SINDEX 2023 -"Smart up your automation" insights from a recent Industrial Automation Fair

After attending the SINDEX industrial automation fair in Bern, Switzerland, with the tagline "Smart up your automation"... I'd like to share some highlights for those interested in the Digital Transformation of industrial companies, also known as Industry 4.0 (the 4th Industrial Revolution) a term that orginates back to circa 2011.

1. Industry 4.0, 4.1, Industry 5.0?

At the fair, Dominic Gorecky of Swiss Smart Factory and Mario Fürst of Siemens gave an insightful presentation into the history of Industry 4.0, and how it has evolved over the last 10 years. The term Industry 4.0 itself has undoubtably been a successful global export: originating from German Industry it has become the global term for Digitalization of Manufacturing. As is often the case, global crises fuel business and technological transformations; thus Industry 4.0 has benefited from the recent crises of the COVID-pandemic, from supply-chain-disruptions due to geopolitics, and war and in future will be likely be driven by climate-change; the need for more business agility, better traceability of CO2 emmissions and their reduction, will all continue to drive the need for Digital Transformation in Industry.

Another interesting factor will be sustainability data, being considered at the time of purchase - i.e. people will increasingly look at the carbon footprint of products as part of their buying decision, which means manufacturers will need to be able to accurately define how much CO2 is needed to build their products..

Last but not least, the importance of openess across whole value-chains and ecosystems will increase, and here Siemens presented their new platform/strategy known as Siemens-Xcelerator as a step forwards. Digitalisation is not just about connecting individual machines, but must go further (connecting complete production-lines, factories and even value-chains.) This is the ultimate challenge for industry: how to securely/safely share data across these complex ecosystems, known as "Digital Innovation Hubs".

The evolution of these transformations and terms Industry 4.0, 4.1 and even 5.0 were all explained in this 30min presentation: SINDEX 2023: Siemens - YouTube

2. Robots moving outside the production-line

Professor Roland Siegwart Director Autonomous Systems Labs ETH Zurich, presented a fascinating talk on how robots have now moved out of highly automated mass production-lines, to completely new industries such as agriculture, construction, equipment-maintenance and inspection.

Robotic development is a highly innovative field, where more and more senses and intelligence are being integrated into robots. Now with AI, robots are moving from being heavily pre-programmed to being able to learn themselves, which is a difficult but necessary step towards autonomous operations.

Check this video for more on Professor Siegwart's presentation: SINDEX 2023: Keynote Tag 3 - Prof. Dr. Roland Siegwart - YouTube

3. 5G networks, now in Industry

Oscar Iglesias of Sunrise, gave an intriguing look into how 5G networks, are enabling Digital Transformation in Industry. 5G networks are starting to enable smart factory automation, through a hybrid combination of public and private 5G networks, depending on business-needs and use-case.

What 5G provides is a concept called network-slicing, which dedicates & allocates communication channels between equipment and the network. This ensures that the quality and responsiveness of communication is consistent and reliable, so that industrial use-cases can now be developed on top of wireless networks, thus saving on expensive and complex cabling inside factories and sites.

For more info including some highly innovative use-cases, check this video: SINDEX 2023: Sunrise GmbH - YouTube

4. Wearin Technologies - Wearables for field operations

Last but not least, I visited the stand of a particularly innovative company.. Wearin, a spin-off from Fischer Connectors. Wearin have developed a special connected-jacket, that emergency-services, security-personnel, and field-workers can already use to remain completely connected to a control centre, when operating in the field. Wearin's jackets, which include a full set of sensors and seamlessly integrated interfaces, provide connectivity to a central IoT platform, enabling immediate action in a crisis while also generating predictive insights that prevent future risk. I see massive potential in this field of wearable technologies which can connect humans and their condition, state, position and operations with centralised operations centres.

I hope you enjoyed this update- feel free to contact me in case of a mutual interest around Industrial Digitalization and Transformation.

regards,

Peter Angelos,

Digital Innovation Leader