| |OCTOBER 20168Consultants ReviewIN MY OPINIONManufacturers Get Smarterfor Industry 4.0 By Saj Kumar, Vice President ­ Internet of Things, SAPSAP is a market leader in enterprise application software, assisting companies of all shapes and sizes. The company specialized services include ERP, Financials, Business Intelligence, Procurement, HCM, SCM, innovation, analytics and dashboarding.magine a factory floor with no operators in sight, machines receiving orders, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) moving products from one machine to the next, machines performing self-diagnosis and predicting failures and finally delivering a unique, customized product based on one's specifications. This is the future of manufacturing! The world of manufacturing is making a quantum leap with robots, self-organizing production, augmented reality and 3D printing. At the heart of this change is Data ­ data from all these machines to drive outcomes ­ mass customization, predictive maintenance, products-to-services. In smart factories where processes are fully digitized and connected, manufacturers can build and deliver orders more quickly. Customers are also able to personalize their purchases from a manufacturer with smart factory capabilities. This type of connected manufacturer, often referred to as Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution, is underway. The Connected Smart FactoryAudi, Harley Davidson, and Siemens are among the smart factory leaders that are changing the business of manufacturing. A smart factory is defined by its level of connectedness, which can be separated into five categories. The first level is intra-company vertical integration where a company's business systems connect to the shop floor systems. A large number of automobile makers have been producing cars with this level of connectedness for years. Instead of having separated systems for manufacturing planning, execution, tracking, and tracing, these processes are connected and integrated with corporate business systems to improve key metrics such as customer delivery, quality and costs.The second level is machine-to-machine connectedness where intelligent machines self-diagnose and self-correct. In these smart factories, machines have built-in sensors or RFID chips that allow them to `talk' to each other and adjust workflows. For instance, if a downstream machine detects a problem and needs to slow down, this machine can inform the upstream machine and change the conveyor speed to slow down the line. Germany based STILL is a leading provider of intra-logistical solutions and their new CubeXX solution is another example of autonomous machines. In a world of increasingly flexible internal logistics, CubeXX is the solution for many future requirements.I
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