December/January 2019

| 14 | December/January 2020 www.smartmachinesandfactories.com | FEATURES | 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 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 SICK offers a fascinating glimpse through the doors of its own Industry 4.0 factory – and proves it pays to practice what you preach. Smart Machines & Factories reports. A Glimpse through the doors of a Smart Factory