Friday, September 25, 2015

Germany versus the United States for Industry 4.0


There is a very interesting article written by Alex Webb for Bloomberg Businessweek titled,


Below is from Alex Webb's article that all of us in manufacturing and in the world of MTConnect can appreciate quite well:

"Unlike in computing, with its standardized suite of keyboards and USB connectors, there are no dominant standards in industrial equipment."


When I read the paragraph below in the article, I think of what we are doing at Memex with MERLIN.

"Both groups aim to make it easier for machines in factories throughout companies’ supply chains to communicate with one another. The goal: to reduce downtime by anticipating when a factory will have spare capacity or need replacement parts, for example. Built-in sensors will collect all manner of data to better allocate resources, helping manufacturers cut energy use by as much as 20 percent and labor costs by 25 percent, according to consultant McKinsey."

 

One thing I know for sure and that is Germany and the rest of the countries need to embrace MTConnect if they truly want to provide an open and royalty-free standard protocol that is the ultimate game-changer in manufacturing.