Industry 4.0 is making its mark in the manufacturing sector, and medical devices are no exception. Lu Rahman looks at the relevance of this ‘fourth Industrial Revolution’.
Industry 4.0
Earlier this year, at the Industry 4.0 Summit in Manchester, Lord Prior of Brampton, parliamentary under secretary of state for business, energy and industry strategy, outlined the importance of Industry 4.0. He said: “If a company’s management does not take a longer term strategic view – even if that means sacrificing short term results and difficult meetings in the meantime – then they simply won’t be here in 10 years’ time.”
Industry 4.0 will see industry and manufacturing moving towards increased digitisation, automation and integrated control systems, creating smart factories. It looks set to transform the manufacturing sector via use of the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI).
Last month Electronics Week reported that the project Productive 4.0 was looking for Industry 4.0 partners and that companies including Bosch, Philips, Infineon, Fraunhofer and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have already pledged their involvement.
The CEO of Infineon, Dr Reinhard Ploss, told the publication: “Real-time connected value chains will dramatically increase agility in development and production. They will thus help shorten time to market…microelectronics is a key enabler for further digitisation of the manufacturing industry and for an optimised and integrated supply chain management. With its high level of automation, our industry can serve as a blueprint showing how to secure important parts of the value chain and qualified jobs in Europe. We now want to share our know-how with other industrial sectors.”
In the medtech sector Ireland is preparing business for this manufacturing shift. Last month the country saw the official opening of Irish Manufacturing Research, Ireland’s first Independent, industry driven, Research and Technology Organisation, creating 40 jobs. The centre specialises in advanced manufacturing technologies and the positions will be high tech research roles in the areas of Industry 4.0, collaborative robotics, industrial IoT, data analytics, additive manufacturing/3D printing, design thinking and knowledge management.
The centre’s aim is to carry out cutting edge research, development and innovation in collaboration with manufacturing companies to ensure industry in Ireland can become, and remain, world-class using in next generation manufacturing.
In the UK, events like Industry 4.0 Summit and 4IR are helping to explain the scale of this movement, what it means and how businesses can prepare. Jonathan Lee Recruitment recently held an engineering and manufacturing recruitment event in Telford where topics such as how to engage workforces in Industry 4.0, the impact of robotics and automation on competiveness and how the UK can be at the forefront of ‘on-demand’ manufacturing were discussed.
For medtech manufacturing, Engel has entered the market offering Inject 4.0, which combines the advantages of smart machines, smart production and smart service.
Likewise, Arburg has taken up the Industry 4.0 mantel and recently exhibited technology at the Hanover Messe highlighting this smart manufacturing.
But Industry 4.0 isn’t just for established big companies. SMEs may feel that discussions about smart manufacturing processes and using data to aid the way a facility functions, are a step or two removed from smaller-scale operations.
As with any new practice, workforce engagement is a key priority and whatever the business size, technology can be incorporated to improve and better current processes.
David Woakes, group business development manager at Jonathan Lee Recruitment, said: "Many savvy, Midlands-based SME businesses are embracing the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution which will see the manufacturing industry revolutionised once again by breakthrough emerging technologies such as automation and robotics, the internet of things, 3D printers, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology.
“Organisations that adapt their business models and implement the shift towards digital and disruptive technologies will find themselves more competitive on the global stage, vastly more productive and with the capability to mass-customise products.”