SMT007 Magazine

SMT007-Aug2020

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76 SMT007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2020 and, ultimately, advances humankind in terms of quality of life—the decisions of what makes a smart factory in fact, smart, and the prag- matic approach to realizing ROI will define just how far and quickly we reach the plateau of productivity (Figure 1) [2] . As we have seen in many of the discussions with customers and their smart factory ini- tiatives, simply jumping on the Industry 4.0 bandwagon may often be a recipe for disaster. It Starts With a Vision We have consulted and analyzed many use cases and datasets of more than 50 plants worldwide and more than 1 TB of manufactur- ing test data in our quest to provide the right set of value differentiators with the goal that customers will choose us as their key solution partner. Thus, it is imperative that we define— at least in our perspective—what the "smart" in "smart factory" means. The "smart" begins with a strategy, and this is paramount. Often, what we see in many of The Hype of Smart Factory Industry 4.0 is a very wide paradigm that consists of many seemingly technological mir- acles. A lot of excitement and marketing have been made on big data, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality, additive manufac- turing, robotics, and autonomous machines. However, one needs to appreciate that many of the core fundamentals for these technolo- gies were developed decades ago. For exam- ple, AI goes as far back as 1956 [1] and has been refined over the years. Nevertheless, it is believed that the implementation phase of these technology enablers truly begins now, as we have achieved the beginning of the right performance and cost of electrical, electronics, and wireless components that makes it all fea- sible and practical. An application of Industry 4.0 will have to be the factory, and the endgame is to make the latter "smart." In the never-ending quest to improve productivity and efficiency—which hallmarks every industrial revolution since Figure 1: Inflated expectations lead to disaster.

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