Where is the road to Industry 4.0 now?

From a new word born four years ago to a hot word that everyone must talk about today. Industry 4.0 is full of exhibition halls, forums and corporate slogans at Hannover Messe. But outside the show, the debate over whether the Fourth Industrial Revolution was overstated did not stop. Where is the road to Industry 4.0? The reporter has discussed this issue with several corporate executives, experts and scholars.

"Industry 4.0 is ready for use," said German professor Delteloff & dot; Zilke, a professor at the German Artificial Intelligence Research Center and a founder of the Smart Factory.

Zilk presents a smart card factory production line. When personally customized information is input to product components through radio frequency technology, these components seem to be “embedded in intelligence.” When they pass through production equipment, they send instructions to the latter to “direct” the device to produce user personalities. Customized card case. There are 16 world-renowned companies and research institutions participating in this production line, including Bosch, IBM, Festo, Phoenix Contact and others. Under the same standard and system, many production processes can also be flexibly combined, increased or decreased.

In many companies, this dream has partially come true. According to a survey released by the German Information, Communication and New Media Association on the 13th, currently 44% of the major industrial sectors in Germany have adopted Industrial 4.0-related production and technology models. Siemens built a demonstration factory for Industry 4.0 in Germany.

Unlike last year, this year's smart factory was upgraded again, and there were several “corporate martial arts cheats” for companies – a common “infrastructure box” designed for smart factories. Phoenix Contact provided cross-module information gathering and analysis technologies. Tyco Electronics has made it possible to seamlessly link the production process with high energy efficiency... "This is the world's first independent manufacturer's 4.0 industrial system. Many technologies have been proven to be mature and feasible. The smart factory has moved from a dream to a reality. Step." Zilk said.

"Each company's entry point is different." Microsoft's Asia-Pacific manufacturing director Liu Hanqiang told reporters that in the past Microsoft did not understand many corporate customers, although the use of the same platform, but across the invisible wall. “Customers want to have a complete digital experience from product design to production production, distribution and installation. For complex industrial issues, they also want to use a more concise and visual way of understanding, without having to wait until the entire car is opened to know where the problem lies.” Microsoft chose to work more closely with customers on product design. "The combination of virtual reality is so."

In Hanover, different companies have different interpretations of Industry 4.0. Manufacturers claim to make "products become information carriers", software providers make slogans "easy to connect", and engineering solution providers focus on intelligent design and production.

Michael Jackson, Global President of Accenture Digital Technology Services. Sackliff told reporters that Industry 4.0 will bring about two kinds of changes, and some manufacturing companies will change the old production methods. Another change is that companies provide services while selling products. "This industry is more sustainable." Sackliff exemplifies, for example, transport company managers do not know how many tires to replace each year, and a famous one. Tyre’s solution is to equip the truck’s engine and tires with sensors to collect data on fuel consumption, tire pressure, tire temperature, vehicle speed, and location, and send it to the cloud for analysis by a team of experts and to the fleet management staff. Propose that customers who choose this service can purchase tires according to driving mileage.

But there are also German media to describe the concept of Industry 4.0 with “fashionable words”. After investigating 900 entrepreneurs from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, German information technology service provider CSC found that about half of entrepreneurs did not understand Industry 4.0, and 40% of German companies. About a quarter of respondents are familiar with this concept but do not understand its meaning. Many small and medium-sized enterprises have not yet begun to formulate countermeasures. In the interview, many business executives were unfamiliar with Industry 4.0.

The goal of “Made in China 2025” is the same as that of “Industry 4.0” in Germany. However, many manufacturing companies are in a relatively backward stage. The difficulty of upgrading is enormous.

Sackliff believes that Chinese companies do not need step-by-step upgrades like their German counterparts. Instead, they can consider leap-forward development. "If I were to build new businesses in China, I would use the better models of German industry." In addition, Saccliffe said that China's manufacturing industry does not need to be self-conscious. "Innovation has emerged from all corners of the world. When it is integrated with knowledge of technology, equipment, and management, Chinese manufacturing does not lag behind the world."