As we crawl out of a global pandemic, CIOs and CEOs of manufacturing organisations are re-examining their digital capabilities and what it is that will help them survive future challenges. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has prompted an energy crisis and is driving other key decisions.
Steve Sands, Head of Product Management at Festo, explains why the unassumingly named Asset Administration Shell is so crucial to delivering the Industry 4.0 vision.
Potential abounds in the automation and control space today: prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the market already was poised to grow immensely over the coming years. Now, as a result of the disruptions the pandemic caused to the global supply chain, automation is expected to grow even faster.
The idea of autonomous operations for manufacturing facilities has been on the agenda for several decades but, with the maturation of Industry 4.0 technologies, what was once an aspirational ideology has become very tangible.
Today’s smart factories rely on industrial machinery that is faster and more flexible, to meet increasing requirements for productivity. Control systems play a growing role in pushing those boundaries and driving next-generation automation on the factory and warehouse floor.