December/January 2019

www.smartmachinesandfactories.com December/January 2020 | 17 | | FEATURES | check the work step and reject any sub-standard assemblies. Once the entire process in the cell is complete, confirmation is passed to the control system and an AGC is called, so the part can continue its journey to the next station. Indeed, sensors are the foundation of any Industry 4.0 scenario as the essential data suppliers for control systems, stresses Müller. Not only do they provide vital process data, but also valuable feedback about the health of the sensors and machines themselves. “We only install our own sensors and sensor systems in our plants”, he continues. “They have to be able to demonstrate what they are capable of here under real conditions. As you might expect, we have implemented effective predictive maintenance, as well as having real-time responsiveness to any issues, achieving exceptionally high manufacturing availability.” Learning Importantly, there is an atmosphere of learning and knowledge feedback at the Hochdorf factory, with the opportunities to share experiences and ideas clearly evident in collaborative workspace areas. “With every day that goes by, we are collecting valuable knowledge when it comes to developing and improving this type of production, as well as the ongoing optimisation of our own products, solutions, and services,” says Müller. “We are gaining important insights into how our sensors work and finding where we can still make improvements. We are gaining inspiration to implement new product developments and bring them to market much faster.” For many, Industry 4.0 will not be a start-from-scratch undertaking. However, the experiences at Hochdorf demonstrate how companies of any size can take on board aspects of a factory of the future today. Industry 4.0 technologies from SICK help to accelerate production, streamline material flow, optimise capacity utilisation and respond more flexibly to customer priorities. They enable proactive maintenance and intelligent data exchange on demand, says Müller. New paradigms “Today, SICK customers are able to combine our sensors at the field level to achieve Smart Tasks and decentralised applications. These will be the more common retrofit projects that will begin to challenge us every day to think according to new paradigms. “This experience taught us that, with Industry 4.0, you can never draw a line and say, “It is all over; now we are finished. We are always turning a corner to discover the next new idea; we are forever reimagining our processes and applications as we gain new insights.” In the past, establishing a new volume production facility might well have been all about fixed equipment to build one product, or a small number of variations. Now, SICK has embedded a universal flexibility into its Smart Factory to adapt and develop in future, adds Müller.