Industry 4.0 – How big of a deal is it? This XOOTIC lecture took place in Zwarte Doos, where we had a great buffet dinner and caught up with our fellow XOOTICs. After the lecture, we also had some drinks and discussion about the lecture. In these activities, we mingled and enjoyed, also between generations.
So, Industry 4.0: what does it mean, and how will it affect factories in the future? In this lecture we got the opinion of Jeroen de Bruijn of FESTA. He explained that Industry 4.0 is a must given the developing market needs: I want it now, I want it customized to my needs, and I want you to take care of the service. Of course, not every product, e.g. a pack of milk, fits directly in that category. The main trend is expected to be: more local and flexible factories, where data is the new oil.
FESTA, together with Unity040 and CORDIS , attempts to provide a tool-chain to do complete software-based development before hardware manufacturing. As XOOTIC we voiced some concerns here: we cannot measure everything in physics e.g. an ASML machine, even formally proven pieces of code can fail in a new context, and most importantly: where are the practical examples? How do you think this will continue: what part can we do digital-only, and what part will we always need a physical prototype for?
I am happy so many of you (almost 40!) turned up for this lecture, and that you enjoyed both the social aspect and the lecture content. Next time, let’s do it even better with the help of your survey input! Hope to see you all then.
