What is the future of the industry in the eyes of the Germans?

"Industry 4.0 is a concept that sends a signal to all German businesses that the new industrial age is coming and you have to act. And this action is to link the traditional mode of production with the Internet, that is,'industry + the Internet'. Professor Heining Kagman, the "Godfather of Industry 4.0" and Dean of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering, said, "It is the future of industry."

 

Industry is always changing and developing, but what is invariable is the position of industry in people's life. For example, will people drive in the future? Of course. However, people's demand for vehicles is more diverse, to have better quality materials, superior performance, cleaner energy...

 

Pedro Reynolds, Dean of CEB, argues that the future of industry will require producers to keep up with rapidly changing demand and to update their production facilities at the lowest possible cost to adapt to new products. Today's industrial workshops are more automated and involve more industrial robots than they were 20 years ago. At the same time, automation has not replaced people's positions as feared. On the contrary, there are now far more people involved in industry than 20 years ago. Why is that? Because productivity has increased, ways have changed, people have more ideas, products have become richer - consumers need more products.

 

In today's increasingly automated production lines, industrial production capacity has risen sharply, global overcapacity is not a new topic. Who can fundamentally solve the problem of excess capacity, who can occupy an important position in the future industry. Putting aside the technical presentations of "digital economy", "Internet of Things" and "cloud computing", the fundamental purpose of German industry 4.0 is to guide production, further enhance value creation, and minimize costs and losses. In this regard, German industry 4.0 put forward five requirements for the production enterprises - dynamic flexible production, man-machine production interaction, resource consumption optimization, efficient use of factories and transparent production process. The most critical point is to establish flexible production lines, shift from mass production to higher value private customization, achieve zero inventory by customization, and minimize scrap rates by more intelligent industrial robotic production.