Why Germany and Japan are not "crazy" about Industry 4.0

Why Germany and Japan are not "crazy" about Industry 4.0

According to its popularity, it seems that Industry 4.0 is about to land. How far is the real Industry 4.0 from us?

In order to maintain its leading position in the manufacturing industry, Germany proposed the concept of Industry 4.0 in 2013. It is interesting that the enthusiasm of the Chinese manufacturing and investment communities for Industry 4.0 exceeds that of the Germans. In the past year, there have been almost daily speeches, forums, and salons on Industry 4.0 related topics in China, and there has been a heated discussion of Industry 4.0 both within and outside the industry. According to its popularity, it seems that Industry 4.0 is about to land. How far is the real Industry 4.0 from us?

In April 2015, IHS company led a manufacturing and investment delegation to visit the Hannover exhibition, visiting some representative German companies such as robotics company KUKA, metal 3D printing company EOS, BMW, and some emerging drone companies. After his trip to Europe, he also participated in the Tech Frontier exhibition in Japan and visited companies and research institutions such as AIST, Robotics Association, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, and Nomura. These enterprises and organizations are the main institutions that implement Industry 4.0.

Through a comparison of perception, observation, and experience, it is found that there are many similarities in the attitudes of Germany and Japan, two manufacturing powers, towards Industry 4.0. Our understanding of Industry 4.0 is also clearer, and we cannot mention that Industry 4.0 is C2B (consumer to enterprise) or C2M (customer to factory). The author will record this in the form of an essay.

Digital factory and human-machine are highlights

Siemens' strategy is very clear, and the slogan at the Hannover exhibition is "On the way to Industry 4.0 Driving the Digital Enterprise" - Industry 4.0 aims to achieve automation, digitization, and networking.

That being said, the primary breakthrough for Germans is digital factories, why not automation and networking?

German companies have reached a high level of production automation, and similarly, Japanese companies have also achieved a high level of lean production. However, compared to the two, Germany does not have a significant advantage. In order for German companies to take the lead, they must make new breakthroughs, while networking involves too many industry chain enterprises, making integration difficult and taking a long time. So the current breakthrough is only in the digital factory. At this year's Hanover Industrial Exhibition, Siemens also emphasized that as a digital factory, it is important to accumulate professional industry knowledge and services. Each industry, and even every enterprise, has different industry characteristics and services they can provide, which means that the path of practicing Industry 4.0 may be different for each industry or even every enterprise.

The digital factory includes both the digitization of products, the digitization of production processes, and the digitization of the entire lifecycle. Siemens promotes Industry 4.0 and will not forget to promote its own ready-made software and hardware products and solutions, covering a complete set of digital software solutions from product design, production planning, process engineering, production execution, and services. It also provides a reference digital factory sample in Aberg, Germany.

The Hanover Exhibition is divided into different years. 2015 was the big year of the Hanover Industrial Exhibition, which includes two parts: industrial automation and industrial transmission. All 27 exhibition halls are open, and it is difficult for ordinary people to walk through all 27 exhibition halls in a hurry. Due to work needs, I have been visiting Hanover almost every year since 2010, basically completing all 27 pavilions. Many companies have fixed booth locations every year, and the exhibits exhibited do not show much change in appearance. Even the decoration and content of the booth are similar to previous years. On the one hand, it indicates that the industrial automation industry is becoming increasingly mature and has not undergone much change. In addition, it also indicates that for some basic standardized components, striving for excellence is sufficient and does not require major repairs or modifications.

The Digital Factory Exhibition Hall was only established in 2012, and the Digital Factory Exhibition Hall at this year's Hanover Exhibition is larger than before, with more exhibitors. Numerous industrial software companies have demonstrated their software and solutions, such as SAP's future factory plan, and multiple Industry 4.0 alliance enterprises have also demonstrated the concept of modular production lines.
In addition to the digital factory, the robot exhibition hall is another highlight of this year's Hanover Industrial Exhibition. The most popular robots in the robot exhibition hall are the collaborative robots exhibited by ABB, KUKA, and Fanuc.

