machine correct itself independently of human intervention as data shows when its production values are out of range, as well as when manufacturing parameters should change based on new production needs.”
Improved data capture In order to truly reap the rewards of Industry 4.0, then, companies need to take a more sophisticated approach to how their data is analysed. Big data is no longer a new term – it’s been around for decades. But while most companies are now fully aware of the importance of data capture to improve their process and service offering, the challenge is to think in new ways about how data is analysed and the decisions that should be made as a result. For Rockwell, this could be about moving the problems away from human decisions to data analysis. “The technologies we have been investing in when it comes to analytics and system maintenance are focused on using data to map trends and enabling machines to make autonomous decisions.” “In terms of collecting data, you can do it in a very agnostic way. I think Rockwell has been going increasingly open standard and really data aggregation is coming. What we are most concerned about is data orchestration, which is the first step before complex data analysis so that decisions can be made fast enough.” “In our view, digitising the entire value chain through the meaningful use of data will ultimately open up the opportunity to link the manufacturing site to the point of sale,” says Raffaele Pace. “This move will offer various benefits, such as the optimisation of initial investments, reduction of time and costs by avoiding downtime and optimising resource consumption, and the possibility to steadily meet demands for long-term efficiency – as well as product mass customisation and increasingly faster time-to-market.” Furthermore, as data and decision-making are increasingly moving into the cloud, in the future businesses will need to decide how much needs to be in the cloud and how much needs to be on the premises. “For certain discrete manufacturing processes, the amount of data that needs to be in the cloud is not that huge,” claims Mr Butti. “We are still strong believers that a lot of the high-speed real time data analysis needs to happen at the premises.”
“An Industry 4.0 implementation generates costs that are reflected in the price of the machine and packaging,” Sören Rose, CEO of inray
Where are the challenges? With such a huge and ongoing technological revolution, it is inevitable that some elements of the industry will have been quicker to embrace the changes than others. Aside from the continuing problem of cybersecurity as data moves into the cloud, one of the key challenges to be faced is a lack of organisational maturity when it comes to implementing new technologies. “I think that when it comes to packaged goods such as home/personal care and food & beverages they are getting very close to what life science has been experiencing in terms of traceability, serialisation etc.,” says Paolo Butti. “What packaging still needs to address is being in control when it comes to OEE, for example to minimise downtime during machine upgrades, changeover and so on. This is ultimately the next step in the flexibility of production. “Also, many companies are still not organised and don’t have a huge after-sales department. They are not focused on data analysis, data security, performance management, remote diagnostics, or the possibilities for augmented reality. They don’t have the concept of the machine as a service, which is where I believe the industry is heading.” For some companies, there is still a certain reluctance to implement these technologies, and this can be exacerbated by a lack of demand or understanding from customers. “An Industry 4.0 implementation generates costs that are reflected in the price of the machine and packaging,” says Sören Rose, CEO of inray. “The customer must be able to identify and calculate the additional benefits. Only then will demand rise.” Mr Rose believes that one way the process can be accelerated is through the introduction of current standards to lower the barriers for implementation of Industry 4.0 for all parties involved. “There are already very good approaches such as the ‘OPC UA PackML Companion Specification’, which combines the PackML standard with the Industry 4.0 protocol OPC UA.” There is also the question of whether Industry 4.0, and the greater industrial automation this brings, poses a threat to the workforce by decreasing the demand for human skills. Do industry insiders think this is a genuine issue that needs to be addressed? Not according to Raffaele Pace: “The use of advanced technologies has already begun to change the image of the industry but not exactly toward a reduced demand for human skills. Rather the opposite: due to the innovation focus, factory-based jobs are much more attractive than a few years ago – a trend that is set to increase as Industry 4.0 and the opporPackaging Europe | 21 |