SAP Solution: Smart Factory

Valantic and UBH promise turbo on the road to digital transformation.

The fourth industrial revolution is facing the challenges of increasingly complex supply chain management (SCM), which at the same time must guarantee more customized and flexible production.

According to a new study by DXC Technology, almost 40 percent of German companies see a risk that their current business success will be challenged by new digital competitors.

The core of a smart factory is the end-to-end automation and networking of all processes and the players involved in them in "real time". The project is carried out with defined, process-relevant data. SAP partner Orbis is rising to this challenge. Peter M. Färbinger spoke with CEO Thomas Gard and MES team leader Frank Wilhelm about Industry 4.0 and IoT.

Jens Basan from the Management Board of Consulting Germany at Itelligence talks in an E-3 exclusive interview about the new role model for SAP consultants in view of the digital transformation.

Industry 4.0 is one of the most important topics in the German economy. CIOs can benefit greatly from the conversion of industrial production to completely digitized and interconnected manufacturing processes.

Where is the manufacturing industry in Germany heading in the next few years? What impact will the megatrend of digitization have?

The digital transformation is permanently changing production. The Multi-Process Suite (MPS) platform from Orbis can create the basis for a completely automated factory. It enables the virtual mapping of the real events of a factory in "real time" in the existing SAP system.

The digitization of the world of work will require increased IT qualifications from all workers in the future. This is confirmed by the latest analysis by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), "IT occupations and IT skills in Industry 4.0".

The German government has declared Industry 4.0 a top priority. In close cooperation with industry, it is pursuing the noble goal of combining the art of engineering "Made in Germany" with IT expertise in order to remain a strong economic nation.

The working world in Germany is not prepared for networked production (Industry 4.0). Just under one in two companies already lacks the skilled workers who could shape the fourth industrial revolution with IT knowledge plus manufacturing expertise.

The digital transformation will permanently change industrial manufacturing and the associated processes in logistics and intralogistics - Industry 4.0.