Another important conference is over: the Manufacturing Summit 2018 in Wrocław. It served to draw many interesting conclusions and hold just as many panels and discussions on subjects of the improvement of production processes and Industry 4.0.
During his speech, our expert Michał Żelichowski talked about the benefits of bringing together staff and production departments. He stressed that they still too often existed in isolation from one another, and communication between them was too inflexible. And yet precise implementation of production plans was not possible without staff: in the right place, at the right time and, above all, with the right competences. Together with the participants, Mr Żelichowski analysed various scenarios and possibilities for closer cooperation of these departments to ensure an efficient and immediate exchange of information among them. Such transformation utilising modern technologies allows automation of scheduling and planning, which is very helpful. This ability has our original solution named XPRIMER.
After all speeches, there was time to discuss the concept of Industry 4.0. Our other expert Dariusz Kacperczyk pointed out that it was difficult to talk about Industry 4.0 when the majority of production companies still forgot about the basics (including communication, standardisation of procedures, well-described technology and planning strategy). In such situation, it is hard to effectively implement Industry 4.0 which makes full use of the potential of its improvements. Organisational negligence cannot be made up overnight.
Reflecting on the phenomenon of Industry 4.0, analysing companies that in their actions build on continuous development (kaizen) and those which choose rapid change (kaikaku), I am inclined to think that Industry 4.0 is not a revolution but an evolution.
Dariusz Kacperczyk, VP at eq system
We do not deny that the debate was quite stormy, but the participants of the conference gave our expert a round of applause. They appreciated him for the honesty of the approach and for negating the thesis that the implementation of Industry 4.0 always made sense and always brought positive effects. It does, but only when we are properly prepared for the change and we know what consequences it will have.
