Maintworld Magazine 4/2021

PARTNER ARTICLE
new control and data transmission
technologies! [2]
2. Digitalisation in industry is often
mentioned along with the keyword
"Industry 4.0", a term which stands
for the 4th industrial revolution:
consequently, the disruptive potential
of current technical developments
is equated with the effects of the
industrial use of steam engines,
electricity and computers. Successful
players such as Amazon, Microsoft and
Google are often cited as prominent
examples of the forces of change. In the
case of the medium-sized mechanical
and plant engineering industry, on
the other hand, these developments
appear at least partly as a threat. The
protagonists of digitalisation are
endeavouring to take the edge off
this. Hans Beckhoff, the founder and
CEO of Beckhoff Automation, very
aptly explained during an IHK event
in 2017 that these changes and shifts
represent opportunities for industrial
manufacturing and that the speed of
the upheaval is slower than initially
assumed: "From today's perspective,
the introduction of the steam engine
seems like a revolution. However,
at the time it took more than half
a century for its use in industry to
result in substantial changes." In a
similar manner, he stated, one should
regard the impact of digitalisation for
industrial production today, which is
triggering an evolutionary development
at all levels and in all processes. At the
same time, Beckhoff also emphasises
that this realisation by no means
guarantees that one should sit back and
do nothing! According to Beckhoff, it is
precisely the courageous protagonists
who will be rewarded if they creatively
develop new business models for
production systems.
HARTING has analysed the
implementation strategies of its
customers and can decidedly confirm
Beckhoff's theses. Accordingly, in
order to achieve sustainable success
with digitalisation projects, it is above
all advisable not to want to achieve
everything immediately [3].
Whether the development is revolutionary
or evolutionary: All parties
involved agree that data forms the basis of
more rational processes - and indeed all
types of data. The catch phrase "Data is the
new oil!" originally referred to "Big Data"
or the storage and availability of consumer
data. But this characterisation can certainly
also be applied to data in the industrial
arena. However, to stay with the metaphor,
this "new oil" still requires functioning
"pipelines" and other structural elements.
Consequently, "Data is the new oil" not
least describes the current situation of
many machine and plant manufacturers
who are in the process of revising the generation,
processing and transmission of
data for their products.
The OEM's "data view" of production
systems today can be summarised as follows:
- OEMs are experts for many existing
technological, machine-related data, as
well as for the use of this data in intrinsic
machine functions, and for advanced automation
functions
- The increased use of the "internal
intelligence" of automation components
such as drives, smart sensors, actuators or
HMI systems with all the associated data
transitions is also part of an OEM's standard
toolkit today
- In addition, this comprises all possible
data transfer layers on the level of interlinked
machine or production lines that
use known data origin, machine, user and
process models, which are also considered
proprietary know-how
- However: In terms of digitalisation,
not all the aforementioned data structures
and transmission layers that are part of the
control and automation systems should
simply be "discarded" and replaced by new
ones. This is due to the fact that almost the
entire functionality of modern production
systems is based on software and suitable
specific interfaces - these functionalities
have been developed with an enormous
amount of material and engineering effort.
Consequently, an initial conclusion is
as follows: In order to drive digitalisation
forward with as little effort and input as possible
and to cope with the associated rising
data volumes, machine and plant manufacturers
must be able to continue to use existing
data structures and interfaces!
In the sense of ‘the data is the new oil’
analogy, proven and sufficiently functional
"pipeline structures" must continue to be
used and extended to include new "pipelines".
In this way, companies will succeed
in enhancing their competitiveness and
gaining new market shares in their own
business segment or in other fields of production
technology. To put it in terms of
control technology for industrial systems:
An OEM active in mechanical engineering
needs its proven fieldbuses and interfaces
4/2021 maintworld 11