Industry 4.0 the Cannon Way
THE INDUSTRY 4.0 IS A STRUCTURED SYSTEM THAT USES CYBERNETIC S O L U T I O N A N D D I G I T A L COMMUNICATION IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. IT IS COMMONLY ALSO ASSOCIATED WITH THE CONCEPT OF“ SMART FACTORY”, A TRANSVERSAL PROCESS, IRRESPECTIVE OF BUSINESS AREA, THAT MAKES INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION ENTIRELY AUTOMATED AND INTERCONNECTED: MACHINERY, PEOPLE AND DEVICES COMMUNICATE EACH OTHER FOR AN INTELLIGENT MANAGE-MENT SYSTEM. ALESSANDRO MANCINI, GM OF CANNON AUTOMATA, ILLUSTRATES HOW CANNON IS GETTING READY WITH DEDICATED HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS TO FACE THIS ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SCENARIO.
Cannon News: Can you define shortly what Industry 4.0 is? Alessandro Mancini: The Industry 4.0 is a structured system, that uses cybernetic solution and digital communication in industrial products and services. Commonly associated with the concept of Smart Factory, it ' s a transversal process, irrespective of business area, that makes industrial production entirely automated and interconnected: machinery, people and devices communicate / talk each other for an intelligent management system. The impact of digitization in the industry changes, day by day, the production system, making it even more dynamic: the speed of response increases, higher flexibility is now achievable to meet the market and the individual customer needs.
CN: We already get sometimes confused messages about the characteristics of this“ Fourth Industrial Revolution”: can you identify its most specific aspects, to differentiate them from a simple concept of Automation? AM: We can summarize the characteristics of Industry 4.0 in three keywords:
· Real time Communication: with it People, Machines and Devices can exchange information instantly or with negligible latency.
· Digital Information: in this scenario, at least one actor, among the sender and the receiver, is a machine.
· Automatisms: logic systems must be used, that make possible the automatic operation of machines or entire plants.
Therefore Industry 4.0 should not be confused whit a common system using static communications, that do not generate automatic actions, or a system with big latency in communication, or where the information or communication is not finalized to any automatic action.
CN: Once we have defined its terms, can you tell us what is the state-ofthe-art situation of Industry 4.0 at Automata? AM: Automata has created vertical technologies, products and services able to integrate machines and plants according with Industry 4.0 concepts. The first embryonal smart system was the Photo Voltaic Plant Monitoring, implemented since many years on the roofs of some Italian Cannon facilities( Micromec, Afros, Automata). It ' s a flexible application based on sensors measuring solar radiation, working along with intercorrelated information; an automatic solution that allows to verify the performance of photovoltaic plants. The system monitors in real-time the energy production, comparing it with a historical database of solar illumination data. It is capable to predict and prevent malfunctions, giving the possibility to check parameters, events and alarms directly on smartphones. Since then Automata has produced many solutions that
The Industry 4.0 is a structured system, that uses cybernetic solution and digital communication in industrial products and services. Cannon has created vertical technologies, products and services able to integrate machines and plants according with these concepts.
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