Digitalisation and smartisation are the drivers of Industry 4.0

27th May 2021

     

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By Raymond Obermeyer, Managing Director at SEW-EURODRIVE South Africa

Disruptive Industry 4.0 technologies are impacting nearly every single sector, including manufacturing where digitalisation, intelligent automation and smartisation are allowing organisations to operate more productively and efficiently.

The factory of the future requires a high degree of flexibility, maximum efficiency and implementation of batch sizes of just one unit, while at the same time optimising costs. Industry 4.0 will play a leading role in the design and operations of these smart factories of the future, allowing individual modules to make decentralised and autonomous decisions based on digital data.

But what exactly is Industry 4.0? In a nutshell, it’s all the opportunities for digitally networked production including all the steps from assembly, maintenance and repair, to marketing and disposal. These include machinery and components that are no longer just networked and centrally controlled but also make independent decisions decentrally, based on digital information, and then incorporate these into the overall production system. Over time, adaptive systems will emerge that will redefine much of what is currently regarded as tried and tested.

Historically, industrial production strategies have been based on central and hierarchical control entities. In the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), machines, components and workpieces will themselves now be smart with the ability to self-organise. Smartisation, therefore, is the fusion of conventional physical products with cutting-edge information technology.

Once things are smart and digital, the possibilities are endless, including allowing for networking and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication; autonomous and decentralised control mechanisms; the intelligent use of big value data streams; and even additional services such as the servicing or monitoring of facilities.

However, this requires shifting the value creation process towards software engineering, the digitalisation of machines and a comprehensive decentralisation of al processes. Cost-effectiveness is boosted when this is combined with the greater autonomy of the individual components, even producing economies of scale for single quantities.

Intelligent automation plays a key role in smart production. In fact, the technologies for Industry 4.0 already largely exist, particularly those used for production systems. Computer-integrated manufacturing and lean production have led to lean processes based on efficiency, simplicity and reliability. The question now, however, is how these proven technologies can be networked and combined into new autonomous systems.

Big data is already a reality. In the future, intelligent analysis programmes will enable predictions of how technical processes can be made more efficient, reliable and fail-resistant. Predictive analytics is about much more than gazing in a crystal ball but rather about achieving predictive maintenance of both machines and systems.

Key to the success of Industry 4.0 is to redefine traditional data handling structures so that everyone in the value creation chain has access to all the necessary data. This starts with product development and extends all the way to the customer, allowing the status of the individual components used and their entire history to be available and accessible in real time.

Digital networking will allow production companies to equip and start up entire factories on a virtual basis. Systems and products will be monitored throughout their lifecycle in real time to reliably calculate and optimise their energy consumption.

At SEW-EURODRIVE we have brought the vision of Industry 4.0 to life in our showcase factory in Graben-Neudorf in Germany where mobile robots and assistance systems are intelligently linking the loose process module, and production and assembly areas are becoming a cyber-physical production system. At Graben-Neudorf everything is networked with everything else: people, things, processes, services and data. This is part of our work to shape the factory of tomorrow; a factory which is characterised by system solutions for Industry 4.0 and which is focused on raising productivity while at the same time featuring ergonomic support for people and implementing smart maintenance.

These same technologies are being implemented in our new R200 million African headquarters based in Aeroton, Johannesburg where our new factory will ultimately be fitted with state of the art, Industry 4.0 technologies including automated assembly machines and guided vehicles. This high-tech facility will be a key component of more efficiently servicing customers both in South Africa and in the rest of Africa while at the same time helping customers to take advantage of Industry 4.0 technologies.

There is no question that the digitalisation of processes will blur conventional industry boundaries and enable the creation of disruptive industries. Only those organisations that anticipate these developments will be able to remain competitive and optimise the value creation process.

Ends

SEW-EURODRIVE is a specialist in drive and control technologies. It supplies the mining industry with a high quality complete drive solution for girth gears including drive pinions, motors, coupling and support infrastructure. The company’s segmented girth gears offer a flexible solution for diverse combinations. In addition, the company supplies bellhousing solutions to the coal mining industry. SEW Eurodrive offers a comprehensive range of services to industry for the entire value chain including engineering and selection to start-up and maintenance.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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