Anatomy of a Smart Industry: Digitalization and Automation

Digital transformation of industry

The term Industry 4.0 (also known as the fourth industrial revolution) first appeared at the Hanover Fair in 2011. Many experts wondered at the time whether it was just another seasonal marketing slogan. The current turbulent period in industry confirms that new technologies and innovations have become a necessity not only for the development and advancement of companies, but also for the sustainability of their current processes.

Among the most striking technologies with the greatest impact on business processes is the Internet of Things (IoT), or its application to the industrial environment. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) also lies at the core of the concept of the Smart Factory and the Smart Industry.

The Enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) represents an intra-company network that connects all elements actively involved in individual business processes, i.e. various human, material, machine and system resources. However, the actual connection of elements to the network was preceded by the implementation of an increasingly wide range of sensors that can provide an ever-better picture of the current state of the physical world.

It is therefore desirable to connect all elements of the industrial environment that need to be managed and coordinated in individual processes through the Enterprise Internet of Things (IoT). These elements include production and transport equipment, operating personnel, maintenance workers and managers, input materials, components and semi-finished products, as well as finished products, but also production lines, workplaces and warehouses, and various information systems.

Benefits of the Industrial Internet of Things (source: i-scoop.eu)

Thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT) and modern industrial, so-called Smart Industry, systems, information and communication technologies (IT) are also being integrated with production (operational) technologies. This interconnection of individual elements subsequently leads to horizontal and vertical integration of processes, which is the basis of the broader concept of digital transformation of enterprises. This allows the enterprise to automate and optimize individual processes related not only to production and logistics, but also to quality control or maintenance.

As can be seen from the above, the essence of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), and in general the smart industry itself, is its interconnectivity, i.e. connectivity. The exchange of information and all communication taking place in a digitized form is several times faster than the transfer of data in paper form or by word of mouth. In industrial and logistics environments, this enables the creation of complex processes in which Smart Industry systems autonomously control and coordinate partial dynamic systems in real time.

The reason why information and communication technologies (IT) have become the focus of attention is primarily the optimization of operating costs, increasing quality and improving the flexibility of business processes. Specific benefits can be an increase in overall process efficiency, increased productivity, reduction of errors, elimination of waste and leakage, minimization of downtime, or increased safety and ergonomics of employees at work.

 

Investments in the Internet of Things (IoT) worldwide 2015 and 2020 (in billions of US dollars)(source: Statista)

From the point of view of innovation, this is a paradigm shift that can no longer be achieved with conventional technologies. The importance and benefits of new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) are so significant that institutions at all levels are dealing with it, from local (the Ministry of Economy has adopted a draft action plan for the smart industry of the Slovak Republic) to transnational (one of many examples is the European Commission's Horizon research and innovation program with an allocated budget of €100 billion).

The revolutionary nature of Smart Industry systems and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), i.e. smart industry, lies in the interaction of four key principles: interoperability, decentralization, intelligence and reconfigurability.

 

The size and impact of the industrial Internet of Things (source: i-scoop.eu)

Global digital ecosystem of operations

The connectivity mentioned in the introduction represents an elementary prerequisite for the existence and functionality of smart industry. It is not just a peripheral connection of one device to another or a centralized connection of a machine to a control system, but on the contrary, it is an extensive and complex network.

In a corporate environment, this means the interconnection of machines, people, materials, products, information and communication technologies and systems, and last but not least, data. Such an extensive network is also called the Internet of Everything (IoE). Another important property of the network is its adaptability, i.e. the unlimited integrability and expandability of the network with increasing human, material, machine and data resources as well as new processes.

Adaptability in practice means that an intra-company network of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) can be relatively easily expanded to an inter-company network connecting two mutually dependent companies, or a trans-company network connecting several diverse companies (smart factory network) can also be created.

 

Benefits of the Industrial Internet of Things according to industrial managers (source: Atlas)

However, in the case of industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) networks, emphasis should also be placed on the interoperability of individual connected objects. Interoperability represents the ability of different systems to provide services to each other, to cooperate effectively and thus achieve mutual interoperability. This means that all connected elements of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) should not only be able to communicate with each other, but also to interact.

Interoperability is key in building a global Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem – a factory that goes beyond the physical boundaries of a specific industrial enterprise. To ensure this, the enterprise must already have an implemented platform such as that provided by Smart Industry systems.

Such a system, operating at all relevant levels, can provide the necessary software infrastructure to achieve interoperability of elements involved in the corporate Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

What interoperability looks like in practice can be seen on the example of a major distribution company operating in Slovakia. Using Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, they have managed to connect materials, conveyor belts, forklifts, warehouse positions and employees. The platform for this connection has become the Smart Industry control system EMANS, which ensures the coordination of logistics processes and manages individual devices in such a way as to achieve their highest possible efficiency.

At the same time, this system records all data on handling operations with each package of material, which gives the company the ability to have a high degree of traceability of processes, as well as enough information for the process of their optimization. Such a form of democratization of data and information in the industrial environment accelerates qualified decision-making at all management levels.

 

Technologies that companies are using for smart manufacturing (35% connected supply chain, 34% MES systems, 33% Robotics) (source: MESA International)

This article was originally published in Quark magazine 1/2019.