Your future factory 4.0

Starting position of SMEs
Industry 4.0 requires a high degree of communication capability and networking of production resources such as machines, robots and higher-level control systems. This is an ability which a large proportion of the machinery and plant technology still used today in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) does not possess, or only in part. In medium-sized companies, the growing stock of machinery and plant often represents a central corporate value which is maintained with great commitment and is only replaced gradually and over the long term. Networking and communication capabilities are thus limited, technological innovations are closed to the company. 

Upgrade to an intelligent factory by industry 4.0 Box
The Industry 4.0 Box enables the communication technology integration of proven machines into digital networks. This eliminates the need for cost-intensive new purchases and "old stock" can be seamlessly integrated into Industry 4.0-oriented infrastructures. The aim of the Box is to make the existing machinery and plant stock, which has grown in the company over many years, communicable and networkable. The integration into cyber-physical systems is based on a connection technology which acts as a link between the individual machine and the cyber-physical architecture (hardware and software).

Your factory becomes a networked production system
The use of the Industry 4.0 Box will enable SMEs to integrate innovative technologies and services based on digital networking into the value added of the business. It enables machines and plants which were previously not CPS-capable to act as CPS from now on and thus become part of a networked production system. As an intelligent data source, the Industry 4.0 Box provides information that enables, among other things, holistic process monitoring, preventive maintenance, seamless documentation of production processes or for monitoring the machine park.

Industry 4.0 has arrived in the enterprises
The use of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and networked processes is being tested or already implemented in many factory buildings. The practical application of Industry 4.0 does not follow a master plan, but is designed specifically for each company, often in an open search and solution process which offers design space for the company players. These changes affect not only the entire value-added process from supplier to customer, but also all direct and indirect areas within a company. Beyond the background control of the factory in real time, an Industry 4.0 can be experienced at the interface between man and machine, for example via digital assistance systems or human-robot collaboration. 

Digitalisation in migration management is not only about technologies, but also about people
Tried and tested migration strategies can make the entrepreneurial risk associated with the path to the intelligent factory transparent and manageable. Certainly, each company will follow its specific path and plan and implement step-by-step realisable development stages. Nevertheless, companies should make use of experience, proven procedures and methods as well as suitable solution modules. Finally, migration concepts are implemented with the involvement of the employees and with consideration of the entire company.

Special attention is paid to people - the employees of the factory of the future.
We analyse newly emerging roles and functions of people within the value chains and integrate the further development of personnel and personnel structures. This constant change has to be accompanied and shaped at all hierarchical levels of the company along the value chain. Particular emphasis is placed on appropriate on-the-job training in our learning factory to ensure that employees are qualified efficiently and in line with requirements.

Steps towards implementing Industry 4.0 - we develop prototypical solution modules for representative application scenarios
The use of existing standards and norms as well as the protection of company-specific know-how is explicitly taken into account. The self-configuring factory environment enables the comparison of different scenarios and interactive development of the ideal solution. Processes in production are designed interactively while the focus is on the employees. This is because the collaboration between machines and plants as well as information and communication systems has to be transparent and comprehensible for the production employees. For example, it must be clarified when and how the production staff can intervene and control in the event of "unforeseen" events. The aim is to develop intelligent, participation-oriented solutions, both in terms of work design and work organisation, with which people can be integrated as creative actors in decentralised, self-optimising control mechanisms of distributed production.