INDUSTRY 4.0
EPISODE 5
Rob Miller, Wittmann Battenfeld Canada Inc. / ROTOLOADTM
Perhaps it’s your Turn I have spent quite some time pondering the direction for the next few episodes. Not that there is any shortage of Industry 4.0 topics, ideas, principles… actually, quite significantly the opposite. If you ask 20 experts, you will for sure get at least 25 answers… I have had a number of interactions with other industry colleagues, discussing primary machinery, mold technology, downstream/post molding processes, considering where there might be opportunity to leverage Industry 4.0 to the greatest potential financial gain. One of the things that I did as I was planning was to go back and read through my previous episode submissions. As I did, it was quickly evident to me that each of the Industrial Revolutions made physical labor substantially easier. The primary purpose of each of the four major monumental shifts of thought seemed to have the main purpose of reducing or making more efficient the labor content of any manufacturing process. Therefore, in the end, I believe that the human aspect of our manufacturing has the greatest potential gain in efficiency from Industry 4.0 concepts. To be totally honest, I am not sure how many episodes it may take to fully examine some of these ideas and concepts, but I believe it to be very beneficial to work through some of this. I would like to start by taking a brief minute to introduce three common terms used in manufacturing, technology, economic, and business discussions, HUMAN, STRUCTURAL, and RELATIONSHIP Capital. HUMAN CAPITAL is your people. The description can go much deeper, to include your employee experience and knowledge, the relationship that the company has with those employees,
training policies and procedures, and employee satisfaction…do they enjoy their jobs and the company that they work for. STRUCTURAL CAPITAL relates to your legacy processes, policies, vision, and mission statement that all contribute to the culture of the organization. RELATIONAL CAPITAL is essentially as it sounds. It is the relationships that you share with your customers, suppliers, employees, investors, etc. The intent is to suggest that there is a point where these three factors within your organization intersect, and at that intersection is where you really experience the highest level of value. You may be asking…where is he going with this? Please stick with me, and I assure you that I will land the plane. (that is what my kid’s say anyways)
40 ROTOWORLD® OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2020
There was an economist back in the late 1800’s, Mr. Alfred Marshall, and one of his quotes is the following. “The most valuable of all capital, is that which is invested in human beings”. Mr. Marshall was known for the original theory of Supply and Demand, as well as contributions to the theory of marginal productivity. Marginal Productivity essentially states that if you are paying an employee a certain wage, that your business revenue should increase by the same value, at the same rate, for the work produced by that same employee. Now, a lot has changed since the late 19th century, and some of these prominent theories of the time don’t really apply any longer, or at least are disputed. As I explored this topic, I was left to wonder if each of our employees actually add their hourly wage in comparable value to our bottom line?
