A vision of how technology and computers may shape our world in the future is everywhere. Hollywood films are littered with it. In Total Recall a company sells memory implants of vacations, in Minority Report advertisements actually call out to people after retinal scan recognitions, while, alarmingly, in Terminator the defence system Skynet becomes self-aware.
While some of these are obviously farfetched, some are nearer to reality than you may think. In the manufacturing world, things are changing and developments are under way to move things to another level in the IT interaction between people, product and machines. In Germany these efforts have been labeled Industry 4.0 – a "fourth industrial revolution". This is a German government project also involving large companies like Siemens.
Based on cyber-physical production systems, the initiative aims to create a smart factory characterised by adaptability, resource efficiency and ergonomics, plus integration of customers, business partners and value processes.
Large producers of wood-based panels are already switching on the fact that their operations could benefit from a such a stepchange in data integration, and there may also be lessons for other wood processors. "We have been in the project from the start," said Wolfgang Schroeder, head of TIA (Totally Integrated Automation) marketing in Siemens’ digital factory division. "We see our industry evolving and are trying to focus on the topics which are important to our customers – the focus on production, the relevant lifecycle of products from product design to real production."
A core aim at the company is development of digital enterprise platforms. This is where all manufacturing processes and product design parameters are focused, giving a digital representation of all data needed.
"Today, a lot of data is still handled manually, there are a lot of lists, despite the involvement of software," said Mr Schroeder. "What is missing is a link between everything. Our big vision is being able to link all software to create real benefits." He held up car manufacturing as an example of an industry that is really pushing this area.
"When a car maker designs a car there’s a lot of digital data – from initial design, to first tests, to when you start thinking about how to produce it. You think what kind of machines you will need, and in which order in the production process and where to optimise processes."
Next, he added, is what the factory needs to look like and engineering it. "Once production is running, we continually want to know what is the production performance, what is the quality. Are there any issues? Do we need a maintenance stop? What about the energyefficiency – we need to track that. With this data chain, we will need to have the data from the previous step in the production process."
In Siemen’s vision, where companies bring together all their data from all processes, everyone can access it immediately and faults can be remedied or shopfloor changes implemented very rapidly.
In wood based panel manufacturing, Mr Schroeder highlighted product quality and efficient use of raw material was central.
"Here Industrie 4.0 looks completely different from the car industry," he said, illustrating his point with the example of the Pfleiderer particleboard mill at Neumarkt. Completed in 2013, it features a very advanced application of the latest software and control systems, demonstrating how the panels sector is taking a step towards Industrie 4.0.
"At Pfleiderer, we had an application where we could reduce raw material use through automation, tracing used material, with Dieffenbacher improving the algorithms," said Mr Schroeder. "In the beginning it looks like a small saving but when you consider the large volumes of panels Pfleiderer produces it can be a lot of money."
The Pfleiderer mill does not add up to the full Industrie 4.0 vision, but it was one of the first industrial users of the Siemens S7-1500 PLC controller. And Mr Schroeder sees further data integration in product development and manufacturing planning processes as areas for a next big step up in panel production.
"When a wood-based panels manufacturer decides to produce a new type of panel it requires many hours of work before you can get the information to the machines," he said. "Today’s customer expects more and more products, different thicknesses, different forms. So it is evident that only with digital processes can production changes be applied economically."
In the future Siemens sees producers able to swiftly switch production to different panels, while maintaining high throughput and also adopting systems that enable them to customise competitively.
Siemens has been positioning itself in recent years to be able to help all types of large-scale production. In 2007 it acquired UGS, a product lifecycle management and manufacturing process management software firm whose products included Tecnomatix, which now forms the main part of Siemens PLM Software.
"We are evolving into a company that is not only a supplier of automation equipment. We can provide industry software for the complete value chain. This is how we see our future and we are well prepared. Industry 4.0 is a vision for the distant future, but it is definitely where we want to go."
Reassuringly, Siemens does not predict factories without workers and says personnel will always be needed.
"There are factories in Siemens where we have lines working completely autonomously and we only need workers for maintenance, surveillance and logistics," said Mr Schroeder. "But it depends on the industry you are in and today we need people to identify where production can be optimised."
