business
‘‘
TALKING
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information like this, they can optimise
conditions on the plant floor and improve
orders and production output. In short,
sharing data makes manufacturing more
agile, bringing the days of moving in silos to
an end.
‘If you want it like that, you’ll have
to wait longer’
Industry 4.0 is dawning a new age of
personalised manufacturing, combining
customised production with the speed and
on-time delivery expectations of today’s
consumers. This is the age of the customer
and customers demand bespoke products fast.
One of many companies putting this into
practice is German cereal manufacturer
MyMuesli, which makes personalised
breakfast cereal for customers out of a
collection of 80 different grains, nuts and
fruits. The very fact that an FMCG product
like muesli can be customised on a grand
scale is testament to the rapid progression
of Industry 4.0, and to MyMuesli’s successful
digital transformation.
Intelligent and integrated systems play a
vital role for manufacturers that want to put
their customers first, delivering instructions
to machines about specific customer orders
as they progress along the production line,
in an inversion of normal manufacturing.
In the case of MyMuesli, each package
“
THEY DO A JOB
THAT WOULDN’T
BE SAFE FOR
HUMANS AND
STAFF CAN
EXPECT THEIR
JOB ROLES TO
BECOME MORE
DIGITAL AND
LESS MANUAL
AS A RESULT.
moves around the factory on an intelligent
product carrier, which tells filling machines
what to add to each muesli box according to
individual customer orders.
‘A machine can’t do it better than me’
Industry 4.0 requires a cultural change in the
way humans work with machines.
Not only will employees be able to work
closer across different departments in an
Industry 4.0 world, sharing real-time data
and insights to make accurate decisions
in the workplace, they will also be able to
have some of their tasks automated by
machines, allowing them to work on new,
less tedious tasks instead and crunching
delivery timescales.
This involves a significant change in the
industrial environment, a fresh approach to
workplace dynamics.
One example of this change is the 45,000
robots recruited across Amazon’s 20
fulfilment centres. Taking instructions from
digital databases and ERP systems and
working alongside Amazon employees, these
robots pick and haul packages weighing over
300kg at the fast-pace needed to keep up
with customer demand.
They do a job that wouldn’t be safe for
humans and staff can expect their job roles
to become more digital and less manual as
a result.
While the technologies associated with
Industry 4.0 – from robotics to the Internet-
of-Things and from big data analytics and
artificial intelligence to 3D printing – are
transforming business processes. An often
overlooked challenge is managing the
inevitable shift in workplace dynamics,
which is crucial to supporting the successful
integration of Industry 4.0 technologies.
These points are fitting examples
of attitudes that need to shift, as
manufacturers break down barriers between
departments, embrace customisation and
work in tandem with machines.
It’s up to employers and their teams to
embrace these changes and change their
mindsets, as they grow their businesses in
the Industry 4.0 world. n
36
INTELLIGENTCIO
www.intelligentcio.com