The more robots, the more jobs
Why we need digital factories
Total digitalization: things are becoming data, even in our factories. Companies are investing billions in AI. But why do we actually need Industry 4.0? Two surprising answers from Heinrich Munz, Chief Digital Strategist at Kuka, which he presented at the Forcam Innovation Day.
Digitization is also picking up speed in politics: The German government plans to invest three billion euros in researching the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) by 2025. The new "AI made in Germany" strategy aims to make Germany the global market leader.
For companies, such sums for research and development (R&D) tend to be on the lower end of the scale. The 1,000 largest listed companies invested a record sum of 782 billion dollars in R&D in 2018. This was reported by "Strategy&", the strategy consultancy of the auditing group PwC. The list is led by digital platform giants Amazon (22.6 billion US dollars) and Alphabet/Google (16.2), followed by Volkswagen (15.8). And according to "Strategy&", China is only just warming up in terms of R&D spending. A large proportion of the next key technologies are likely to come from there, according to the strategists.
Industry 4.0 secures our prosperity
It's a good idea to keep simple correlations in mind. For example: "Why do we actually need Industry 4.0?" Kuka manager Heinrich Munz asked this question in his presentation "Digitalization, IIoT & Industry 4.0 - The journey is the destination". He presented alongside other experts at the 15th Forcam Innovation Day FID in the fall at DXC.Technology in Böblingen.
Munz's first answer: "We need Industry 4.0 for our well-being and for the future of our children." Because, according to the "Lead Architect Industry 4.0" at the Augsburg-based robot manufacturer, we can no longer produce enough goods without digitalization. "If we continue to produce as we do now, we will not be able to meet the product needs of a global population of around 7.9 billion people in 2025, 53% of whom will belong to the 'consuming class', taking into account environmental and resource conditions."
The more robots, the more jobs
Heinrich Munz's second answer sounds strange at first because it doesn't fit in with conventional thinking: We need digitalization and automation because it obviously creates jobs. Kuka manager Munz backed up the argument with figures: For example, the unemployment rate is always significantly low where the number of robots per employee in the manufacturing industry is high.
South Korea, for example, has the highest number of robots per employee in the manufacturing industry at 631, with an unemployment rate of 3.9%. France, on the other hand, only has 132 robots per manufacturing worker, with an unemployment rate of over 9 percent. By comparison, Germany - in third place on the list - has 309 robots per manufacturing job and an unemployment rate of 3.4 percent.
Digital megatrends are changing the world
In any case, global digitalization is irreversible, just like the electrification of life 150 years ago. Munz presented the digital megatrends in Böblingen. Digitalization forms the main stream, which has various side arms such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 (Industrial Internet of Things - IIoT). In simple terms, these developments mean
- Digitalization: Everything that can be digitalized will be digitalized
- Internet of Things: everything that can be networked will be networked
- Industry 4.0: Everything that can be automated will be automated
Software and platforms determine the path
One megatrend has been shaping our everyday lives for some time now: "platformization" in the cloud. The "mother of all platforms" - Apple iTunes (now the App Store) - has changed entire industries - and will continue to do so. The most well-known: Facebook, Amazon, Ebay, Google, WhatsApp, SnapChat, Flickr, Netflix, Spotify, LinkedIn, etc. The megatrend of the "share economy" is also based on platformization, i.e. an economy whose "prosumers" (for consumers) focus on using a service instead of owning a product.
The "platformization" has led to the fact that:
- the largest cab company in the world no longer owns a single cab (Uber),
- the largest hotel chain in the world no longer has a single hotel (Airbnb)
- the world's largest library no longer needs a single book (Wikipedia).
For companies, this means that they too must become software-based units if they want to keep up. The CEO of General Electric, Jeff Immelt, once put it this way: "If you went to bed last night as an industrial company, you will wake up today as a software and analytics company."
Significantly increase productivity with a "digital twin"
It is high time for manufacturing companies to convert their production to digital control. Industry 4.0 specialist Forcam from Ravensburg is one of the 100 most innovative medium-sized companies in Germany. This was the result of this year's scientific analysis in the nationwide "TOP 100 innovation competition".
With Forcam Force, the Ravensburg-based software specialist provides companies with a technologically leading solution for intelligent factory control. Forcam Force mirrors production as a digital twin in all computer systems in real time (cyber-physical system). Immediate error and traceability of all processes, historical analyses and productivity increases in the double-digit percentage range become possible.
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