Various studies repeatedly emphasize that SMEs in particular are not sufficiently prepared for Industry 4.0 - do you agree with this?

Dr. Krattenmacher: I'm afraid you have to agree with that. If we look at mechanical and plant engineering, we are currently seeing considerable shifts in value creation. In other words, the value that the end customer perceives and is prepared to pay for will increasingly move away from the amount of steel and hardware used towards the application solution - which is often synonymous with software!

This is certainly a change that we will all have to come to terms with. In the consumer sector, we are already further ahead here - see marketplaces such as Airbnb and Uber, for example: one doesn't own a single hotel, the other doesn't own a single cab or driver - but both have an enormously high financial valuation based on their online platform alone. If we are not careful, why shouldn't we face a similar situation? In other words, at some point it will no longer be our 'substructure' - i.e. the machines and systems - that make up the value that is paid for, but instead a superordinate platform that ensures the construction, operation, availability and ultimately also the maintenance of an entire logistics center, for example.

In this respect, I would say that although we are prepared in certain areas when it comes to industry and digitalization, we are not yet on the way to this all-encompassing approach. And the smaller a company is, the less those responsible are aware of what is coming their way. Smaller machine and plant manufacturers in particular urgently need to think about this: What does my module have to look like so that it can play a part in the big smart factory or so that it can be connected to it? There needs to be a lot more speed here!

How is this supposed to happen - given that medium-sized mechanical engineering companies in particular are still strongly characterized by mechanics and software experts are in short supply, not to mention special IT expertise?

Dr. Krattenmacher: That is correct. In this respect, automation technology providers are called upon to show these companies how they can cover the topic of Industry 4.0 even with few resources. Incidentally, the rapid increase in complexity in recent years is not just to do with Industry 4.0. Where previously two simple contactors were sufficient for safety-relevant applications, for example, functional safety suddenly had to be integrated into the control system. Even before that, the switch from binary to bus communication had to be mastered and then network communication was added. Although all this has brought many convenient functions, it has not reduced complexity, but increased it further.

In the future, we will be talking about topics such as predictive maintenance, condition monitoring and energy management. This increases the complexity to a level that a small machine manufacturer with perhaps a single PLC programmer can no longer keep track of. Against this backdrop, we at SEW have already made a start with our products in the electronics sector in the past, for example by removing functions from the PLC and integrating them into our drive technology in advance. Similarly, we now see it as our duty to reduce complexity for users as far as possible when it comes to the Smart Factory.

Where do you see the most urgent fields of action in this context - not only for SEW, but also for suppliers of automation components as a whole?

Dr. Krattenmacher : One task that everyone faces is the question of how to actually set up the networking of the modular factory. Again, a comparison with the consumer world: if you buy a WLAN printer today, it has everything it needs to be able to integrate itself into a network: It knows what it is called, can communicate this to the network and download the necessary drivers itself if required. As a rule, everyone on the network can then access the printer immediately. The security problem is also partially solved. In industry, we are still a long way from such a network structure.

However, when Industry 4.0 dissolves the classic automation pyramid in favour of an integrated or cross-level network structure - and we are definitely talking about that - things like data storage or engineering access will have to be completely reorganized. There are approaches in this regard, but there is still no clarity.

What do you think are the most promising approaches?

Dr. Krattenmacher: In terms of horizontal connectivity - i.e. from manufacturing module to manufacturing module - OPC UA could actually establish itself as the standard. The issue of vertical connection of products is less clear. There are many initiatives here, such as Ethernet TSN. However, a clear distinction must be made as to whether we are talking about TSN at the transport layer - traditionally level 2 in the OSI model - or the project planning level, which is somewhere between levels 5 and 7. There will still be a lot to discuss, especially with regard to the latter. I fear that many manufacturers will find it difficult to position themselves differently than in the past, simply because of tradition. It must also be clear to everyone that standardization is fundamentally desirable and right. But if, in the end, every manufacturer has to do the same thing anyway, users will no longer have different products on the market, which could ultimately mean more standstill than progress.

"Smart Factory cannot be implemented at the 'green table' - you have to test it in practice," says Dr. Hans Krattenmacher from SEW-Eurodrive.

© SEW-Eurodrive

If not everything is clearly defined even on the supplier side - for example in terms of connectivity or software interfaces: How are users supposed to implement Industry 4.0 in their factories?

Dr. Krattenmacher: This task cannot be accomplished at the 'green table' alone. So many questions arise in the course of implementation that can only be answered if you try it out yourself and learn as you go - just as we were able to do in our own factories with the support of the management. You don't have to fool yourself: Not everything works right away the first time. But that's simply part and parcel of plunging into something completely new. However, those who dare to do it anyway are usually one step ahead. Pushing the topic away in the hope that it will take a long time is certainly not a solution!

During the last Hannover Messe in particular, a number of visitors approached us with the question: Who can advise us on how to set up a factory based on the principles of Industry 4.0? This confirmed our decision to expand our Industry 4.0 consulting approach. Our advantage here is that we can not only show power points or white papers, but also take those seeking advice to our own 'Industry 4.0 showcase factory' in Graben and demonstrate our ideas of the modular factory in real operation. At this stage, this has nothing to do with selling components or software.

Keyword components: Will the pure component manufacturers fall by the wayside if everything happens in software in the future?

Dr. Krattenmacher: They will not fall by the wayside. Fortunately, there is still a crucial difference in industry compared to the consumer world: factories will continue to run for 10, 15 or 20 years, not just two. For this to be possible, the long-term availability of components will always play a role.

If the two - the software and the hardware - can be cleverly combined, manufacturers can ultimately protect their hardware via the software. Take a look at this very large manufacturer with bitten apples, for example, who manages this brilliantly. Its business models are primarily software-based, but at the same time linked to its hardware.

How do you manage this balancing act at SEW?

Dr. Krattenmacher: One thing is clear: we want to continue to produce and sell geared motors in the future. We are faced with the challenge of developing new concepts in order to ultimately safeguard existing business models on the one hand, but also to identify new business models on the other. The first prerequisite for this is that we prepare our product portfolio for the smart factory - in other words, we are talking about the digitalization of electromechanics.

We first took this step with Movi-C, our new modular automation system. In other words, we have initially introduced a digital data channel between the inverter and motor - not to be confused with the encoder interface! There is a data node in the motor itself, which gives free rein to the world of ideas. This means, for example, that an electronic type plate can be stored in this data node, via which the motor - and now we are back to the comparison with the printer - can be put into operation completely automatically within a few seconds. This node is also equipped with all the necessary IT and data communication structures to make quality or system data stored in the node available to any participants via the network. We will consistently apply this approach to our entire product portfolio over the next few years.

Is this 'digital channel' between the motor and the inverter an open or standardized interface?

Dr. Krattenmacher: It is currently still proprietary. Simply because there is currently no standardized solution that meets our requirements in this regard. In other words: If we want to guarantee over 20 years or more that the data can be read out and always transmitted correctly, the only way to do this today is with the solution we have developed ourselves. From the inverter to the control technology, however, we will rely on standardized interfaces.

Finally, back to the starting point - the change in intralogistics in particular. SEW has been working on mobile assistance systems for some time now. When will these be available on the market?

Dr. Krattenmacher: We are currently in the final stages of series development for the next generation of vehicles. First of all, we will be equipping our two new factories with them, namely Graben and the electronics factory here in Bruchsal. At the same time, the first customer projects are already underway. In short, we will definitely be able to deliver in 2018 and continue to build up our project sales at the same time. The same applies to this topic: we will continue to learn from practical field applications, optimize the solutions accordingly and gradually expand them according to the modular principle.