Key Factors Of Success In Industry 4.0
As I have noticed, the main focus of my thesis in the second chapter will be on Cyber Physical Production Systems CPPSs and thus, the main abilities that a firm has develop is to acquire, manage and communicate information and data inside and outside. For this reason in this section we are going to focus on the awareness that firms have about data. Data will be the future for any company in the future, Industry 4. 0 help to manage it. In fact, through the application of Internet of Things, sensors and RFID companies will acquire an huge amount of data from the production process and the environment that surround them, such as suppliers, customers and whatever stakeholder. Therefore, often firms do not use and exploit them in a structured and efficient manner. Turning to the study it is possible to see that for half of all companies surveyed be able to use and exploit data is considered a priority. Sectors more involved in this capability are surely electronics and IT companies. This is due by the huge amount of data that these sectors produce for the nature of products and services that they produce. However, it is widely shared the idea that the ability of storage, analyze and use data will be a key factor of success for the future, in fact 90% of companies interviewed think that it is a most important thing even those sectors where is surely that not the main priority.
Until now we are focused on the importance of data but we have not consider how company use it. Through the analysis of processes analysts are able to collect information on how the process is going on, after that data will be elaborated and solutions to adjust the process will be taken. Take in consideration the case of an automotive supplier that will be studied in deep in the third chapter. The company is able to monitor completely the production process through sensors, and RFID. The main aim of data collection and data processing is to improve the quality and reliability of the final product. Doing so, faults products or workpieces will be detected at early stage, reducing the case of delivering faults products, thus reducing claims and costs.
Furthermore, the use of data increases transparency and put companies in the position to make the right decision at the right time without doubts along the entire value-chain from suppliers to customers. This is the basis for improve resource efficiency in terms of money and materials, in addition it is possible to increase the productivity and finally customer satisfaction shipping the right product to the right customer without faults. Industry 4. 0 and specially IOT and Big Data are able to change the business model of companies, in fact al lot of process firms through these technologies today are able to solve important optimization’s issues. IOT provide a lot of information about market demand, load capacity of the plant, and the level of material resources. In this way the factory is able to determine which product has to be produced and in which quantity according to the priority of customers orders.
The final aim is to create a system able to simulate the reality in few seconds in order to give the better solution to each problem, this is the task of Cyber physical System and data processing, while IOT through sensors and specially RFID provide real-time data in order to monitor the entire process of value creation. However, from the graph below we can a clear vision of the state in which companies are with data analysis capabilities. A lot of firms are able to track things through RFID but after that a lot lack the capability of analyze and use information in real-time, unfortunately this is the key for the success. In addition some do not have the access at intra-company level.
