8 DECEMBER, 2022OPINIONRecently, I read an article in the Stamping Journal by Bill Frahm of 4M Partners about the "Fourth Industrial Revolution"--otherwise known as Industry 4.0--that made use of a helpful football analogy. He discussed how, on the grid iron, "successful plays depend on each player's ability to execute their assignments while responding to the situation on the field as it unfolds."This analogy begins to paint a picture of some of the complexities that exist within a metal fabricating business. There is an immense amount of coordination required to effectively and efficiently manufacture a product. There is a need to monitor and respond, in a real time manner, to constant changes on the shop floor. These data needs include mill test reports, inventory, visibility, flow within the shop, actionable real time insights, preventative maintenance, real time productivity, statistical process control, and real time customer delivery data. There is a plethora of data available today within our industry. But the data, being from many disparate systems with lots of noise, makes it very difficult to extract the critical information to make the right decisions at the right time.What does that really mean in a heavy industrial manufacturing environment that has been slow to adopt to Industry 4.0? Productivity is hampered by manual processes, paper files, and manual tracking, all of which are prone to errors. This lagging data does not provide the ability to react in real time (or, better yet, autonomously react)to problems or changes, or to provide leading indicators of what our performance will look like in the minutes and hours to come. Minor incidents and complications happen multiple times per hour and per shift that currently go undetected. Once these invisible occurrences are revealed and laid bare, we will be better equipped to quickly and decisively act to improve our business. The automation of these processes will help us to overcome our fallible human nature, reduce costs, allow for real-time action, and free up time for more value-added activities.Andy R. WisemanINDUSTRY 4.0 IN A LARGE INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURERBy Andy R. Wiseman, Senior Director of Advanced Manufacturing Engineering and Technology, Valmont Industries [NYSE:VMI]
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