For the safety of workers, the working area of general industrial robots is separated from the workers, and robots are kept in cages like wild animals. At the same time, many machine safety devices have been installed, such as safety relays, safety carpets, safety light curtains, emergency stop switches, etc., to prevent personal injury. The collaborative robots exhibited in this year's Hanover exhibition can work together with workers without the need for safety barriers, indicating that the participating companies believe that their robots have no safety hazards.

The KUKALBRIIWA robot on site poured beer for the audience, with smooth and flexible movements from holding cups, opening bottles, and pouring beer, all in one go. KUKA's LBRIIWA robot has seven axes and is particularly suitable for industries such as electronics, medicine, and precision instruments, which require high flexibility, flexibility, and accuracy.

The reason why these robots have good human-machine cooperation is that all axes of these robots have collision detection functions and joint torque sensors. When it encounters a person, it will automatically slow down or stop, and workers can easily push it away. When installing workpieces, it can also imitate human assembly actions. It can use a key to open the door like a human, insert the key into the keyhole, rotate it up, down, left, right, feel the feedback torque, and find a suitable angle for assembly. In addition, the robot has a lighter body and gentle movements, making it less likely to cause harm to humans.

KUKA, a German robotics company, presented this year's innovation award to ReTeLINK robots. This is a project led by an Italian research team, which establishes communication connections between the LBRIIWA robot and an exoskeleton robotic arm through various sensors such as position sensors. After wearing the exoskeleton robotic arm, people can make corresponding movements through the motion command of the robotic arm IIWA. Due to its bidirectional control, LBRIIWA can also command the movement of exoskeleton robotic arms, so that patients or those with limited mobility can wear exoskeleton arms and undergo rehabilitation training under the command and coordination of IIWA.
ABB also showcases its collaborative robot YUMI in a large booth, which is a dual arm robot with 7 axes per arm, flexible movement, wide working range, agility, and precise autonomy. YUMI is equipped with many machine vision products and sensors, which can sense and complete corresponding actions by touching small components on their own, and ensure a certain operating accuracy (accurate to 0.02 millimeters), equivalent to the smallest gap that can be felt by human hands. This ability enables YuMi to easily assemble various small parts, making it more suitable for assembly and production operations of mobile phones, tablets, and desktop computer components.
According to a research report by IHS, more than 85% of industrial robots are currently used in automotive related industries, and the automotive industry is already mature, with limited growth space for future robot applications. At present, ABB and KUKA are vigorously promoting collaborative robots with a focus on 3C manufacturing, which has greater potential. The industry needs to apply more collaborative robots.

Many Japanese robot manufacturers are also exhibiting in Hanover, including Fanuc, Yaskawa, SanyoDenso, and others. Compared to ABB and KUKA promoting collaborative robots with great fanfare, the collaborative robots exhibited by Fanuc are quite low-key. In a small booth, Fanuc's robots are generally yellow, while this Fanuc's collaborative robot is green to show the difference.

In addition to human-machine collaboration, there is also M2M (Machine to Machine) collaboration, which self-organizes and automates production through communication between robots, achieving higher efficiency.
We also saw four drones working together at the exhibition, dragging their nets to catch the ball thrown over. The collaboration between these machines has to some extent provided intelligent connectivity.

General industrial robots belong to the automation products of the Industrial 3.0 era, and they only achieve automation. A robot can only be called an intelligent robot if it can execute according to established procedures and interact with people, materials, and other devices. Robot collaboration will have multiple external communication ports to communicate with the outside world, collaborate with humans, and achieve flexible and digital production.

At the Hanover Industrial Exhibition, the Fraunhofer Research Institute in Germany has a huge booth showcasing various applied research products and solutions that Fraunhofer is currently researching. The Fraunhofer Research Institute has a large scale, with over 80 research institutes and nearly 15000 researchers. Headquartered in Munich, it is the largest applied science research institution in Germany and Europe. Every year, it completes approximately 10000 research and development projects for over 3000 corporate clients, with cooperation from large multinational corporations to small and medium-sized companies. The annual research funding exceeds 1 billion euros, of which two-thirds comes from corporate and public research commissioned projects, and the other one-third comes from federal and state governments.

