How exactly Industrie 4.0 works in actual user environment? The keynote delivered by Dipl.-Ing Johann Hofmann, consultant and senior vice president of ValueFacturing at Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen GmbH (MR), answered this question. MR is a global manufacturer of sophisticated equipment like load/no load tap changers and other devices for regulating power transformers - 'Power Behind Power' - with assembly operations across the world including in India and China, but manufacturing only in Germany. The company's ValueFacturing division provides dedicated support for manufacturing excellence through integration of shopfloor data models into ERP and optimisation of Automated Manufacturing Processes. With 50% of global (electric) power flowing through MR products, the sheer number of products and variants manufactured by MR necessitates frequent tooling changes on its assembly lines and that is where Industrie 4.0 enters the picture.

While many enterprises today are using something or other of modern technology and Internet based systems in manufacturing and maintenance operations including trouble shooting, not many have an integrated approach as it is more like operating standalone systems or silos with different departments maintaining their own systems and though the information is available it is not shared real time which is what is required. At MR, they have worked on this problem and arrived at the following 12 points centred around the concept of Industrie 4.0: Smart Factory; Interdisciplinary, integrated manufacturing; Social media; Mobile computing; Virutalisation of systems; Smart objects (barcodes, RFID, etc); Big data; Analysing, optimisation and forecasting; Internet of Things; Internet of Services; Assistance systems; and Cyber physical systems. It is basically an integration of separate business units into cohesive production system by sharing information realtime. This facilitates information sharing, eliminates confusion, avoids blame apportioning, reduces required tool inventories, and makes production processes more stable, reliable and efficient.

Hofmann illustrated the concept with how processes have evolved progressively from Easy, Difficult to Complicated and Complex from the 1980s with advances in technology. While it is possible to manage complicated things, which can be calculated, with enough knowledge, complex stuff cannot be calculated and hence accurate planning here is pure illusion. The example is of traffic management, which is complex, but with various technology tools and navigation systems one can still calculate the time of arrival. Similarly the increasing process complexity in modern manufacturing can be reduced with an 'Assistance System' and training, which is what Industrie 4.0 is all about.