INDUSTRY 4.0
EPISODE 3
by Rob Miller, Whitten Battenfeld/RotoLoad
If only there was a better way!
38 ROTOWORLD® | MAY-JUNE 2020
INDUSTRY 4.0
EPISODE 3 As I sit att my desk typingggg this episode on my manual typpewriter, I am finding that there are some keys that aaare a little sticky. I tthhink ttthat I neeeed a seerivvcce caalll. If only therrre was a beetter way. I am also lookingggg for my corrrection tape, or whhhite out as I unfortunately did not do veryyy well in typing in high school. The teacheerrr promised to give me a 50, if I prommmisssed to never take typing againnn. If only there was a bbbbetter wway. Who would havvve known baccck in 1980 that I would have been tyyyping for the better part of mmy dailyyy life. If only there was a betttter wayy. Once I am ddone, I will have to buuy a stamp, and puutt this letter in the maill to Susan. Onncee her team reecceives, it, theyy will haave to typpe their thhhoughts and putt them in the mmaill backk to mee. WAIT A MINUTE… There is a better way. None of us would consider running our business with manual typewriters in 2020. As the GOOD GUYS we have all embraced electronic technology for the daily operations of our business. We keep our key employees up to date with the latest cell phones so that we can all be in constant and immediate communication. Some of us have mobile access to live video in our facilities, so that we can see exactly what is going on, at all hours of the day and night. It seems these days that time moves so very quickly. I have a personal theory that this is at least in part, due to our constant expectation that everything is instant. We eat fast food and get frustrated when it is not brought to our car fast enough, or hot enough, or cold enough. We have incredible expectations to the speed that our employees, colleagues, customers, even family respond to text messages, or emails. Reality is that I have run this article by Susan several times prior to this publication, and each of those transactions took seconds, not days! So why can it be slow and difficult when it comes to adopting modern and helpful technology in our manufacturing? Reality is that many of our manufacturing processes are stuck in 1980.SSSCCCCRRRRAAAATTTTCCCCCCCCHHHHHH HHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! COVID-19 HIT!! It doesn’t matter where you are located, or what you do, or in fact your opinion of the virus or the actions taken because of it, there is absolutely no denying that our lives were dramatically affected by this virus, in every sense of the word. Our personal lives, that of our families, friends, colleagues, and businesses were absolutely derailed, disrupted, and in many cases put on hold. We now collectively continue to try to negotiate and develop what our new reality looks like, and how we will continue to exist, not just exist, but we must figure out how to thrive in this new reality. We now need to determine what our futures will look like, how we will recover, and how we will move forward. It would be quite easy, and very understandable to be reluctant to continue with or totally shelve any previous investment plans. The truth is that it could be argued that now is the time when we MUST look into and invest in technology to get us out of this
situation, with a healthy outlook, and a positive future. There are a lot of significant arguments for why Industry 4.0 principals are even more valid and applicable to our businesses as we move forward. Firstly, the cost of data has decreased exponentially. I am sure that may of you will realize this, but for fun, lets look at a few numbers. These numbers represent commercially available purchase prices for hard drives from various manufacturers. Lets have a look. Back in 1982 when I was plucking away on my manual typewriter, 1 MB (yes-ONE MEGA BYTE) had an average cost of a little over $ 4,000.00 USD. Forward to 1990, and that price had dropped to a little less than $ 100.00. At the beginning of 2000, that same 1 MB of data storage had dropped to about $1.50. Fast forward to 2010, the cost had dropped to less than $ 0.02 per MB. And now at the beginning of 2020, that same 1 MEGA BYTE of storage has dropped to $0.0029. Less than 3 tenths of a cent. I wanted to explore this part of the process to begin the thought process that considering the implementation of Industry 4.0 principles within your manufacturing environment does not represent a massive investment. Not only is it not a large investment of your hard earned money, the payback can be very fast, and there are many trends of companies using the 4.0 technology to develop new ways of creatively billing for products, resources, or services. In closing, I wanted to offer a few basic examples (in no particular order) that we will examine in much more detail in coming episodes. Maybe these will get your creative thoughts flowing, and even perhaps start some internal discussions within your organizations as to how you can use and really benefit from Industry 4.0 technology. • • • • • •
Manage your valuable inventory and resources. Improve manufacturing and human efficiency. Reduce waste. Perform diagnostics, service, and updates on machinery remotely. Reduce human congestion and traffic. Reduce machinery use and traffic. www.rotoworldmag.com 39