Dueling Euros Square Off in China: 2020-2025
KUKA, ABB & Siemens: The Influence of European Technology on “Made in China 2025”
COLOSSUS IN THE MAKING: 2020-2025
Unprecedented Open Playing Field for Europe
Total Access to World-Class Automation for China
Colossal as well: The wealth of process data flowing from every factory. Wow!
“By merging data together with production knowledge,
manufacturers will have the chance to monitor “quality” in real time.”
— Christian Brecher, Director, Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology
Far from the grasp of Brussels, EU labor restrictions, contentious neighbors, and prying competitors, KUKA, ABB and Siemens are footloose in a continent full of factories and warehouses, while an appreciative host smooths the way ahead.
The Internet of Production (IoP) is how Christian Brecher described it to his audience, and it seemed to cut to the chase; a more apt and simplified way of saying Industry 4.0 or the Industrial Internet of Things.
Brecher, director of Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology, was in Singapore for the Nikkei Asia300 Summit. He was there to tell the audience about the “new” revolution taking place with the convergence of data, production and technology.
All ears for Brecher
Everyone listened closely as he rolled out a scenario of “tracking live data from the manufacturing process and analyzing it in the cloud” and how “it will create huge gains in productivity.”
“By merging data together with production knowledge, manufacturers will have the chance to monitor quality in real time.”
All of which, he pointed out, is not at all going on…just yet.
Brecher was not talking about data from a robot announcing that an actuator was in need of replacement. He was at the heart of the matter, the purpose of every factory: Production.
KUKA, ABB, and Siemens are honing in on China for just that very reason. They’re not there just to sell and install robots, and therein to score, very large, non-trivial amounts of cash. With China buying every robot in sight, all that buying and selling is a given…but time limited.
KUKA, ABB, and Siemens are in China to take on and take over leadership in Brecher’s “Internet of Production”…which is not time limited, and therefore much more valuable than just selling robots.
Control the factory, and you control what goes into it…and what comes out of it.
Here in China, in the unformed, virgin clay of China’s first foray into advanced manufacturing, with the approval and assistance of a government that can move and remove mountains of interference at will, each has a clear and present opportunity to take over leadership in automation.
Which one is in the lead? Which one has best-in-class leverage? Which one is bold enough to pull out a victory?
Asian Robotics Review has been following the KUKU, ABB, and Siemens sojourn into China since 2016. Here in 2019, things are beginning to get very interesting.
Japan has taken great notice as well…and has acted. Early in 2017, Japan made a power move that’s still reverberating to the max in the Middle Kingdom: : See: Blast Off 2017.
As we edge ever closer to 2025, we take a closer look at this trio of Euro giants and their exploits in China from 2016 onward. Each is in hot pursuit of what Brecher says “will change manufacturing forever.”
Going forward, we’ll keep a lookout to see what happens next.
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