In industry 4.0, production is linked to state-of-the-art information and communication technology. The driving force behind this development is the rapidly increasing digitalisation of economy and society. It will have a lasting effect on the way in which industry will produce and work in the future: after steam engines, assembly lines, electronics and IT, intelligent factories, so-called "Smart Factories", will now determine the fourth industrial revolution.

Intelligent, digitally networked systems form the technical basis for it. With their help, a largely self-organised production is to be made possible, at least in theory. In Industry 4.0, people, machines, facilities, logistics and products communicate and cooperate directly with each other. Manufacturing and logistics processes between companies are intelligently interlinked to make industrial production even more efficient and flexible.

Of course, in many cases this is still utopia. Particularly in the supply industry of serial parts with frequent product changes, special boundary conditions apply. Self-organised production is presumably unrealistic in that case, but the versatile linking of data with reasonable correlations will sustainably improve productivity, quality and profitability.

Modern MES solutions often form the basis for the Industry 4.0 approach.

An MES (Manufacturing Execution System) connects the productive systems in a company and makes their information available online. The intelligent interlocking between human and machine is one of the elementary basic functions of every MES. In addition, MES offers a number of interfaces to other systems that automate data exchange and thus raise data quality to a new level. Interfaces to the ERP system ensure a smooth production process, interfaces to the CAQ system ensure compliance with quality inspection requirements regarding measured values, tolerances and inspection intervals.

MES solutions provide an unknown transparency in the industry. Catchwords such as the transparent factory, paperless production and unmanned shifts are no longer illusory wishful thinking, but as actual practice they make a considerable contribution to the topic of Industry 4.0.

With the MES software SK-go!^® you create the basis for your Industry 4.0 projects. There is still a long way to go to a fully automated production process and it is hardly possible to master it without the proper database. Production, which has usually grown through the years, and the related heterogeneous machinery limit the possibilities of Industry 4.0 to a considerable extent. Today, SK-go!^® is able to tap the data from all types of machines, thus ensuring an optimum in transparency and a variety of objectively recorded key figures.

MES and Industry 4.0 are no witchcraft! Let's talk about it how we can assist you.