German industry as having some way to go toward incorporating them on factory floors in what could become the fourth industrial revolution.

  The undoubted star of the world’s largest industrial trade fair, which closed its doors in the northern German city on Friday, was YuMi, a collaborative, dual-armed robot made by Swiss-based automation technology group ABB Ltd.

  ABB said it developed YuMi primarily for the consumer electronics industry and it is capable of handling items ranging from the delicate and precise parts of a wristwatch to the components used in mobile phones, tablets and desktop PCs.

  

  The ECCERobot — Embodied Cognition in a Compliantly Engineered Robot — developed by the Robot Studio holds a ball at the Hannover Fair industrial trade show, in Hannover, Germany, on Monday last week.

  Photo: Reuters

  However, it is expected to be rolled out to other market sectors as well, the company said.

  YuMi and human coworkers can work side-by-side on shared tasks without protective fencing or cages, the company added. German Chancellor Angela Merkel tested its safety features when she visited the stand by placing her finger inside the gripper on YuMi’s right arm, causing it to stop.

  At another stand, German firm Beckhoff Automation GmbH & Co KG showed off an automated assembly line, which it said is able to seamlessly adapt itself to handle different parts according to their shape, size and color, while human coworkers are equipped with a special smartwatch to monitor the process and can intervene if necessary.

  Industry views the merging of production and online technology as the way forward for manufacturing, where “smart” factories use information and communications technologies to digitize their processes, boosting quality and efficiency while cutting costs.

  Digitization is being heralded as the fourth industrial revolution — hence Merkel’s “Industry 4.0” initiative — following the invention of the steam engine, mass production and automation.

  With nothing less than Germany’s mighty industrial prowess at stake, German politicians and business leaders are keen to wave the Industry 4.0 flag.

  Berlin has even launched a new working group of businesses, unions and researchers to look into ways of moving digitization forward, which is to present its ideas and findings later this year.

  However, German companies still have a long way to go, experts said.

  A recent survey by the BITKOM trade group for information technology, telecommunications and new media found that, four out of 10 companies in key industrial sectors use Industry 4.0 applications.

  The automobile sector is leading the pack, with 53 percent of companies using such applications, followed by electrical engineering, the chemicals sector and mechanical engineering.

  “Digitization of German factories is in full swing, but still has a long way to go,” BITKOM board member Winfried Holz said. “In view of the fierce international competition, say from China and the US, companies must invest massively in the digitization of their processes and products if Germany wants to hold on to its leading position in the manufacturing sector.”

  However, German companies still have some catching up to do.

  The BITKOM survey found that about one in four companies have no Industry 4.0 strategy, even if they insist it is on their radar in the future.

  However, up to 14 percent of companies said digitization is not an issue for them at all.

  Over all, 80 percent of companies said they felt that industry was too reticent about digitization, with 72 percent saying they were put off by the investment costs and 56 percent by the complexity of the issue, the survey showed. Another 56 percent said they saw a lack of specialist personnel as a problem.

  If digitization “is to lead the way for the next 10 to 15 years, we only partially know exactly how to implement it,” said Wolfgang Dorst, who heads BITKOM’s own Industry 4.0 department.

  While many large companies have sufficient financial and human resources to digitize production, frequently it is the small and medium-sized companies who are not so well off financially that have the creative ideas, Dorst said.

  Bernhard Juchheim, the head of Jumo, a family-run company that specializes in industrial sensor and automation technology, told reporters that his company would start building its own smart factory in Fulda, Germany, next year.

  Critics fear digitization could render human workers obsolete in the manufacturing process.

  However, the process will actually create new jobs, the Boston Consulting Group’s Michael Ruessmann said.

  He wrote a study that found that 390,000 new jobs and an additional 30 billion euros (US$32.4 billion) in GDP could be created in Germany over the next 10 years as companies switch to intelligent factories.
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