INSIDE INDUSTRY 4.0 and THE INTERNET OF THINGS
Keynote addresses from Robert Freeman of Eagle Europe and David Stain of Zebra Technologies were the highlights of Eagle Europe’s recent customer conference held at Bristol’s Marriot Hotel on the 7th April 2016. The event welcomed representatives from all sectors of industry and manufacturing and hosted informative presentations on Industry 4.0 and the future of technology within manufacturing. Delegates also took the opportunity to see the latest product enhancements from Zebra, one of Eagle’s key partners.
The Future of Data Collection
The future of data collection and how Eagle is responding to the challenges of that future, formed the basis of Robert Freeman’s address to the conference, tying this future in with Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT) and the company’s short and long-term development plans. The so-termed ‘fourth industrial revolution’, Industry 4.0 is taking the digital age forward, tying individual technologies into a cohesive whole, working together to collect and format the massive amounts of data now available and giving us the ability to process this data to make automatic decisions. By 2010, there were more devices connected to the internet than there were people in the world: in only a few years, in the average household, the number of devices connected to the internet has risen almost immeasurably, from a single router connected by cable, then Wi-Fi, to the multiple laptops, tablets, smart phones, TV and inter-connected home heating and lighting systems of today. This is the Internet of Things. With an equal amount of devices available to the business sector (half of these being made available to manufacturers), there is the potential to achieve estimable projected savings of between $ 1 trillion and $16 trillion by the business sector using the IoT to its fullest extent.
The Factory of the Future
A current factory comprises a series of individual parts (the Finance department, the Production team, Logistics etc), working independently, with the management team controlling and co-ordinating the whole. All may have several systems in play, but the management team brings the communication and integration. In the future, in trying to achieve that cohesive whole where all the decisions are made by the “factory” itself, new technology will allow the factory’s computer systems to make the decisions we, as humans, used to make. This should eliminate our human unpredictability, our ambivalence, our propensity for error, by letting the factory itself undertake the operating decisions. In this way, we will increase productivity, eradicate human error, reduce labor costs and keep inventory down by reducing work in progress between intermediary operations.
David Stain of Zebra expanded on this future ideal, relating future technology within the “factory of the future” to six design principles of Industry 4.0, showing how the constantly changing needs of the consumer and the desire for information is met by technology.
- Interoperability: the ability of cyber-physical systems (i.e. workplace carriers, assembly stations), humans and Smart Factories to connect and communicate with each other
- Virtualization: a virtual copy of the Smart Factory created by linking sensor data
- Decentralization: the ability of cyber-physical systems within Smart Factories to make decisions independently
- Real-Time Capability: the capability to collect and analyze data and provide derived insights
- Service Orientation: offering of services (of cyber-physical systems, humans or Smart Factories)
- Modularity: flexible adaptation of Smart Factories to changing requirements
The adaptation of new technology within Industry 4.0 allows the creation of a smarter, more connected business for manufacturers, providing location awareness to assets and products by linking physical objects and associated information through a consistent digital identity.
Manufacturing 2020
Within the EU, current manufacturers directly employ over 30 million people and contribute 1.6 trillion euros to the EU economy, whilst fulfilling 25% of the non-financial EU marketplace. Manufacturing is therefore essential and transcends other marketplace areas such as retail, healthcare, transportation and wholesale trade in its use of IoT solutions. There has also been a huge rise in the amount of devices and sensors placed in product within the manufacturing sector.
In his keynote address, David Stain highlighted the need for change within the manufacturing sector.
“In the simple world of manufacturing, the raw materials go to the suppler, manufacturing to distribution and the customer to the consumer. In the digital age, the consumer is looking directly to the manufacturer and new technologies are needed to enable management of the supply in, the build and supply out in the most efficient, cost-effective way to meet demand. There is a need for a more adaptable and mobile workforce as business systems become more distributed and we must increase visibility and gain control of available data, processing it into useable business information. Businesses have the opportunity to focus on phasing in new technology into current manufacturing lines and sourcing this technology from forward-thinking and reliable providers to address their current and future needs.”
Working with Eagle using innovative products and solutions, Zebra Technologies’ vision is to enable the smart factory of the future to operate with unprecedented visibility and to have the ability to streamline processes, increase productivity and deliver complete fulfilment. By 2020, it is estimated that 50 billion connected devices will be in use worldwide, meaning manufacturers will have to keep pace with the ‘on demand’ consumer. This focus for change must adopt new business models and technologies such as the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 to facilitate convergence of the physical with digital manufacturing, enabling businesses to increase traceability, accountability and quality assurance.
The Technology of the Future
As a company, Eagle has traditionally been at the forefront of adaptability and innovation within the use of bar-coding but Robert Freeman believes that future technology will be more beneficial in areas such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) and increased use of mobile, handheld devices.
“In general terms, 70% of manufacturers are looking to increase automation; 12% are expecting to still use paper-based forms. Replacing bar-coding with RFID in entirety is unlikely and would prove too costly. However, there are potentially big investments ahead in RFID with cost benefits to using it in other areas, such as using staged gates within single flow manufacturing.”
And David Stain sees the importance of driving the principles of lean manufacturing for increased efficiency.
“No manufacturer wants to pay for storage, for racking – we have the ability to deliver on time. The technology will enable less people to control more things! Smaller time inventory, smaller workforce needs, risk, errors, workplace injuries, waste – we want them all to shrink.”
Both Robert and David demonstrated the significant working partnership being forged between Eagle Europe and Zebra Technologies with regard to new manufacturing technologies. Traditional,
hand-held device, with big screens and keyboards, are being replaced by stronger, more robust, new portable machines that require fewer repairs and the industry is experiencing huge leaps forward in what ‘s possible with these devices. Zebra are producing a whole new raft of devices that incorporate android-based touch-terminals with forward-facing scanners – fully-plastic protected devices to protect its scanners and screens that will survive up to an 8-foot drop.
Eagle, meanwhile, is looking at ways of replacing the typing of information via keyboards with scanning and developing applications to run both on Apple or android devices and touchscreens as well as an all-touch interface that is currently under development. Robert is justifiably excited by the prospects ahead.
“We can move to this running on any device that has a web browser: this will make it device and operating system independent when running with RF Express, with increased colours, sounds and pop-up windows making it a more interactive experience for the user, which is of course what people are used to on their phones nowadays.”
The use of RF beacons and Bluetooth beacons are now being increasingly used to aid Location Servicing within manufacturing. This gives the ability to locate objects and staff around a factory or warehouse facility. Again, Robert is excited about the future of this technology.
“Eagle is looking at locationing and how we move items from A to B, or indeed, from A to C. We have a single piece of information, like a transfer of goods or process of materials and we can take different data, process all the information and order a queueing system to allow back-flush at different locations in parallel or transfer to different locations: this info is then sent to QAD database via RF Express. We can see now how we want to get the factory environment working: getting the workforce more mobile, using new hardware to collect data at any point, utilising sensors (access points, beacons, Bluetooth, RFID tags) and developing locationing to increase traceability.”
The ‘factories of the future’ will practice connecting operations for complete visibility and apply the process of applying real-time information to optimise productivity. Complete demand chain visibility will be achieved through the application of technology and end-to-end traceability will safeguard quality, reduce risk and assure cost and compliance. This will give better control over product quality and reduce errors, recalls, waste and re-work, therefore meeting manufacturing demand in the most cost-effective way. And, of course, this, in turn, will increase consumer and customer satisfaction and enhance brand reputation.