Conference Coverage: "Industry 4.0 & IoT Panel Discussion"

Doug Schuchart from Beckhoff Automation, Vijay Chhabria from JBT Corporation and John Ashodian from SICK Inc. were panelists in the "Industry 4.0 & IoT Panel Discussion" expertly moderated by James Brehm from James Brehm & Associates, who kept the panelists on their toes with his questions – including one "controversial" question that was not on the agenda. 

Brehm posed the "secret" question just a few minutes into the discussion, which was held at the Smart City Logistics and Connected Supply Chain Theater in Hall C. It dealt with Iot and Industry 4.0 and talks about new business models – taking that data and creating new business models from it. "Where are we at with the usage of data and that export of data?" All three panelists sailed smoothly through their replies, with Schuchart responding that "a lot of people are still grappling with how to apply this as a business model."You can’t say I have Iot, now what do I do with Industry 4.0? "For example, you can’t build a machine, thenfigure out what you are going to build with it," he added. Ashodian posed a question in return: "How do we work together to figure out what those models are?" And part of Vijay’s response to the question was, "It is a culture change. It doesn’t take place overnight; it takes years." 

Some of the other questions included: How do organizations utilize data from the factory? What kind of pain do organizations need to face before adopting these? What are organizations not doing that could have a measurable impact? 

When asked, "What are the challenges that prohibit the use of data?" Vijay’s response inspired a lot of head-nodding in the audience. "Security is a big concern. You cannot avoid that," he said. "That is holding a lot of people back," agreed Schuchart, "though there are tremendous tools on the market today... Don’t let security keep you from innovation." Schuchart added that connectivity and collaboration are also challenges, and there might be a new role emerging that controls the IT engineers and the engineers. "The collaboration between those groups is vital," he said. 

Though, it was the answer to this question that made you think twice: How do you interpret IoT and Industry 4.0? It was Schuchart’s answer that said it most succinctly: "They are converging, but they are two separate things. You can have IoT without Industry 4.0, but you cannot have Industry 4.0 without IoT... There are concepts of IoT that are realized with Industry 4.0."