News for Factory Automation 1/2016

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| News for Factory Automation 1/2016

“This tells us when the system needs to be refilled, saving us unnecessary

checking processes and storage costs,” explains Rauscher. This

simple example is just one possible use of intelligent networking. In the

future, intelligent sensors and cloud-based databases will monitor

complex processes and allow simple access, irrespective of their location.

Cooperation Based on Partnership,

Results Relevant to Practice

For the economy and industry, one of the main advantages of the

Industry 4.0 approach is the possible increased process effectiveness:

Continuous communication and data availability from the field level

to the control level are key to making existing production lines and

processes more effective. “In cooperation with Software AG and the

connection specialists TE Connectivity, we use a demo model to show

that with even a small amount of data from the production process

and intelligent data analysis, considerable added value can be created

for production,” says Michael Bozek, from Product & Business

Development Management for Industry 4.0.

A scenario was developed to reflect a familiar situation on production

lines: The shop floor, the lowest level of the demo model, shows two

manufacturing processes, “stamping” and “pressing,” which transfer

their pre-products to the downstream “assembly” target process

with precision timing. Preliminary and target processes must be both

synchronized and operated simultaneously for maximum productivity.

“Normally, a manufacturing execution system (MES) takes on this task.

With the demo model, we show that only a small amount of specific

data from the shop floor is required to optimize the system,” explains

Bozek.

Process Optimization,

Status Monitoring and Service-on-Demand

Three value-adding starting points for new Industry 4.0 concepts are

process optimization, status monitoring, and service-on-demand.

By replacing or retrofitting fewer hardware components and using a

business platform supplied by Software AG, this can be enabled

for existing machines and systems. At the sensor level, performance-

critical process data is transferred wirelessly from the sensor to the

business platform using a SmartBridge

interface and an appropriate

gateway as a counterpart. At the control level, TE Connectivity’s

SPARK interface taps wired data from the fieldbus. “The business