Manufacturing companies have plenty of work to do just to reach the connectivity we have all come to expect in our day-to-day lives, Harley told delegates at the Cranfield Management Best Factory Awards Conference 2016 in Solihull.
“Think of your phones, your televisions, everything you've got in your homes,” he said. “How much more technology is in there, and how much more does it all talk back to each other, than in your own business? So I think manufacturing has to catch up with what you have in your own house.”
Speaking at the same event, Harley’s colleague Jan Borkowski, plant director, Vaillant, confirmed he sees connectivity as the most important factor in achieving Industry 4.0 standards.
“Increased interaction will eventually increase efficiency in all aspects of the manufacturing process,” he predicted. “But more than that, it will also allow vast customisation, so that you have the ability to have a production line where no two parts are the same. But all of this will need to include the input of the operators, because they usually know best how to automate and how to optimise machinery and processes.”
