Efficient Plant Sept./Oct. 2019 - 6

column | editorial

Viewing
The Future
Factory
Gary L. Parr
Editorial Director

In the factory of the future, we'll see an increased
merger of the physical and virtual worlds.

CORRECTION:

The article "Breaker Boosts Steel-Making
Capabilities," on p. 33 of the April issue indicates
that NUCOR Steel's annual steel output is more
than 27 tons. The actual output is more than
27-million tons. We apologize for the error.

| EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM

HE FACTORY OF the
future is a topic that is on the
minds of many, particularly
those charged with finding the next
best way to manufacture products.
What future factories will look like and
how they will behave was the topic of a
recent press event held by BoschRexroth, Hoffman Estates, IL
(boschrexroth.com), a producer of
automation systems. Here's an overview of what this company's experts
are seeing.
Bosch-Rexroth customers are no
different than anyone else in industry.
They're requesting more customization,
higher productivity, and the ability
to better produce small batch sizes.
Meeting these needs is going to require
a massive technology change focused
on increased connectivity, manufacturing-system flexibility, and machinery/
component intelligence. Safety, as
always, is a factor across the board,
particularly with automated machinery.
Rexroth sees it becoming an integrated
part of all automation systems.
Driving this will be a movement toward making production more transparent. At this point, only a few enterprises
have the data transparency needed to
truly understand what is going on with
production systems. The factory of the
future will have distributed intelligence
down to the device level, providing manufacturing data to all involved.
Effective distribution of intelligence
is, in many ways, the linchpin, because
it will allow implementation of mobile
devices. That doesn't mean cell phones.
It means the ability to move machinery
around and reposition assembly stations.
In other words, the ability to adjust/
modify the factory floor to accommo-

date the product/product version/quantity of the moment. As we all know, this is
a big step away from today's established/
bolted-down assembly lines that turn
out only one type of product or series of
products at a time.
Digital-twin tools will play a major
role in accomplishing this, and we'll
see an increased merger of the physical
and virtual worlds. This is only possible
with intelligence at the device level, full
wireless communication, and effective
implementation of edge and cloud computing to drive the architecture
Plug-and-work technology using
cabinet-free drives and other control
equipment is key. Connectivity is critical
with all equipment communicating in
the same language in a service-oriented
architecture. That will result in data
availability across all equipment, making
it possible to analyze and optimize production KPIs.
Power also becomes a factor. The
ability to move and modify production
equipment is severely limited when
power is delivered in conventional ways.
Factories have to be designed in ways to
deliver power from the floor and allow
that power to meet the needs of any asset
on the floor.
This recent Bosch-Rexroth presentation provided interesting insights
that are not very different from those of
other companies. How far away are we?
For some, the factory of the future has
already arrived. For others, it's still down
the road. One of the most eye-opening
takeaways for me is that 70% of today's
machines aren't connected. But, as we've
seen with IIoT and other technologies,
once the ball starts rolling things can
happen very quickly. EP
gparr@efficientplantmag.com

SEPT/OCT 2019

http://www.boschrexroth.com http://www.EFFICIENTPLANTMAG.COM

Efficient Plant Sept./Oct. 2019

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