What is Industry 4.0? With the development of science and technology, automated equipment is gradually replacing the current manual mass production. Such advanced developments have led to major changes in industrial production.
An independent smart factory is created through the collection and analysis of big data combined with smart manufacturing equipment and internet integration, enabling acceleration of acquiring stock, production, packaging, and shipment.
Industry 4.0 will alter the future appearance of factories transforming them into automated smart factories: (1) All equipment, materials, semi-finished products and finished products in the factory are embedded with eTags or sensors, recording the necessary data to facilitate monitoring of the production process. This is to improve the quality of production giving consumers a sense of trust; (2) Industrial robots and automated guided vehicles are used on the production line with IT quality control personnel’s or software programmers’ supervision; (3) Fully automatic measurement (AOI, ATE, robotic arms, etc.) to make adjustments to an order already in production; (4) Shop floor monitoring system can collect and produce a resume containing data of equipment and products which is then transmitted to the cloud server where Big Data analysis is used to generate information to facilitate decision-making; (5) Transitioning to the C2B business model starts with customer demand (understanding customer habits and predicting customer demand), customized production, and the “Diverse and Few” sales model.
On October 16, 2014, the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan launched the itsTaiwan version of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, known as the Productivity 4.0 plan. There are two requirements: (1) the use of robots in large quantities; (2) with Industry 4.0 in mind, the production process should be more automated and integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) technology, cloud computing, and real-time information processing.
After the introduction of IoT technology, they were faced with a colossal amount of information collected from manufacturing, service, and technology industries through the means of big data analysis. All industries in Taiwan were required to launch related technologies. It was then promoted to the Executive Yuan where other ministries were invited to participate. On February 16, this year (2015), President Mao of the Executive Yuan announced that the Taiwan version of the “Productivity 4.0 Plan” will be launched. The goal is that within ten years, one person would be able to receive two salaries for finishing three jobs. The plan will be a ten-year period introducing IoT technology, smart robots and big data. It will initially give priority to seven areas: machine tools, metal processing, 3C (computer, communication and consumer electronics), food, medical, logistics, and agriculture.
At the same time, the Industrial Development Bureau officially launched an industrial transformation action plan to promote the upgrading of traditional industries making way for emerging industries. In the process of industrial transformation, there will be major obstacles. Not only does Taiwan have an aging population and a shocking decline in birth rate, but the people have a unique mindset of “late in, early out”. These are all important issues that economic development is still unable to solve.
According to the data of the National Development Council, Taiwan’s labor force is being reduced by 180,000 people every year since 2016. Therefore, the policy must consider the issue of productivity and how to use new technologies to solve the changes in Taiwan’s population structure.
Currently, Hon Hai, Amazon, Google, Facebook and other major technology companies have invested in the robot industry, such as Hon Hai’s million-robot military plan or Amazon’s drone technology. The actions of these key players have stimulated great market attention attracting other companies and contributing to the development of industrial intelligent automation.
The introduction of robots in production has led to a sharp reduction in traditional industrial occupations. At the same time, the mass production process of robots also requires working personnel to monitor software R & D and design, quality control, and product integration marketing. Thus, changes in the operation structure will not reduce manpower requirements.
As robots are starting to handle more sophisticated production line work, its application layout has also expanded rapidly, from high-tech pharmaceutical, automotive, electronic, semiconductor, and metal industries(precision manufacturing fields) to traditional industries such as rubber and plastics, textiles, printing, food processing, and even various service industries such as catering and tourism. There has been a wave of applications that introduce intelligent robots to production lines.
In the future, the revolutionary internet will be upgraded to the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 manufacturing will replace mass production with mass customization, producing according to customer needs. Consequently, the business model will inevitably change. The B2C or B2B model is gradually being replaced by a consumer-to-business (C2B) model in this online age. C2B’s 2(to) represents the customer’s participation in manufacturing, their demand.
The C2B business model is a customized production and sales model based on customer needs while the B2C business model is a mass production and sales model of standard products. The development of network technology along with the computer, automation and communication industries have led to the integration of related technologies throughout the entire production and supply chain. It’s only natural to move towards the C2B models of flexible production and non-stock production. If the C2B model is to succeed, we’re to make full use of the data analysis done during the production process to assist internal product development and marketing discovering potential customers and new business partners. Open innovation not only needs to have organizations with its professionals, preferably those with a high international outlook, but also different resources that span industries. The best example is Amazon, which has moved from an online bookstore to retail, introducing aviation experts to the development of unmanned aircraft to expedite the delivery of goods.
The C2B era is coming. Those who are not familiar with the internet will find it difficult to profit in this IoT period. Of course, the C2B business model has not been thoroughly tested at the time but it is among other business models under the trend of the IoT that are waiting for entrepreneurs to develop and implement them.
This article is an excerpt from STPI
Next-generation MES, the core of plant automation
As an important part of the smart factory, Manufacturing Execution System (MES) is the core of integrated automation. The development trends of modern factories are all oriented towards automated production methods. Traditional MES was limited to data collection and report analysis causing it to be unable to meet the needs of this rapidly changing age. The new generation of MES will be the core system of the entire plant automation control. It not only has the existing scope of MES, but also includes CIM, EAP, machine connection, integration of robotic arms and other functions. Data analysis improves product quality and customer satisfaction, reduces production costs, and maximizes corporate benefits.
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