Page 29 - ITATUBE Journal 1 2020

VOSCO Consultants
Industry 4.0 in the tube industry as a key for solving the present crisis
Face the opportunities now and lead the future, VOSCO
Technical Papers
The corona crisis is challenging the world tube and pipe consump- tion strongly. This affects nearly all areas as the OCTG, automo- tive, mechanical and construction markets. Better chances on the market are still given to those who offer higher material quali- ties and tighter tolerances, but especially to those who manage to implement technologies for a cost-effective and intelligent production. Among low fault tol- erance and consistent quality, customers of tubes and pipes expect in particular an increase in delivery reliability and flexibility, which is determined by the entire supply chain. At the same time, the industry will have to consider uncertainty factors such as deci- sions on national/international climate policy, which could result in considerable cost increases. Due
to these trends, companies under- stand more and more the need to exploit data in real time to use them for production and process optimization and the necessity to follow the trends of digitalization and to drive Industry 4.0 forward.
But how does the individual company manage this balancing act between increasing delivery reliability, specialization, envi- ronmental consciousness etc. - especially in view of global com- petitive pressure and advancing digitalization? What measures can the tube and pipe industry take to meet the growing challenges of global competition? Which digitization measures and devel- opments regarding Industry 4.0 are company-specific relevant and capable of being implemented?
To answer these questions, it has
proved helpful to first analyze and evaluate a company’s individ- ual level of maturity with regard to Industry 4.0. Figure 1 shows the path of this maturity – from simple computerization over transparency in the production to a completely self-optimizing, adapting company.
In an already internationally rec- ognized approach, the compa- ny-specific degree of maturity is multidimensionally assessed, cat- egorized and compared in its cat- egories. The maturity assessment serves to identify potentials and weaknesses or, more generally, to uncover digitization needs. The need is not only derived from the potential offered by existing digitization possibilities and new technological developments, but especially from the harmonization of the individual digital progress
Figure 1: The development path to Industry 4.0 (in the style of Acatech study 2017)
ITAtube Journal No1/July 2020
29