Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1490123
44 PCB007 MAGAZINE I JANUARY 2023 Introduction Karl Dietz never wrote on automation and the Smart factory, but these topics have been a priority for larger OEMs since the early 1980s. I became involved in automation planning aer designing and building Hewlett-Packard's printed circuit fabrication facility in Sunny- vale, California. is was the first fabrication facility to demonstrate the capability of com- puter process control and management plan- Protocols for a Smart Factory Future ning. Soon aer, I moved into the role of auto- mation consultant for HP with its introduction of the Manufacturing Productivity Network (MPN) for a product line of computers, so- ware, and data acquisition systems. Starting the Process e journey to a Smart factory is evolution- ary; it starts with a thorough business plan that charts a roadmap for your enterprise into the future. at roadmap will have six stages (Figure 1): 1. Environmental assessment 2. Program strategy 3. Conceptual design 4. Detailed design and requirement specifications 5. Development 6. Implementation Mechanization was the pri- mary focus of automation in the 1980s and '90s, with an emphasis on robotics and continuous prod- uct flow. e focus of Industry 4.0 has been on sensors, data collec- tion, data aggregation, data analy- sis/analytics, business intelligence/ corrective actions, and predictions (digital twins) or systemization. As seen in Figure 2, the emphasis is now on analytics and optimizations in all forms. Happy's Tech Talk #16 by Happy Holden, I-CONNECT007 Figure 1: The six stages of planning for a Smart factory 1 .