Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/674146
40 SMT Magazine • May 2016 so forth. That's really where you get the most bang for your money. Las Marias: Yes, it definitely impacts the bottom line. Bjorn, what can we expect next from KIC Thermal? Dahle: We actually doubled our R&D budget a year and a half ago, so we have a lot in the pipeline. Of course, I can't easily share that with you, but I think that a lot of value for customers will be driven through better use of data. The ability to extract that data, analyze it and share it. The ability, through MES, to look at the oven just not as an isolated case, but how it fits into your whole production line in the whole fac- tory. One of the benefits is that we have custom- ers that purchase this as a sales tool because their clients want transparency. They want to know that it's not checked once a day or once a month, but every single product is verified to be in spec. Having this technology can help a manufacturer get a competitive advantage to get that next client. I think you're going to see maybe a closer relationship between companies out there, things like MES and us, for example. That's definitely an area of growth and coopera- tion you're going to see continue in the future. Las Marias: Is there anything that we haven't talked about that you think we should be talking about? Dahle: The only thing I'd like to maybe men- tion is there's a lot of hype in the industry about Industry 4.0 and Made in China 2025, and I think there's a disconnect between that market- ing hype from the vendors like us and the cus- tomer. I'm struck that going to Asia and the U.S. and even some places in Europe that there's still people who don't know what that is, but if you dig below the surface, then there's elements of that they're very much interested in investing in it. It's really not technology for its own sake, it is technology to drive value, primarily to help them save cost, help them improve quality, and give them some of these capabilities that the industry is requiring in an increasing amount, such as traceability and transparency. Las Marias: Do you see the Asian market being more open to the Industry 4.0 trend than those in Western markets? Making SYStEMS SMaRtER to gain viSibilitY, tRacEabilitY, and REducE Handling ERRoRS Figure 2: one of the elements in reducing operator error or human error is to make the product basically tell the machines what to do.