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  • Welcome to Hanover home of the world's largest industrial fair with more than 6,500 manufacturing organizations

  • from Fortune 500 giants to revolutionaries, start-ups, all descending to showcase their vision for the future of manufacturing and industry

  • Launched in 1947 to boost the economic activity of post-war Germany

  • Hannover Messe has positioned itself as the leading edge of the country's industrial output

  • but organizers say this year represents a pivotal shift for innovation in manufacturing

  • an initiative the German government has termed industry 4.0

  • Well Hannover Messe is the worldwide most important show for industrial technology and energy technology

  • and with the main theme being integrated industry that's why the show is enjoying such a height right now

  • You've heard of the Internet of Things

  • but industry 4.0 transitions these same ideas from the consumer market to large-scale production lines

  • Of course you have your smart homes, you have your smart cars, and the next step is the smart factory

  • then that's gonna be the future of production

  • because products have to be produced more and more individual, more and more flexible

  • and that is only possible if you have IT in your production processes

  • A vision has given birth to the ultimate in smart manufacturing

  • this is Smart Factory, a production line unveiled at the Messe

  • to showcase what happens when every element of a production workflow moves online

  • Smart Factory is the factory consisting of smart elements, smart objects

  • that means that all the elements of the factory that means sensors, actors plus all of the parts itself also the people working there

  • are connected to the Internet and are a part of such a network in the factory

  • Led by the German government center for artificial intelligence

  • Smart Factory is more than just a factory

  • It's a united software platform

  • that connects modules from huge manufacturing mainstays like Phoenix Contact and Siemens to independent start-ups

  • individual modules that would typically not work together

  • we have standards so you can put things together

  • but you can also quickly rearrange all these things

  • because you always have the same standard so just plug and play

  • the system also allows production lines to be redeployed almost instantly by the manufacturer

  • or customized by a customer when they place an order

  • Everyone likes to have this individualized product and this means that

  • we have more and more to change our production systems in a very very short time

  • The Smart Factory's answer is this a tiny chip that travels with each individual product on the production line

  • identifying what it is, who the customer is, and triggering customization throughout the process

  • So how would something like this work?

  • The customer can choose his very own what he wants

  • which color he wants to have, which print he wants to have

  • for example and then this will be produced in these modules here

  • so what you see are the different production models and there are already the information of the customer is stored in this RFID chip

  • so now the RFID chip is really controlling the flow of objects in this line for example

  • each of these modules have been built by different companies

  • they are equipped by different technologies so different controllers different sensors and actors of all these companies

  • so here the customized information will be printed on this little cover here by this laser

  • and finally we go to quality control will show up over here

  • and the customer now can pick this up

  • The technology also lowers environmental impact grouping similar orders together

  • and powering off systems when they're not needed

  • and while the demo creates something as simple as personalized business card holders

  • the capabilities of the system run much deeper

  • take for example the smartphones which we produce - they have a lifetime of a couple of months only

  • and then we have to change something

  • we can apply the same idea to car production and any other production as well

  • But the rush to connect smarter factories is by no means a one-horse race

  • in April the US government announced funding for Digital Manufacturing Commons

  • a similar program led by a consortium US manufacturers

  • and similar projects are emerging from the east

  • I think everyone's under the pressure to move into this direction

  • and therefore I think a lot of things will change in the future and they will be able to follow these standards

  • but we have to be fast because other nations around the world are sometimes faster

Welcome to Hanover home of the world's largest industrial fair with more than 6,500 manufacturing organizations

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