Almost all experts and scholars like to say that manufacturing companies have misconceptions about Industry 4.0. One minute they say that Industry 4.0 cannot be achieved overnight, and the next they say that a certain production model is not Industry 4.0 yet. Many experts even ridicule that too many manufacturing companies' understanding of industrial automation is still stuck at PLC .
"Industry 4.0" is not just about PLCs; achieving a higher level of automation is key.
When it comes to intelligent manufacturing, our experts and scholars can use PowerPoint presentations to rattle off a whole host of concepts and theories, such as what Industry 4.0 should be like, what Made in China 2025 should be like, and what the Industrial Internet should be like. They ultimately conclude that intelligent manufacturing is simply a highly intelligent and automated production method that integrates three mainstream industrial production models: the Internet of Things (IoT) as the neural network system, production equipment as the motion execution system, and artificial intelligence software as the planning and decision-making system. The current focus is simply on building the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) that connects the software and hardware.
The reality is that almost all experts and scholars like to say that manufacturing companies have misconceptions about Industry 4.0. They say one minute that Industry 4.0 cannot be achieved overnight, and the next that a certain production model is not yet Industry 4.0. Many experts even sarcastically say that too many manufacturing companies' understanding of industrial automation is still stuck at the PLC level.
Thus, we see the experts' misconceptions. In fact, the manufacturing companies themselves don't have these misconceptions; the experts are. They focus too much on the so-called concepts, creating a plethora of so-called smart manufacturing production lines, forgetting that the starting point and ultimate goal of Industry 4.0 is to help manufacturing companies achieve a higher level of production automation. In the eyes of manufacturing companies, Industry 4.0 is a process, not a result. It's simply about continuously upgrading automation, integrating production line solutions, and applying automation products to ultimately achieve automated production, with PLCs being the most prominent automation product. Frankly speaking, in the minds of manufacturing companies, Industry 4.0 is synonymous with PLCs.
As mentioned earlier, the current practical challenge of intelligent manufacturing technology transformation is building a Manufacturing Execution System (MES), and the PLC is one of the most crucial components within it. A new-era PLC will become a key factor in determining whether a manufacturing enterprise's technology transformation plan can be successfully implemented.
In addition, we need to focus on what the starting point is for technological transformation for manufacturing enterprises.
Of course, it's about reducing costs and increasing efficiency—in technical terms, return on investment (ROI). Nothing is possible without profit; those who are profitable should act early. The fundamental reason for technological transformation in manufacturing enterprises is the tangible return on investment. Therefore, regardless of uncontrollable costs like production technology updates or demographic dividends, we return to the enterprise itself, starting with the simplest and most visible areas. Analysis indicates that downtime costs are increasingly high, and industrial enterprises need high-availability solutions to minimize these costs. Since 2014, the average cost of downtime has increased by 60%, reaching $260,000. This is one of the three major drivers of enterprise automation transformation and a most realistic application scenario for technological transformation in manufacturing enterprises.
How to solve this problem?
From the perspective of intelligent manufacturing, it essentially boils down to the monitoring and maintenance of production equipment. Real-time monitoring helps identify system faults and facilitates rapid repair and resolution. The core product required is the PLC, and the goal is to achieve full lifecycle management of production equipment. This leads us to a PLC product: the IDEC FC6.
A basic solution could be to use demand-based techniques:
There are two ways to monitor production equipment: on-site and remote. In the context of smart manufacturing, remote monitoring is used because the ratio of on-site monitoring personnel is basically fixed.
To achieve remote monitoring, the most basic requirement is the Internet of Things (IoT) technology, making network modules a standard feature of PLCs. IDEC's FC6 PLC integrates an HMI module. Based on its built-in web server, the FC6 PLC can easily create embedded web pages, which are also configurable.
The transition from monitoring to full lifecycle management involves an alarm system. IDEC's PLC also has this function; in addition to periodically uploading production logs, the email server can promptly send alarm emails to relevant personnel when system anomalies occur.
With the help of IDEC's newly launched IoT module, the FC6 series PLC can easily support remote system diagnostics and realize wide area network data access. Technical engineers can go to resolve the problem as soon as they receive an alarm, and even analyze the time points when the equipment may fail based on this monitoring data, so as to maintain the equipment in advance and ensure the continuity of production.
Here, a new-era PLC has been seamlessly integrated into factory automation upgrades. Through the construction of such a simple equipment monitoring system, manufacturing companies can genuinely reduce downtime costs. Seeing such tangible results, aren't you tempted?
