How do manufacturers move towards Industry 4.0? According to Malvern-based Lantek Systems Ltd (www.lanteksms.com), the answer is simple: digitally model the factory. To do so, companies need to define their manufacturing processes, choose key operational indicators and state how they are to be achieved.

Managers then have to ‘house’ these processes and indicators within a management system that allows them to see what is going on and take steps to improve the factory’s operation.

The subsequent digital modelling process needs the support of a production management system that is established in a single software application or through the integration of several software suites that co-operate with each other.

Managers also need to establish at what stage of the process they require information, and what type this needs to be.

Industry 4.0 integrators will then design the tools to get the information — at the right time — required to make the optimum decisions.

Once a company has been digitally modelled, it will be able to collect relevant information, achieve real-time data capture, and measure plant activity. It can then extract factory behaviour patterns and undertake
efficiency analyses.

Lantek is one of the drivers of Industry 4.0 for companies that produce sheet-metal parts, metal tubes and profiles.

As well as undertaking pricing, it can help to facilitate multiple functionality, including: automatic inventory control through digital cameras and artificial intelligence; and the visual identification of parts to understand associated processing, as well as the operators and workplaces involved.

The company says its Lantek Factory system is the means of implementing the principles of Industry 4.0 and thereby ensuring the competitiveness of its clients’ production plant.