After communicating with Fraunhofer experts, it was learned that in the German research system, public universities and research institutions mainly engage in basic research, while private enterprise research institutes engage in applied research. But applied research institutions like Fraunhofer are an important bridge between basic research and enterprise innovation. The implementation of the Fraunhofer Alliance's innovation support project for small and medium-sized enterprises provides an important public platform for collaborative research between industry, academia, and research. In Germany, researchers also need to publish papers, but they place more emphasis on applied research, requiring application technologies that are both strategic and aligned with corporate needs.

 

Digitalization has deep excavation space

The subsequent trip to Japan visited the Applied Technology Research Institute ASIT (hereinafter referred to as the Integrated Industry and Technology Research Institute), which is the largest and most representative national research institute in Japan, very similar to the Fraunhofer Research Institute. There are also many research institutions under the jurisdiction of Industrial Comprehensive Research, located throughout Japan, with branches in many places such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Tsukuba. It has 5 major departments (energy&environment, life&bioscience, information science, materials&chemistry, electronics&manufacturing, geological survey, metrology standards), 2 centers, 10 research bases, and nearly 3000 researchers.

The research institutes in Japan mainly include national and public research institutes (such as the Industrial Comprehensive Technology Research Institute and the Institute of Physics and Chemistry, which are typical representatives), special legal person research institutes, as well as consortium and association legal persons, and private enterprise research institutes. Before and after 2000, the Japanese government adjusted research institutes that were originally affiliated with multiple provincial departments into independent legal entities. The director of the research institute was directly appointed by the government, and all personnel were hired. An independent legal entity system was implemented, which not only gave universities and research institutions greater administrative power, but also required these independent legal entities to prepare profit and loss budgets and assess operational performance, thereby promoting personnel mobility and restructuring, Fully leverage the benefits of scientific research. The main body of Japan's scientific research force comes from enterprises, and the annual R&D investment of enterprises accounts for about 80% of Japan's R&D (Research and Experimental Development) funds, with the vast majority coming from large enterprises.

When visiting Japan for the first time, I heard the term "intrinsic research", which refers to the seamless expansion from basic research to product marketization. The results obtained through basic research are sorted, integrated, integrated, superimposed, and crossed, and applied to different fields to develop system technologies and applications suitable for enterprise operation, eliminating the gap between basic research and applied research, Fraunhofer from Germany and ASIT from Japan have both done well in this regard, and conducting scientific research is not just about publishing papers.

Professor Shimaru Zhengming from the Industrial and Comprehensive Research Digital Human Research Center warmly received me. Professor Shimaru gave a brief explanation of his research, stating that humans are a very important element in industrial systems and products. For example, the function of a car is to transport people or things, and at the same time, the car is also controlled by people. A normal driving car is a system composed of machines and people. Humans have gained a deep understanding of the shape, materials, and functions of automotive parts, and have even established digital models for automobiles. But in this human-machine system, we know the least about people, and we don't have much understanding of the role of complex people in this human-machine system. People have become the weakest link in this system.

The task that Professor Jimaru needs to do is to digitize the human body, establish a digital model for people, and then analyze, simulate, and even predict the function and behavior of the human body based on the description of this model.

The original method of modeling humans was to place markers on the surface of the human body and construct the entire human model by modeling these markers. Professor Jimaru's new method does not require labeling and directly establishes a complete digital model of the human body by capturing video images, joint motion angles, and relative positions of the human body. At present, Professor Takemaru's digital model of the human body has been applied to car collision testing at Japanese car factories, sports shoe design by consumer companies, game design by game companies, design of service robots such as exoskeleton robots and medical rehabilitation robots, as well as the application of virtual reality.

Professor Jimaru divides the digitization of the human body into three dimensions. The first dimension is precise measurement of the human body, including physical size, motion capture, shape measurement, facial expression analysis, and motion interference. The other is human body language and facial expressions during interpersonal communication in the virtual real world. So the second dimension is digital modeling. Finally, virtual humans also need to express information to the real world through digital models, whether through speech, images, limbs, or facial expressions, all need to be modeled, which is the third dimension of human digitization.

The narrow definition of Industry 4.0 mainly focuses on production systems, and its three major integrations include automation, digitization, and networking of production processes. The broad definition of Industry 4.0 includes digitization and networking of the entire ecosystem, and the extension of this system extends to the Internet of Things and service networks. Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet have always emphasized the Internet of Things, M2M and human-computer cooperation. Professor Zhiwan's research on human body digitalization actually opens a window for integrating the important element of human into Industry 4.0.

