Internet of Manufacturing Study Tour - What can we learn from the USA?
8 June 2018
Thirty seven representatives from twenty six New Zealand and four Australian manufacturing companies, two business
organisations (The Manufacturers’ Network and the EMA) and two government funded innovation agencies (Callaghan
Innovation and the Australian IMCRC) have all combined into a study group to investigate advanced manufacturing
technology at the Internet of Manufacturing Conference in Chicago and through visits to a number of U.S manufacturing
companies this week.
“This week has been an exciting opportunity to gain insight into what U.S companies are doing in the networked
manufacturing and Industry 4.0 space. There is a lot New Zealand manufacturers can learn about what works and what
doesn’t – however, at the end of the day, Kiwi manufacturers have to find what works for them. It starts with getting
LEAN processes in order, continually improving what you have and incrementally investing in technology which has the
greatest productivity improvements for their business.” says Dr Dieter Adam, CE, The Manufacturers’ Network.
“The trip included a visit to Haas, a global brand in CNC machines, and a remarkable success story of a manufacturer
that has managed to grow rapidly while keeping all of its manufacturing activities in the USA.
“We also visited the Trumpf Smart Factory in Schaumburg, Chicago. This is a fully operational sheet metal factory that
functions as a technology showcase for sales purposes and as an Industry 4.0 technology test lab at the same time,
focusing on end-to-end integration of systems and processes. We were able to see an example of individually customised
products coming through the production line, from start to finish, making use of advanced manufacturing technology to
make such customisation possible.
“One of the key insights from the trip so far is that American manufacturers, even the bigger ones, are still at the
early stages of adopting the truly novel aspects of advanced manufacturing technologies. They are well-versed in the
more conventional aspects like statistical process control or robots, but still in the early stages when it comes to
using cobots or digital twins, for example. Overall, the impression at least from our limited experience so far is that
European manufacturers are further ahead than their US counterparts when it comes to adopting Industry 4.0 / Internet of
Manufacturing technologies in general.” Says Dr Adam.
ENDS