How to Pragmatically Accelerate Plant Growth with the IIoT
Recently,IndustryWeek hosted a PTC-sponsored webinar called Pragmatic Paths to Accelerate Manufacturing Performance with Industrie 4.0. The presenters, Kent Eriksson, a Senior Advisor in PTC’s IoT Transformation Advisory Practice, and Stephen Laaper, a Digital Supply Networks leader in Deloitte Consulting’s Strategy & Operations practice, had too much information about the best, most practical ways to adopt the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) didn’t have time to answer every listeners’ questions. It’s such a vital component to the future of manufacturing success, one that there is much to learn about, that we all felt these questions could not linger. So here they are, and even if you couldn’t attend, there is much to glean from these experts’ responses.
Q: Where should we draw distinctions between Industrie 4.0 and IoT, and Big Data and its connectors? Eriksson: Industrie 4.0 for me is the connotation of the next century of technology development. We have seen glimpses of what will be possible. For me the two main topics are everything being connected and computer power moving to be smart, i.e. smart, connected products and operations as described on the innovation platform schematic architecture.
It’s my opinion that a person cannot take action from the big data alone. If we get 30,000 readings from sensors shown to us, it will most likely mean nothing. Maybe visualization with trend curves can help, but often that does not help. It needs to be synthesized. For example, if machine learning synthesis indicates that Machine “X” will likely break down in five days due to the vibrating bearing. That provides three actionable data points that the MRO team can act faster on than seeing a big data lake of 30,000 readings.
Q: What are the new scenarios for global purchasing (digital foundry B2B service is the product) with suppliers and with their own organization? Laaper: How progressive companies are viewing their Digital Supply Network within Industrie 4.0 is absolutely in an end-to-end fashion. In many cases, the predominant potential value comes from in the DSN, sharing information in real-time across the traditionally siloed and disconnected parts of the Supply Chain.
Q: How do you apply these concepts in smaller operations? Where funding is limited for automation and the systems infrastructure to help analyze processes digitally? Eriksson:The industry of Germany is very much smaller operations, what they call “Mittelstand.” The Industrie 4.0, RWTH Aachen Campus, etc. are actually primarily to help smaller companies, because they do not have the investment abilities of large companies. Smaller firms need to get going faster and more pragmatically. One example is in the center of smart services in E4TC, we did help the oldest German family firm to make their close to 500 years old button machines smart and connected.
Q: Is there a formula that can be used to estimate on a broad basis the cost to move to this digital platform? For example, for every million in sales you would need to spend X% for X number of years to realize this digital transformation platform. Is there such a formula?
Eriksson: Generally, it’s much less than the return. The costs of collaborative robots and additive manufacturing are of course considerable. However, when you look on Digital Lean with a software platform, the investments are comparably small. The reason for Lean Thinking from Toyota was that they were in a very bad financial shape and did not want to be dependent on loans or others. That is what I call a “burning platform” by the way. Their situation made them strive for perfection, step-by-step, in a very cash and capital efficient manner. Digital Lean with an innovation platform is exactly the same. Start small and have a clear proof of value of the first sprints, and they will basically self-fund your next steps.
