Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/721932
114 SMT Magazine • September 2016 Dr. Sabido: A lot of people don't talk about it, but it's really at the top of mind with Industry 4.0: analytics. The use of data, the information flow, and how you leverage that data to actu- ally make your operations much better, to pro- vide better service to your clients, and to im- prove your quality. That's the trend; but it's dif- ficult to implement. I think that is something where, once again, the role of IT in the opera- tions is becoming very important, not only for EMS companies but the industry as a whole. I am also still fascinated with how robots can ac- tually make operations much better. Those two things are very important trends. What also fascinates me is the autonomous car—I think that's actually driving a lot of de- velopments right now. There's a lot of excite- ment, and maybe a lot of hype too, but it really increases more and more the code, the software that comes into a lot of products. Which re- minds me, I think another trend also is the de- velopment in software. Before, when we start- ed, it just used to be all embedded software— embedded Linux, looking at the Linux kernel, chopping it down so you can actually put in very small devices. But now, maybe we can use the Android platform. Apple is exploring the iOS platform. So there's always different choic- es out there that we could actually explore. That also helps leverage and improve the connectiv- ity of the electronics to the whole complete sys- tem out there where it's actually being used. Las Marias: Should everyone in the electronics manufacturing industry jump on the Industry 4.0 bandwagon now? Dr. Sabido: I am actually inclined to say yes. Just like before, when SMT machines came out, people are saying they're very expensive, they don't need that, they can actually do it manual- ly. But eventually, if you'd like to grow, if you'd like to service other industries where quality is very important, and there's a bit of higher vol- ume, even right now, you have to evolve. So the industry has to evolve into Industry 4.0. And I think it is really just a matter of time. Right now, a lot of people are adopting a wait-and- see approach because, one, it is expensive, and the other thing is they don't know how to actu- ally approach it. And I think that is one thing I am fairly happy and—to be honest—we real- ly want to be the pioneer, because we see it as something that is very important for our busi- ness. If your question is whether Ionics should do it, the answer is yes. But overall, I think the answer is yes; just like in Industry 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and now 4.0—eventually people have to do it. Of course in a technology cycle, there are pioneers and there are laggards. We are pio- neers because we see it as something that is an imperative. We have to do it for us to deliver and really delight our customers—because we want them to have visibility into what we are actually doing for them, real time, 24/7, when they need it, when they want it. We don't want to have them bother going to factories to ask about their systems, or call or email, for us to send them charts. So, one is for our customers. The other one is for quality. Because once again, with automa- tion, you can have tighter and tighter tolerances and better specs, because now you have better control. And then speed. With automation, you can do quick changeover. With your machine, you can make your ROI ideally become shorter and shorter, even though they are actually more expensive, because you utilize them more; the downtime is much less because you can actual- ly do much more than preventive maintenance, through the use of analytics. That's where we see it. So for us, it is a need, and it's the only way to go. Las Marias: Please tell us more about the smart factory. Dr. Sabido: For us, the smart factory is some- thing where you use data, the information flow from the start of our engagement with the cli- ent in terms of manufacturing their products, even from the parts itself, all the way to upon shipping it and arrival to their final destination. So having that full information flow at your fin- gertips, in your mobile device, in a tablet, in your computer, where you can actually access that information from beginning to end, and having real time access to that, is something that we envision as the simplest version of the smart factory. That's just one aspect of it—really IONICS TALKS INDUSTRY 4.0, MIL/AERO OPPORTUNITIES, AND SUPPLY CHAIN