SAPanoptikum September 2016

The path to intelligent networked production

Intelligently networking production and generating added value as a result - that is the goal of many companies. However, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular often do not know how to approach the topic.

In the new study "Industry 4.0: Fields of development for SMEs", Fraunhofer IPA analyzes the obstacles and needs of SMEs from a technical perspective and identifies fields of development.

The evaluation revealed that SMEs see the inflexibility of their IT systems as the greatest difficulty in meeting new market requirements, such as a sharp increase in the number of product variants.

Other obstacles include poor planning capability, unclear customer requirements and the insufficiently used or non-integrated database of existing production. The survey also showed that SMEs are still unsure about implementing Industry 4.0.

"We found that the majority of companies select production IT systems on a trial-and-error basis rather than developing an overall strategy or considering lifecycle costs"

explains Felix Müller, project manager at Fraunhofer IPA.

The digitalization of the value creation system was identified as a basic prerequisite for intelligent, networked production.

"Only when all relevant inventory machines are connected to an information system and a consistent, near-real-time database can be generated can further measures be taken"

knows Felix Müller.

Building on this, the company is in a position to leverage the potential of other areas of development, such as the automated production of personalized products.