STILL conneXXt Nr. 01 English

27 CUSTOM PRODUCTS FOR ALL. Up-and-coming 3D printers which enable users to achieve an almost industrial-like finish anywhere in the world are setting out the course for the future. Companies will even be able to anticipate their customers’ every need in the future: An algorithm patented by Amazon in the USA that describes “antici- patory shipping” makes it possible to use “big data” obtained from social networks to send goods in advance to dispatch centres which operate in areas near to customers who are most likely to be interested in purchasing the products in the near future. If the product is actually ordered it will mean that delivery to the recipient is quicker. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to be able to predict all of the intra-company production processes as a result of such complex material and information flows which are based on volatile databases and a high level of product variance. In this context, the “Internet of Things” will enter the real world and the conventional internet, which up until now has been restricted to the virtual world, will be enhanced to provide a network for objects or material parts. The production and logistics processes of Industry 4.0 will see semi-finished parts providing information about their own availability or intended purpose in real time and navigating online and autonomously through the production process. What does this mean? Things will become “smart” as even rough parts, for example, will signal to the machine how they should be processed further. Humans, machines and resources will communicate in smart factories using cyber-physical systems in the same way that humans currently do on social networks. What's more, production and logistics will no longer have to be fixed at one geographical location for a number of years. Moveable logistics facilities with convertible infrastructure will become standard practice. Instead of static warehouses and production locations, the future will feature a “Hub2Move”, a transshipment hub capable of moving location, which can be constantly adapted to meet evolving demands and individualisation re- quirements.In this way, production, logistics and IT can develop and grow closer to- gether exactly where they have always belonged. “Due to our flexible and modular design methods as well as our customising options, STILL offers more than 8.5 billion varieties of customer solutions. With individualisation having become hugely important, production processes have to be designed with great efficiency and versatility. High process reliability, flat control hierarchies and excellent availability must all feature in lean pro- duction in order to keep to delivery deadlines,” explains Thorsten Baumeister, Head of Production & Production Systems at STILL. PERSPECTIVE 3D printers will increase the flexibility of production processes in the future.

Pages Overview