The attitude of most companies in Germany and Japan

Germany's top ten trading partners, except for the United States and China, are all European countries, and China and the United States together account for only 15%. Compared to trade between EU member states and non member states, transactions between EU member states have more favorable conditions. From 2002 to 2012, Germany was the largest beneficiary and contributor to EU economic integration. Japan's main export trading partners are concentrated in the Asia Pacific region, which also indicates that the regional economy has a significant impact on national exports.

In addition to regional economic integration, Germany and Japan compete more than cooperate because Japan is only Germany's 17th largest export destination, while Germany is only Japan's 8th largest export destination, accounting for only 2.7%.

Specifically, in the manufacturing industry, Japan and Germany compete comprehensively in industries such as automobiles, chemicals, basic materials, and steel; In terms of mechanical equipment, Germany and Japan compete directly with CNC machine tools, packaging machinery, injection molding machines, robots, construction machinery, and food machinery; In terms of automation products, there is a comprehensive competition, including PLC (programmable logic controller), frequency conversion, motor, servo, reducer and other products; From the perspective of semiconductors, there is also significant competition in power components and control chips.

The Japanese manufacturing industry is relatively calm about the concept of German Industry 4.0, and currently it is only research and has not been as grandiose as China. Although Japan has its own industrial 4.1J, it is a non-governmental organization with limited influence.

Large enterprises, software companies, universities, and research institutes in Germany are proposing Industry 4.0 more, while small and medium-sized enterprises, especially some basic automation component manufacturers, are still in the stage of learning and exploring Industry 4.0. At the forums of Sudtec in Stuttgart and CWIEME in Berlin, when experts from Fraunhofer, Smartfactory Association, and ZVEI Electrical and Electronics Association spoke about Industry 4.0, there were few listeners in the large venue, but when experts spoke about industries and specific products, the forum was instantly full. For small and medium-sized companies that produce supporting components, they may not be very interested in the large Industry 4.0 concept and focus more on their own product sales and industry markets.

German Mittelstand is relatively active in various industrial fields, with over 99% of German companies belonging to small and medium-sized enterprises. Many small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany are owned or operated by families, with the goal of establishing a century old store. They act cautiously and rarely borrow, in order to pass it on from generation to generation. German peers do not engage in vicious competition in terms of price. They either build their own competitive advantages in segmented industries, or compete in quality and product innovation.

Standardization and modularization are important concepts in Industry 4.0. For these small and medium-sized enterprises that only produce supporting components and are suppliers of standardized or modular products in Industry 4.0, a good strategy is to focus on doing their own products well, track the development of Industry 4.0, and integrate them into the overall system of Industry 4.0 at the appropriate time. So, most German companies are slightly cautious about the concept of Industry 4.0.

In the Japanese enterprise ecosystem model, large enterprises or parent companies play the leading role, while subsidiary or grandchild enterprises follow the large enterprises in supporting them. The company and banking group have a close relationship, linked together through complex cross shareholding; Due to the close relationship between banks and other industrial and commercial enterprises, company managers are protected, allowing them to make long-term investments without being influenced by shareholders. Large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises have formed a close corporate group structure. Japanese small enterprises mainly supply large enterprises and rely on several large customers, making it difficult for Japanese small manufacturers to generate their own ideas in innovation.

Through communication, we have found that companies in Germany and Japan are significantly less enthusiastic about Industry 4.0 than Chinese companies, and their focus is still on improving their traditional competitiveness.

 

However, the heated discussions among the Chinese people are not unnecessary. It is precisely because of these discussions and debates that the concept of Industry 4.0 has gradually become more abundant, and even in turn, it has improved the theoretical system and practical cases of Industry 4.0 in Germany. For example, the Qingdao Red Collar C2M model and Qingdao Haier's inverted pyramid model have attracted high attention from Germans. Some large enterprises in China, such as process manufacturing company Baosteel and discrete manufacturing company Huawei, even started the practice of intelligent manufacturing before the concept of Industry 4.0 was proposed.