Human factor plays big role in Industry 4.0 and intelligent machines

"Let me tell you, there is a lot happening out there," said Gregg Goodner, President of MHI, about the show floor and education sessions at ProMat 2017. "I think you will find a lot of things you can take back home. ...This is the largest Promat that we’ve had."

The Keynote on Day Two, Markus Lorenz, Partner and Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group, continued that trend. He led an insightful, example-filled, yogurt-laden discussion about "Industry 4.0, How Intelligent machines are transforming supply chains."

As Goodner explained, "Industry 4.0 is...impacting not only our industry but our global economy. ...It is how the technology will be transforming the industrial workforce all the way through 2025."

So, about that...yogurt? Lorenz, who grew up in Germany, said that he used to have four flavors of yogurt from which to choose. Now, that same company has 96 varieties. Adding that many flavors to the production process opens a lot of possibilities to get something wrong, said Lorenz, in addition to creating a mess with the plant configuration.

That is where Industry 4.0 comes in. The core idea of I4.0 is being able to migrate "from isolated cells to integrated data and production flows." It is a connection between physical and digital systems and enables the continuous flow of information throughout the supply chain, which adjusts the paradigm. "In the past, the paradigm has been a fixed line. ...In the factory of the future, it will look different."

The new world of work will have these attributes, according to Lorenz:

>> Industrial Internet, self-driving logistics vehicles

>> Autonomous Robots, robot-assisted production

>> Industrial Internet, self-organizing production

>> Software Integration, smart supply network

>> Industrial Internet, predictive maintenance

>> Augmented Reality, augmented work, maintenance and service

Lorenz also addressed the question that is usually one of the first to come up when the idea of robots is broached: "What kinds of jobs will be lost and what kinds of jobs will be gained over the next decade?" He said that of the 10 million people currently employed with the factories, an estimated 600,000 of them will be lost in the next 10 years. The interesting thing, he added, is that the industry will gain new jobs in safety and service, designing business models, logistics, robotics and automation, IT data integration, etc. And the jobs gained will outweigh the jobs lost.

In conclusion, Lorenz succinctly outlined three takeaways from I4.0 World:

>> Complexity as the new normal: Do not fight it, find ways to deal with it.

>> Fiction and reality: Think technologies of 2025, but apply in 2017 reality.

>> "Perhaps the most important one," he said, was the human factor: Apply new technologies while taking people along.

See additional article on this Keynote session by Modern Materials Handling here.