Highlights from Factories of the Future Expo
Last week Manchester Central saw the return of Industry 4.0 Summit along with Factories of the Future Expo and Industry 4.0 Academia running in parallel.
Happening for the second time, the event brought hundreds of enthusiasts and industry professionals together despite the far from ideal weather conditions!
I came by to have a look and see what are the current trends and what the next 10–20 years will be all about.
Assembly Conference: Makers + Manufacturers + Software — Leeds, UK — Tuesday 02 October 2018 — assemblyconf.com
So what Industry 4.0 actually is?
The event was opened by Siemens UK CEO Juergen Maier talking about what the industry 4.0 is and the importance of the British part in it, especially due to the current political climate.
As Wikipedia says:
Industry 4.0 is a name for the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things, cloud computing and cognitive computing. … Industry 4.0 creates what has been called a “smart factory”.
Generally, people think about the Industry 4.0 as the fourth industrial revolution, first being the mechanization through water and steam power., second being the mass production and assembly lines powered by electricity, third being the computerization and automation. And lastly, the one we are interested in: 4.0 - smart factories and cyber-physical systems.
The advantages could be immense and where better place to talk about it than Manchester, where the first industrial revolution took place?
Factories of the Future
Running parallel to the Industry 4.0 Summit, Factories of the Futures expo showcased the latest products and services for Industry 4.0, IIoT (Industrial IoT), smart factories and the digital manufacturing.
Innovate UK and Knowledge Transfer Network hosted stands for networking and connecting new ideas with funding, real-life solutions or both.
There was a dedicated Robot Center section where visitors could see MiR100 is action:
Omron took their mobile robot out for a spin:
Augmented reality was another widely represented trend this year. Here is an augmented reality indoor navigation solution by Insider Navigation:
Industry wearables were also popular, here is a ProGlove for hands free scanning of goods:
The biggest queue was probably next to the Rexroth Bosch Group stand. They brought an actual simulation machine to go with the VR glasses and run a VR rally competition!
At the same time, there also was a Digital Innovation Challenge area where University of Manchester students were competing with each other for the £2,500 prize that went for the best Industry 4.0 Innovation idea. I managed to catch two pitches: a bike stand demo with which you can use your own bike to exercise indoors and play a computer bike game and a prosthetic hand demo by Laso Prosthetics which actually won the competition.
Skills gap
Another recurring theme of the summit and the expo was the skills gap and a few companies are looking into more efficient training solutions, for example, using VR or AR. In particular, Practeria has developed a CNC Operator course that can shorten the traditional 18-month course to 6 weeks!
Overall, it was great to see a variety of companies exhibiting, from large international enterprises like Rexroth Bosch Group to the students participating at the Digital Innovation Challenge. The solutions to the current industry problems promoted at the expo had potential to increase productivity by using latest advances & new technologies in automation, robotics, VR, AR and other related areas.
Industry 4.0 is something that everyone is talking about and are trying to adapt in their own way — it seems that the revolution is already here, and I am, for one, looking forward to see what the next few years will bring!
Here you can find more details about the event: www.industry40summit.com
