As an automation specialist, futronic has devoted considerable attention to Industry 4.0 for some time now. The control system manufacturer is presently getting ready to take the next step. Shoulder to shoulder with strategic partners like GLAESS Software & Automation GmbH and Jetter AG, futronic has plans to concentrate know-how and synergies and implement specific customer projects. Experts from the three companies got together at a conference last week in Tettnang to launch this new alliance.
Industry 4.0 may be a revolutionary milestone, yet the path to reach it is an evolutionary process. Not only are development and production methods changing; the entire operational infrastructure is increasingly interconnected and interactions with customers and partners are being redefined. As an automation specialist, it goes without saying that futronic, too, has devoted considerable attention to Industry 4.0 for some time now (see a recent interview with Glass International). We have accumulated broad know-how and experience in this area over the last few years. The aim is clear: to secure a pole position for ourselves with respect to the digital transformation and develop sustainable automation solutions.
Good on the machine level
It is equally plain that we can’t manage it on our own. “We’re good at capturing and collecting sensor data on the machine level and at sharing it via a suitable infrastructure”, explains Stephan Pies, Head of Sales. “What we can’t do is structure and analyse the ever larger data volumes and evaluate them based on relevant criteria.” Other specialists are called for there.
Specialists like GLAESS Software & Automation, at home in nearby Weingarten. The company develops software solutions for industrial automation. In future, founder and Managing Director Frank Glaess intends to focus even more on preparing, analysing and harnessing the data which is supplied by the machines. “For example, this data allows manufacturing execution systems (MES) on the process level to provide a 360 degree view on the current production and quality situation, so that potential for optimisation can be identified more or less in real time”, he adds.
Support one another, build knowledge, handle customer projects
In the meantime, futronic and GLAESS have been cooperating to a greater or lesser degree for about two years. The strategic partnership is about to be taken a step further. From now on, specialists at the two companies will support one another extensively, build knowledge together and handle specific customer projects. Jetter, futronic’s parent organisation, will also be on board. Under the leadership of Joachim Kittelberger, VP Research and Development, Jetter experts will assist the alliance with their know-how and experience in areas such as controls and drives, machine networks and smart factories or data management and visualisation. Representatives of futronic, Jetter and GLAESS got together at an internal conference last week in Tettnang to launch this new initiative and discuss ‘Industry 4.0’. The main emphasis of the presentations was on exchanging knowledge and experiences. They were followed by a workshop, where those present debated who should take care of and coordinate which tasks, and with which competencies, in joint customer projects.
Enormous dynamics
What concrete form could the cooperation take in this constellation in practice? As one good example, awareness could be increased regarding the necessity of the digital transformation, and with it the willingness to invest. “We’re getting more and more enquiries on that subject – the dynamics are enormous”, Glaess reports. Yet not every company wants to, or is in a position to, replace its complete machinery and equipment in one go; on the contrary, the goal is more likely to be to compensate for differences of degree in heterogeneous production systems. After taking stock of the status quo, those machines which have so far managed without can be equipped with a modern control system whereas with others, the PLC is simply adapted – retrofits tend to be the norm here.
“In other words, we at futronic provide the machines with intelligence of their own; we give them a common base and network them together”, Pies adds. Then the people at GLAESS take over: they graft a so-called asset administration shell (AAS) onto the network, as a kind of interpreter between a real production environment and the digital process management. The data which is obtained in this way can be stored in a cloud, for instance, then structured, analysed and visualised in a process control system (MES).
Industry 4.0: A patriotic duty
More specialists will obviously be needed for this purpose, such as system houses with specific IT expertise or providers of cloud services. The Industry 4.0 alliance which has now been forged by futronic, Jetter and GLAESS is also open to other partners. Stephan Pies: “One of our objectives is to build up a competence network that will enable us to lead customers through the digital transformation quickly and comprehensively and make their production systems fit for global competition”.
Frank Glaess finished by reiterating the huge importance of the new alliance. “The Chinese, for example, announced a ‘Digital Agenda 2025’ only a short while ago. That also puts a lot of pressure on our own companies. “You could say it’s our patriotic duty to embrace the issues, develop our expertise and help secure Germany’s future as an industrial nation in the long term.”