Zeros and Ones at the Factory
No matter who you talk to in the industrial environment, everyone speaks about the challenge of capturing data and storing it appropriately, transmitting it securely and analyzing it intelligently. Behind all this is the goal of using data-driven solutions to make processes more efficient or to generate new business models. But how is this supposed to work?
There was a time when machine tools were closed systems. It is true that since the 1960s they have increasingly been equipped with digital controls, which, in addition to the automatic control of states and movements, facilitated the setup of machining processes and to a certain extent also enabled them to be monitored. However, comprehensive condition monitoring or even connecting a machine to a cross-company production control level would not have been possible on this basis. This has changed when the idea of »Industry 4.0« emerged: Today, wireless units in machine tools provide network capability, and sensors transmit a wide variety of operating data. But what is the point of all this?