Industrie 4.0

German industrial companies are suffering from an increasing shortage of skilled workers. In order to secure Germany’s existing competitive advantages, suitable solutions have to be carried out to counter this shortage. Technologies in the context of “Industry 4.0” offer promising solutions. Using this technologies, significant productivity improvements as well as higher resource utilization rates can be achieved. However, the main challenge is to identify the right technical solutions for the specific business challenges. In the following, a systematic approach is presented to face these challenges.

Through disruptive changes and an increasing globalization, companies have to rethink their traditional working models. Thereby, the digital transformation seems to provide a solid answer to this challenge and enables a rapid adaption to the new circumstances. Humans are of central importance to respond to these changing demands. A challenge hereby is, that humans have to be embedded in such a flexible working environment considering, that the competence profile is changing rapidly. In order to solve these challenges, a competence profile is provided. Furthermore, it is shown that a working model for the digital transformation enables a company to respond quickly and flexibly to new environmental conditions.

Due to an increased product variety, the need for flexibly configured assembly systems is steadily growing. In contrast to classic assembly lines with predominantly rigid conveyor technology, efficient, individual assembly routes with cycle-independent processing times are implemented in a dynamically interconnected assembly system using intelligent control and AGVs. This article presents the most important factors for the IT-related implementation of a dynamically interconnected assembly system and shows which existing standards from the field of Industry 4.0 can be used for this purpose.

Industry 4.0 is work in progress in Germany, digital technologies such as IoT, KI, Cloud or Big Data Analytics are increasingly being introduced in companies. However, alongside technology, people and organisation are the central success factors of digital transformation. Further training, lifelong learning, agile organisation and corporate culture are becoming increasingly important in companies. Study results on the competence requirements for industrial work 4.0 show that in addition to IT and technical skills, openness, overview knowledge, interdisciplinary cooperation and agility are also required. Young professionals from NRW largely understand the importance of these competences, but show significant deficits in many of them, especially in digital competences, interdisciplinary cooperation and agility. It is necessary to promote these competences in a targeted manner during studies and further education.

The level of networking and complexity in intelligent manufacturing is constantly increasing. As a result, the demands on employees are growing, especially due to changing work tasks. In addition, the existing lack of skilled workers leads to bottlenecks. The use of remote technologies opens up new opportunities for collaboration, especially in maintenance. Considering the challenges of industrial maintenance, to what extent can remote technologies be used to efficiently meet these demands? This article provides an overview of the remote technologies currently used and discussed in practice and research. In addition, it shows which prerequisites must be created for an effective application of the technologies.

The manufacturing of eyeglasses is a great example of customized mass production. Its globalization results in high data and product traffic, which can only be economical if the process allows a 100 % first time lens-frame fit. TH Köln developed a machine which prints viscoelastic polymer structures on machined glass edges. This method allows a five times lower accuracy in manufacturing and improves results in mechanical tension, optics and lens fit. It has shown to be highly successful with great potential in additional sectors.

Based on known deficits, the article recommends measures for a successful realization of the concept Industry 4.0 on the levels “Business”, “Functional” and “Information” of the RAMI-4.0-Framework. The technical foundations to meet the expectations of Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing are in place; a correction of the named deficits in the near future seems realistic.