Roadmap to implement the future
Many manufacturing companies are actively rolling out fourth industrial revolution technologies at scale. However, a common obstacle appears when companies are launching pilots and never get past that stage. This results in companies never achieving the benefits of scaling up and interoperability. The importance of not only scaling up one “use case” and technique but succeeding in scaling up several different “use cases” and technologies, to meet synergy effects, should be highlighted.
There are two perspectives that must be considered when implementing industry 4.0, the business challenges and the digital challenges. For example, business challenges encompass to understand the competitive advantages of your business model and how to enhance it by using advanced technologies, decision process speed, data security and confidentiality. By the other hand, digital challenges can be related to reliability of data and network capability, issues of data ownership, data analysis to get actionable information.
To be able to identify where you are and what is your adaptation level, you may consider six dimensions:
Figure 1: Six dimensions are used to describe Industry 4.0 adaptation
The roadmap to Industry 4.0 is different for every company. It should take a company from its individual starting point to its desired target situation. The technology roadmap below can serve as a reference for an assessment of current capabilities and facilitate the discussion on ambition level and desired future capabilities:
Figure 2: Maturity model for Industry 4.0
Designing the roadmap
The roadmap design starts with an initial assessment to determine the development and change needs. Start with an initial analysis including:
- Current maturity level assessment
- Pilot one product group and ensure each step of the production process is improved by at least two “use cases” building on Industry 4.0 concepts
- Design end-2-end high-level solution and define where and how to realize the different new capabilities
- Assess gaps in all six dimensions and define development needs to align on a similar maturity level for each of the six dimensions, i.e., be sure to reach maturity level 2.5 for all dimensions
- Roadmap with activities to close the gap between the current and future situation.
The roadmap is an approach designed to coordinate a set of individual pilots into a coherent solution that will improve all parts of the production process. Further, the pilot solutions are aligned on preferred technologies and industrialized to ensure stable and secure solutions possible to scale on a global basis.
Atlas Copco has extensive experience and know-how from supporting customers in the design and development of Industry 4.0. A systematic approach to developing and implementing Industry 4.0 strategies ensures business benefits and alignment. This know-how is exemplified in two roadmaps presented: explore industry 4.0 for newcomers and scale from concept pilots to industrialized solutions