Smart Factory & Industry 4.0

We boost the performance of your operations with intelligent digitalization and automation. Always with our focus on the people involved.

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Opportunities

The Factory of the Future

Many innovation projects lack the overarching networking and seldom get beyond the pilot status. But how can a comprehensive approach for digitization and automation succeed in your company? Through an understandable and inspiring mission, binding implementation planning and a robust transformation and change process. The aim is to design the operating model of the future: smart, lean & green.

We prepare you for these and other challenges. In the process, we draw on practical experience from a variety of different industries. We ensure that the technologies used are good fit with your processes, the solutions are scalable and economical, and that your employees are empowered to take part in shaping the change.

Solutions

Smart and Connected

Smart Factory

How can one find intelligent solutions and effectively put them into action?

For decades, operating processes were optimized with conventional lean methods. Today, production & logistics are going through the next big leap in development – toward a collaborative intelligence between humans and machines. This enables gains in the efficiency, versatility, reliability, sustainability and attractiveness of factory operations.

For those who approach it the right way, performance gains of over 20 percent are achievable. We are your partner for the entire transformation. From defining the mission and implementing new solutions and processes to building new capabilities in the workforce and the organization as a whole. We know that:

• only a holistic vision and company-wide design principles promise success
• only well-founded process objectives ensure that solutions are derived from the actual problems instead of available technologies
• only scalable applications – and no stand-alone solutions – are economical

Industrial Ecosystems

How can the smart factory be scaled with platforms and generate new B2B business models?

Just as most companies depend on reliable partners in their value creation chains, companies don’t have to do it all themselves in the digital realm either. Platform technologies in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) not only simplify networking throughout the entire supply chain, but also make it easy to scale modular solutions.

Together, we define the ideal role for a company within these platform-based ecosystems, conclude the right partnerships for you and find opportunities for additional business models.

In our collaboration, we focus on:

• customized cloud strategies for the optimal positioning of your company within the networked ecosystems
• selection and development of strategic partnerships with regard to data, services, applications and infrastructure
• development of data-based business models for industry-wide initiatives such as Catena-X in the European market

Zero Impact Factory

How can the environmental footprint of the entire value chain be reduced?

Exceeding the environmental limits of our planet time and again leads to irreversible damage to the entire ecosystem. The environmental, social and economic impacts are important for every company. That’s why it’s essential to minimize the environmental impact of the entire value creation chain and drastically reduce the use of primary raw materials.

In addition to working conditions, local and global environmental impacts are the highest priority throughout the entire product lifecycle. Sustainable value creation goes beyond conventional indicators and presents the biggest challenges – environmental, technical and digital – in terms of planning and daily operations. Together, we pursue:

• zero impact for all operations in every environmental facet and preservation of biodiversity with a sensitized workforce
• efficiency in all processes and with material usage through data transparency across the entire lifecycle and the integration of new business models such as carbon capture
• environmentally-oriented planning processes with a clear governance structure over and above legal requirements

Design for Manufacturing

Which technologies make it possible to reimagine products and their manufacture?

Even though existing processes can always be continually optimized, sometimes the status quo has to be called into question. That also goes for how products are manufactured. This is where innovative technologies come into play whose true potential is far from exhausted.

Methods such as additive manufacturing frequently result not only in positive effects in the actual manufacturing of individual components, but make it possible to re-think the entire process. From development to after-sales and service. Here it’s essential to pay particular attention to downstream production steps when the product is at the design stage.

We strongly believe that:

• technology screenings enable quick initial successes by applying innovative methods to existing process steps
• design to produce ensures that optimized production processes are incorporated in the development
• additive manufacturing methods can make it possible to re-think components, assemblies and even entire products

Factory Planning

How can companies design factories that enable them to respond to variant & volume changes with ease?

Existing factories are bursting at the seams and as soon as the next factory is built, here, too, the mode of operation is largely dictated by the installed, static infrastructure. That has to change. Expandability, flexibility and modularity have to be the goal.

We help you improve the adaptability of your factory – both for new greenfield projects and existing brownfield factories. So in the future, you’ll be able to handle fluctuating volumes and changing product variants without investment costs running out of control. We know that:

• intelligent planning and control systems enable the breakdown of static production lines in favor of modular production
• scenario-based factory planning enables diverse usage models
• smart-factory-readiness allows you to maximize future flexibility and expandability

Insights

Trends and Solutions

Contact

Consulting that works

Reach out to us. We are here to provide support in smart factories & Industry 4.0.

Gregor Harman

Managing Director Porsche Consulting USA