Why Industry 4.0 is not a revolution, but 3D printing is.
Industry 4.0 has been on everyone's lips for 7 years. Following the example of the Federal Government in 2011, the term stands for the fourth industrial revolution. But is this really what it is?
Or is industry 4.0 "only" an accelerated optimization of processes and value-added chains that had already begun in the 70's and 80's and have now really picked up speed with new technologies such as block chains? Shouldn't we rather understand industry 4.0 as an evolutionary milestone rather than as a revolution? And don't the additive manufacturing processes with 3D printers deserve to be called a "revolution" because they fundamentally change who manufactures products and where and when they do so? New, fast, inexpensive, high-performance 3D printers are increasingly entering the market and accelerating a development whose significance has yet to be generally understood.
In the first section, this article deals with the topic "Why Industry 4.0 is not the revolution, but the additive manufacturing (3D printing)" and in the second with the question “How and why the revolution in manufacturing is really taking off right now with new 3D technologies ".
The map shows the print service providers of the 3D printing platform operator 3D Hubs © 3dhubs. Com
Why additive manufacturing (3D printing) – and not Industry 4.0 - deserves to be called a "revolution".
Over two hundred years ago, the first industrial revolution was triggered by the invention of the steam engine. The second was brought about by the introduction of assembly line production. The third came with the use of computer-aided machines and industrial robots. The interlinking of production with modern information and communication technology networked via the Internet was supposed to be the hallmark of industry 4.0 as the fourth industrial revolution.
According to Wikipedia, intelligent digitally networked systems including powerful processors, digital sensors and real-time networking of complete processes form the basis for Industry 4.0. It is supposed to make self-organized production possible: “People, machines, plants, logistics and products communicate and cooperate directly with each other in industry 4.0. Networking should make it possible to optimize an entire value-added chain rather than just one stage of production. The network should also cover all phases of the product's life cycle." (see Wikipedia)
The consulting firm Deloitte sees companies as compelled to rapidly implement Industry 4.0. Rapid introduction is supposed to be necessary because of the trend towards individualisation and a rapidly changing - that is, volatile - demand, to which companies should respond by making production more flexible and introducing new business models.
3D printing helps the industry 4.0 leap forward
Flexible, dynamic, digital - these are the guiding principles of the new production according to Deloitte, which is break through directly to the end user. Customers can personalize specific articles in previously unknown ways according to their individual shopping wishes. In the Smart Factory, this was accompanied by optimized machine utilization and reduced energy consumption. State-of-the-art sensors would automatically monitor wear and tear and perfect maintenance: Industry 4.0 means maximum efficiency of all systems thanks to predictive upkeep - with the goal of zero downtime.
According to Deloitte, the individualization of shoes by online configurators on the Internet is an example of this.
Soles for Adidas running shoes are now made with 3D printers. Photo © adidas
Even "batch size 1" is now feasible for the industry. Until recently, such an approach would have been uneconomical. However, comprehensive digitization and intelligent machines have made it possible in the meanwhile to produce granular workpieces up to single copies, for example with the help of 3D printers for individual products. (See Deloitte, Industry 4.0: Milestone for production - and more!)
Only the additive production with 3D printers allows batch size 1
The casual mention of 3D printing in the Deloitte argumentation does not do justice to the big picture. Rightly put, it should read:
Only 3D printers enable companies to realize individual mass production (batch size 1).
As long as the companies continue working with other manufacturing processes, such as subtractive (e. g. milling) or shaping (e. g. casting) process, an entire flexibilization "around them" makes no sense and sensors and networking are of little use with regard to the cost-effectiveness of batch size 1. Furthermore, building new equipment costs time and therefore money. If the production plants have to be adapted more frequently to individual requirements, that means that set up costs and times increase significantly. The dilemma with the traditional methods of production remains: The optimization of machine utilization no longer helps, tools and machines need capacity utilization in order to achieve optimum economic efficiency. This was and is the reason why mass production has always been concentrated in central locations. BMW, for example, has been producing motorcycles in Germany for more than 50 years at a single location in Berlin. Business economists should not be surprised at this. In 1928 Eugen Schmalenbach already referred to the nature and effect of fixed costs in his famous Viennese speech.
3D printing changes the laws of mass production
3D printers had not yet been invented at the time of the Vienna speech. And for a long time, Schmalenbach was right. But since then it has become possible to manufacture products generically or additively without the use of tools and other machines, thus eliminating the economic necessity for high capacity utilization and large quantities. When using 3D printers, however, the similarity of a product does not represent a cost criterion.
Series production vs. mass customization: Photo left: Carlos Delgado, through Wikimedia Commons. Photo right: Formlabs
Different models can be produced on the same building platform without any fundamental change in the cost per piece. Of course, 3D printers must also be written off, which results in fixed costs. The only difference is that mass produced, similar products do not force them to use their production capacities to the full.
It is not Industry 4.0 per se, but only the introduction of 3D printers that presents the opportunity for batch size 1 and the economical production of individual products. Seen in this light, the three former industrial revolutions only concerned the optimization of subtractive operating machines and tools or upstream and downstream processes.
