Integrated industry

Making the transition from smart-factory vision to Industry 4.0 reality requires a great deal of information sharing, discussion and coordination. One of the main challenges here is standardisation – ensuring software compatibility across all the components, machines and factories that areto be networked with each other. "At the moment, each company’s ITsystem speaks its own separate language. But now, in order to achieve integration, we need industry-wide agreement on a common international language of production,” said Köckler. "Under the banner of ‘IntegratedIndustry – Next Steps,” Hannover Messe 2014 will present anumber of pioneering approaches and initiatives in this area.”

The aim of Integrated Industry is to achieve adaptable production systems that can respond immediately to accommodate fluctuations in global demand and highly specific customer requirements. These are intelligent systems in which all components – from workpieces to machines to transport systems – are connected to each other via a network and are able to communicate with each other autonomously. The workpieces are not passed from station to station along a rigidly configured production line. Instead, they autonomously activate the necessary modular processing centers and independently initiate each required processing step. This enables maximum flexibility and efficiency in industrial production runs of all sizes – including single-lot production runs.

"Flexibility and efficiency – these are the keys to continued survival in a highly competitive international market. Therefore, the task now is to take the next steps – and, more important, the right steps – to ensure that industry realises its vision of smart, flexible factories. Hannover Messe will play a key role in this with its 2014 lead theme of ‘IntegratedIndustry – Next Steps,’” said Köckler.

About a quarter of all exhibitors are involved in some way or other in energy generation, transmission, distribution orstorage. For these exhibitors, Integrated Industry – Next Steps signalsthe way forward in the ongoing process of energy system transformation. In this process, the main next steps are to upgrade and expand energy transmission and data networks and to find viable ways of replacing the current energy system, which is based on mere dozens of central power stations, with a decentralised system comprising hundreds of thousands of small natural-gas, solar, wind and biomass-powered generation units.Köckler: "The energy of the future is not just green, it is smart as well.In the future, the smart grids that carry energy and the end devices that consume it will communicate with each other, unlocking colossal potential for energy savings. Making this vision a reality requires collaboration and coordination across an incredibly diverse range of industries. With integration at its very heart, Hannover Messe is the ideal platform for marshalling future-defining technologies and concrete solutions in the interests of promoting and facilitating the transformation from an outmoded,inflexible energy system to a modern, intelligent energy network.”