When technology’s an inspiration  ...

EMO Hannover 2013: VDMA Congress on “Producing more intelligently” to discuss the potentials of modern-day production technology

Frankfurt am Main, in August 2013. –  The exhibitors at the EMO Hannover 2013, the world’s premier trade fair for the metalworking sector, aim to inspire their visitors. So logically enough, “Inspired by technology” is the motto chosen for the 4th VDMA Congress on “Producing more intelligently”, which is being held this year for the first time at the EMO Hannover, on 16 and 17 September 2013. Now for some introductory background to this inspirational event featuring experts from all sections of the research and business communities.

Congresses themed around the currently hyped topic of Industry 4.0 are proliferating at the moment. But that’s not the half of it, says the German Engineering Federation (Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau e.V.) from Frankfurt am Main. So under the motto of “Inspired by technology”, everything at the VDMA’s “More Intelligent Production” Congress is themed around three conceptual focuses that together are determinant for intelligent production: excellence, efficiency and intelligence. The congress is being supported by the German Machine Tool Builders’ Association (VDW), which is also organising the EMO Hannover. “This year, the keynote theme of the EMO Hannover is “Intelligence in Production”, says the VDW’s Executive Director Dr. Wilfried Schäfer. “That’s why the congress is the perfect complement, since those attending the congress can take a hands-on look in the EMO’s halls at the solutions that have just been discussed.”

Inspiration from the automotive industry
The automotive industry, in particular, is focusing rigorously on eco-friendly, sustainable and intelligent production. For Dr. Hubert Waltl, Brand Director at Volkswagen Cars for the Production and Logistics Division in Wolfsburg, one thing is certain: “For the new Golf model, we’ve also been working towards Industry 4.0, and have already put parts of it into practice. We’ve gained some important experience here in terms of what it means to install production lines in a networked manufacturing operation.
We are firmly convinced that this approach is path-breaking and right.”

Leading researchers emphatically do not regard the smart factory as anything less than a quantum leap. “The topic is really new, since we now have an opportunity to translate into practical reality things that more than a decade ago were simply not possible”, says Prof. Dr. Thomas Bauernhansl, Director of the Institute for Industrial Manufacturing and Management (IFF) and of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) in Stuttgart. “We can indeed use some existing concepts and technologies, but there are going to be a lot of new ideas as well.”

CPS: the leitmotiv for tomorrow’s industrial production operations
The shared Industry 4.0 platform sponsored by the industrial trade associations Bitkom, VDMA and ZVEI (the German Central Association of the Electrical Engineering and Electronics Industry) aims to tackle this issue on a cross-sectoral basis. The working group set up for this purpose is headed by Rainer Glatz from the VDMA. The Executive Director of the VDMA’s Special Sections for Electrical Automation and Software describes the fourth industrial revolution as an interdisciplinary function that relates “You can’t master the issues posed by excellence, efficiency and intelligence without using information technology”, explains Glatz. “It’s a an all-embracing theme that will penetrate to all areas of industrial production operations.”  

The VDMA expert likes to speak in this context of cyber-physical systems (CPSs) that marry conventional production processes to information and communication technology in such a way that machines, lines, components and products (i.e. all of them) can, thanks to electronics (like RFID labels) communicate with each other like on the internet. Glatz describes the smart factory here as one of the many “application domains” that CPSs utilise in a production environment. To quote Glatz: “This technology can be used equally well in road traffic situations to assure smart mobility, for logistical processes of all kinds as smart logistics, or as a smart grid for energy management.”

Rainer Glatz from the VDMA

A rethink in terms of energy as well
As with Industry 4.0, we also need a rethink when it comes to energy – beginning with efficient utilisation and regenerative production all the way through to closed-cycle systems. New approaches to this will be showcased at the IP Congress under the heading of “Efficiency: sustainable and resource-economical production”.
The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft will in addition be presenting the new status of its relevant research activities at the EMO Hannover.

In recent years, rather unjustly, lean production and flexible value creation chains have tended to take more of a back seat, which is why excellence has been singled out as an inspirational theme for the conferees. What a lean, intelligent, efficient production operation will look like in tomorrow’s world will soon be demonstrated by the new Technology Factory of Festo AG in Scharnhausen, which is being built near the company’s headquarters in Esslingen. “With this newly structured plant, Festo is putting in place a flagship facility featuring optimum material and value creation flows”, says Board Chairman Dr.-Ing. Eberhard Veit with an eye on the future.

“At the same time, we are rendering our innovative vigour visible, by creating the spatial preconditions for integrated technology and product development work. Moreover, thanks to  optimised procedure and rigorously refocused core processes, we shall significantly improve the time-to-market.”

Visitors will not be able to observe the details of the Technology Factory until it has been inaugurated in 2014, but one thing already looks pretty certain; besides a goodly portion of Industry 4.0, this will also be involving bionics again. This is right in line with the typically pragmatic Swabian creed of Dr. Veit, who early this year implored his colleagues from the industrial sector: “We should now stop rabbiting on about this, and start putting Industry 4.0 into actual practice.” Some initial insights into the Festo strategy will be provided by Prof. Dr. Peter Post, Head of Corporate Research & Programme Strategy, who at the “Inspired by Technology” IP Congress will be presenting “teachable systems for intelligent production”.

A new role for human resources planning
Irrespective of whether the facilities of the future will feature a smart factory, lean production or an E³ plant, they will all possess a common denominator: without highly qualified staff and a corresponding deployment plan they are non-starters. A project sponsored by the German federal government has been tasked with solving this problem within the framework of the Industry 4.0 initiative. The aim is to create networked, versatile, self-organised capacity flexibility in cyber-physical systems (CapaflexCy), with which enterprises can regulate their production capacities together with their staff for a rapid, requirement-driven, cross-company response. Under the aegis of the Fraunhofer Institute for Work Management and Organisation in Stuttgart (Fraunhofer IAO), the project involves partners from the business community like SAP Research and the SAP MES experts from Trebing & Himstedt Prozessautomation GmbH & Co. KG in Schwerin.

To quote Ulf Kottig, Senior Marketing Manager Manufacturing Integration at Trebing & Himstedt: “What we’re looking at here is how the trend towards batch sizes of one and the concomitant need for flexibilised production can be cushioned no longer with overtime or temporary staff, but above all with an existing team and the aid of internet communication.” For this purpose, the CapflexCy team is developing apps, for example, for mobile terminals, via which staff can receive a scheduling inquiry featuring precise particulars of work content, the order, the customer concerned, and the payment modalities, etc. To familiarise themselves with ongoing advances in production technology, the team from Trebing & Himstedt will be doing some intensive research at the EMO Hannover 2013.

Ulf Kottig, Senior Marketing Manager Manufacturing Integration
at Trebing & Himstedt

Author: Nikolaus Fecht, specialist journalist from Gelsenkirchen

For your diary:

What:    “Inspired by Technology” – 4th VDMA Congress “Producing more intelligently”
When:   16 September 2013: 3.00 to 6.00 p.m.
               17 September 2013: 9.30 a.m. to 1.15 p.m.
               followed by theme-referenced tours of the fair
Where:  Hannover Exhibition Centre, Hall 2, Conference Area on the first floor

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