In this sense, there has not been four, but only one industrial revolution hitherto, a revolution that could be summed up as the first phase of the industrial revolution. Enormous technical progress was made after the invention of the steam engine. However, this is an evolutionary process that has made mass production increasingly cheaper, even for new product innovations.
The theoretical model for the first phase of the Industrial Revolution was provided by Adam Smith, the founder of the classical political economy with his major work The Wealth of Nations . In the first chapter, he illustrates the effect of the division of labour using the example of the production of pins. If the division of labour had not made pin production into an independent industry with specialised machines, a worker who was not specially trained in this trade could " could scarce, perhaps, with his utmost industry, make one pin in a day, and certainly could not make twenty ". In a small specialised factory, on the other hand, ten workers produce about 48,000 pins per day or 4800 pins per worker. “It is the great multiplication of the production of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.” (Adam Smith: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Chapter 1. 1776, cf. also Wikipedia).
Additive manufacturing and 3D printing should be called the second phase of the industrial revolution, because it allows individual mass production and fundamentally changes the way in which products are manufactured as well as where and when, by whom they are manufactured. (see illustration).
The use of 3D printers renders the benefits of the classic division of labour obsolete. As mentioned above, product homogeneity in additive manufacturing does not represent a cost advantage and the diversity of components does not represent a cost disadvantage. On the same building platform, a wide variety of pins, buttons and much more can be manufactured and constantly varied. In other words, 238 years after Adam Smith published his work, it is time to develop a new theory of production. The following illustration is intended to make a contribution to this.
The changes caused by 3D printing are far more fundamental than those caused by industry 4.0
As described above, 3D printing can help industry 4.0 to introduce mass production or mass customization, as the Americans say. But the effects of 3D printing extend far beyond this. Every industrial company has to rethink the question of vertical integration. For make-or-buy decisions, further alternatives must now be included in the decision-making process. In addition to the question "Do I produce or buy products myself?", the following options now come into play: “Do I replace the classic production of individual products with additive manufacturing processes?" and "Do I invest in 3D printers or do I use external service providers?” Those who purchase 3D printers themselves can use these products to produce for many other markets. This suggests that there must be a complex mix that takes into account the "break-even point" of the different manufacturing processes for all individual products in terms of their cost.
For machine manufacturers such as AUMAT GmbH from Solingen, the question of make or buy arises anew every day. The fact is: more and more of the parts used in the machines come from our own 3D printers. Photo © aumat.de
Taking the example of the "motorcycle" again. Two years ago, the Airbus subsidiary Apworks took everyone by surprise with the Light-Rider, a 35 kilogram electric motorcycle made with a metal 3D printer. As mentioned above, BMW was the only manufacturer of these vehicles in Germany for 50 years. Now an aircraft manufacturer arrives on the scene and produces 500 copies with its 3D printing capacities.
This had been the domain of motorcycle manufacturers up to now. Now Airbus produces 500 electric motorcycles with 3D printers. © Photo: APWorks
The 3D-printed motorcycle illustrates the scope of the new manufacturing technology in an industrial context. Non-industry vendors can now take advantage of the versatility of their 3D printers to enter new markets. And 3D printing proves its strengths not only through the capacity for individual production. It also gives designers and engineers freedom in design for making products better. The Light-Rider frame made of an aluminium alloy weighs only 5 kg. 3D printing enables resource-saving lightweight construction for the mobility industry. Aircraft manufacturers like Airbus know this - it is not for nothing that they are the pioneers in additive manufacturing. Thinking a little further ahead, the aforementioned "motorcycle" will soon be able to be printed by a dealer around the corner and tailored to the biker's body measurements. 3D printing enables the production of products when and where they are needed. On the international space station ISS, which is equipped with a 3D printer, an astronaut from NASA recently printed a tool he needed.
The tool model was beamed from NASA to the ISS and produced on site using the on-board 3D printer. © Photos: NASA
The example from NASA shows that storage and long transport routes are a thing of the past. 3D printers enable just-in-time production. And sports shoe manufacturer Adidas brought production back to Germany thanks to 3D printers: in its Speedfactory, it produces individual soles based on 3D scans of its customers' feet. Which brings us back to lot size 1.
These massive changes mean an enormous change for industry, the markets and fundamental conditions of competition. Already today on 3D model platforms such as Thingiverse or MyMiniFactory, from millions of 3D models the right one can be selected, downloaded in a matter of seconds and produced with your own printer or at a service provider. A service provider can be chosen on 3D printing platforms such as 3Dhubs or treatstock, where tens of thousands of one-man operations and even larger companies across the world offer their 3D printing capacities. The buzzword ‘the democratization of production’ will come true if the dynamic technological development around additive manufacturing continues, if 3D printers become increasingly cheaper, faster and better.
Read the 2nd chapter of this article here
How and why the revolution in manufacturing is taking off with new 3D technologies.