November 2019

S tep into SICK’s futuristic new Industry 4.0 production facility, and the first thing you notice is the quiet. Then, you see the pristine rows of glass- encased, robotic production cells and the fleet of small, elegant Automated Guided Carts gliding effortlessly between them. Nestled in the valley town of Hochdorf, near Freiburg in the German Black Forest, a fully- operational Smart Factory has been built completely from scratch. SICK’s smart photoelectric sensors, among them core product ranges including the NextGen sensor family, are manufactured in high volumes and with a high level of product variety. Conventional, linear mass production has been left far behind. Instead, a modular production process has at its core 12 automated technology cells. Instead of a conventional linear manufacturing sequence, the workflow progresses flexibly with each customer order, so that material flow can be optimised and the best use made of available production capacity. Perfect conditions SICK has been investing in the development of the facility for more than two years and is now 22 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk November 2019 Smart Maintenance Management Focus A Glimpse through the doors of a Smart Factory SICK offers a fascinating glimpse through the doors of its own Industry 4.0 factory – and proves it pays to practice what you preach. PWE reports. ready to open its doors to industry, keen to share what it has learnt to date. “We see Industry 4.0 as fundamental to our future development as a manufacturer of intelligent sensors and sensing systems”, said Bernhard Müller, Senior Vice President Industry 4.0, SICK AG. “Most people understand the concept of Industry 4.0 by now, but relatively few have had the chance to turn a theoretical idea into practical experience. It has been a rare privilege, and we have often felt like explorers and pioneers.” Industry 4.0 Think of Industry 4.0, and most people might understand the concept of digitised connectivity between machines that makes production processes more transparent and manageable globally. Certainly, autonomous digital production and control were an essential foundation in the blueprint for the Hochdorf facility. Yet what sets the factory apart as a flagbearer for Industry 4.0, above all, is its fully- flexible operation, down to the almost-mythical ‘lot size of one’. While its annual capacity may be upward of 1.2 million pieces, there are virtually no limits to the variety that is conceivable. Small production batches can be easily accommodated at an affordable price for customers. SICK can react flexibly to customer priorities, even at short notice, using a highly-responsive production control system. So how has this been achieved? Firstly, despite its futuristic feel, the factory is not simply conceived as a fully automated and robotic environment from which humans are shunned. Alongside 12 automated universal machines, each with several complementary technical processes or ‘services’ on board, such as robot gluing, vision camera inspection, or a housing assembly process, there are nine manual workstations and one hybrid workstation. As a working production facility, the factory has been planned to meet commercial and pragmatic realities, rather than indulging higher Industry 4.0 ideals for their own sake, stresses Müller. “Using both automated and manual processes leads to the most efficient and economical level of automation for us. Our material flows are handled both by automated carts and people, and we still use some manual as well as automated assembly processes.” To start a production order, the product