“As a machine producer, we are in the position to support our customers with our expertise in dealing with IoT data by reading, concluding, and reacting properly.”
Medek & Schörner GmbH is a well-known name in the wire and cable industry. Founded in 1929, the company offers nearly the entire spectrum of machines for the marking of cables and optical fibres. The product range begins with simple marking systems and extends to high-tech devices with fully automatic control systems for use in high-speed production systems. In an interview with Wire & Cable India magazine, Mr. Peter Wernisch, Optical Fibre Division Manager, Medek & Schörner GmbH talks about the company’s noteworthy projects, future plans and importance of remote commissioning and IoT integration in the wire and cable industry.
Wire & Cable India: How according to you, has the implementation of Industry 4.0 grown over the years? Do you think that the wire and cable industry is ready to adapt to this evolving industrial revolution?
Peter Wernisch: The wire and cable industry has started integrating more and more new machines into IoT networks. Mainly overview data, served with OPC-UA standard are commonly in use. COVID-19 allowed faster growth. However, security topics like hacking or machine manipulation slowed down the process.
WCI: What would be the impact on production efficiency and ROI with the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies in the manufacturing process?
PW: A clever implementation of Industry 4.0 techniques will have a positive effect on the wire and cable industry. Conclusions can be made much easier with crosslinked and aligned data. If these data are properly pre-filtered by production teams, scrap and downtimes can be reduced.
WCI: What are the most common challenges/pitfalls when customers try to move to Industry 4.0 systems? How do you help the industry address these challenges?
PW: Only collecting internal data is not helpful at all. The proper balance of sharing data with third parties, like machine producers and raw material supporters can create added value. A combination with clear security restrictions, fulfilling data security, and taking care of internal, sensitive data, has perfect benefits. As a machine producer, we are in the position to support our customers with our expertise in dealing with IoT data by reading, concluding, and reacting properly. Preventive machine support, performance increase, better interaction between processes, and a well-performing process is the beneficial result for the customer.
WCI: Cybersecurity is an increasingly important requirement for Industry 4.0. In what ways do you address it?
PW: Security is, at present, the killer of the constant growth of Industry 4.0. Most current standards are mainly striving for high performance. Securing this performance is still an undervalued topic. Nowadays due to the connection of several processes, the impact of security issues is possibly creating a disaster. Therefore, machine suppliers have to implement security functionalities and introduce the security topic and the implemented security functionalities in a transparent way to their clients. We are therefore selecting secured techniques to have transparent, save data and processes. Well-trained teams are continuously in contact with the customers to keep the process and data secured.
“Machine suppliers have to implement security functionalities and introduce the security topic and the implemented security functionalities in a transparent way to their clients.”
WCI: Could you tell us about recent & noteworthy projects accomplished by your company in India — specific to wire & cable companies?
PW: India has an advantage; it is a fast-growing market with a young and developing infrastructure. Especially, the big players producing fibre optic cables are having integrated Industry 4.0 solutions with motivated well-educated teams. Processes, which were previously in fragments, have started getting combined, and external suppliers are allowed to access the smart factory infrastructure and assist with their expertise to optimise it.
“After the COVID-19 pandemic, remote commissioning and IoT integration with proper data management is becoming more and more important.”
We are supporting India with high-quality optical fibre machines. All equipment is Industry 4.0 ready and most of them are already well-integrated and combined with the Indian smart factory infrastructure. This allows continuous optimisation and provides a reliable solution to our customers.
WCI: Due to COVID resultant lockdowns, the wire & cable industry recently shifted its focus on automation & remote commissioning — how does your solution simplify their operations?
PW: After the COVID-19 pandemic, remote commissioning and IoT integration with proper data management is becoming more and more important. It also helps the wire and cable industry. We have intensified our Industry 4.0 visions and implemented IoT solutions into our machines as core elements.
WCI: What are your short-term and long-term plans — specific to the wire & cable industry? What is the future of Industry 4.0 – smart manufacturing, and automation in the Indian wire & cable industry?
PW: We have not divided Industry 4.0 solutions into short or long-term plans. The future of Industry 4.0 has already started. Starting from well-performing machine processes to the diagnosis of process and machine data between manufacturer and equipment supplier, we are already supporting the wire and cable industry with smart manufacturing solutions and a high-security standard. Only the interaction between machines, machine manufacturers, and the customer will allow optimised products with the highest qualit levels.
