Hewlett Packard Enterprise at the Hanover Fair 2016 (April 25 to 29, Hall 8, Booth A07)

[PatrikEdlund]

• Manufacturing control via the cloud: HPE and Festo Didactic demonstrate control of manufacturing processes via the Industry-4.0 platform "Virtual Fort Knox"
• Digital retrofit: Lathe from 1958 digitally analyzed and controlled
• Rapid business prototyping: methods and services for the development of new digital business models in the manufacturing industry
• Production of the future: New computer architecture "The Machine" as embedded system

At this year's Hanover Fair, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) will show IT platforms to monitor, connect and control manufacturing across company boundaries (Hall 8, Booth A07). Together with Festo Didactic, HPE demonstrates how the Industry-4.0 platform Virtual Fort Knox (VFK) analyzes manufacturing processes online and adapts them during production. HPE also presents the HPE Windpark Manager which allows 360-degree management of the wind turbines, power grids and IT systems of a wind farm from a single management console. Another focus at HPE’s booth is the creative development of new digital business models in the manufacturing industry. HPE showcases methods and services that help manufacturing companies quickly develop and test digital business concepts. Finally, HPE looks into the future of IT and manufacturing with The Machine, the reinvention of the computer for the Internet of Things.

"The technical and organizational problems of Industry 4.0 are solvable, but the real challenge is the digital shift of industry structure. This will not only reshuffle the cards in competitive markets, but change the rules of the game," says Volkhard Bregulla, Vice President Manufacturing and IoT, Hewlett Packard Enterprise EMEA. "At the Hanover Fair, we not only demonstrate how the digital factory can increase efficiency in production - we also emphasise how to develop new forms of digital value."

To achieve horizontal integration of value networks and vertical integration of production systems, HPE has developed a reference architecture that underlies inter alia the platform Virtual Fort Knox (VFK). The platform is the result of a pilot project by the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg and was established by HPE and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation. It consists of a services marketplace and services broker, an integration layer - the so-called Manufacturing Service Bus - and the software and hardware infrastructure that operates, monitors, and provides the services. A key feature of the platform is its federal character, which ensures the protection of information and intellectual property.

Use cases with Industry-4.0 platform Virtual Fort Knox (VFK)

At the Hanover Fair, three plants are connected live with the VFK via the Manufacturing Service Bus:

- The CP Factory of Festo Didactic (at the Festo booth in Hall 15, Stand D07),
- A digitally retrofitted lathe of 1958 (at the HPE booth, Hall 8, Stand A07), with which HPE demonstrates that any physical thing can be “virtualized”, connected and integrated into value networks via standard IT components, and
- A Festo robot which serves coffee to the visitors of the HPE booth, controlled via the VFK.

Manufacturing control from the cloud with the CP Factory of Festo Didactic (Festo booth, Hall 15, Stand D07)

The CP Factory (pictures) is a cyber-physical learning and research platform, which can be used to teach mechatronics and automation in a practical way. The platform includes the steps of a real production line and enables the learning of different production areas: system programming, networking, lean production, logistics, quality assurance and other content, such as energy efficiency or data management. The modules of the CP Factory at Hannover Fair communicate with the services of the VFK platform via the OPC UA protocol and the Manufacturing Service Bus. HPE and Festo Didactic demonstrate a number of applications that can also be used in production environments - for example, the optimization of production processes, such as a milling operation, based on real-time analysis and correlation of current and historical sensor data. These production processes are dynamically and automatically adjusted in the MES during production. In future expansion stages, the VFK services will access the control units of the CP-Factory modules, so that a deterministic real-time control of production based on data analysis will be possible.

PoC: Lens production at Zeiss Vision with real-time quality management and machine learning

In Hanover, HPE presents a proof of concept for spectacle lens manufacturing, developed together with Zeiss Vision. The manufacturing of spectacle lenses is a highly complex process: a spectacle lens can have up to 500 different properties, and often involves machines from different manufacturers. Real-time quality assurance during the production process, machine learning, and the digital integration of the manufacturing process are therefore decisive factors for the efficiency of lens production. In the prototype developed with Zeiss Vision, manufacturing processes and product characteristics are analyzed over multiple machine-types in real time via the VFK platform in order to optimize the production process during operation. By correlating real-time and historical data, the system detects data patterns that point to existing or emerging problems. This allows the adjustment of production to increase throughput, reduce rework, and reduce waste.

Management of the Internet of Things: HPE Windpark Manager

With the HPE Windpark Manager, HPE demonstrates an example of the management of the Internet of Things. Today, the management of wind farms is often difficult and expensive, because there is still no integrated management of wind turbine systems, power networks and IT systems. The HPE Windpark Manager integrates machinery, electricity, IT and security information across manufacturers into a unified management system. Information such as gear vibration, rotor blade angle, power delivery, IT-system parameters and security events are monitored and analyzed. The correlation of historical and current data patterns shows problems at source and therefore enables preventive maintenance. Based on this information, the operational management of the turbines can be automated. The HPE Windpark Manager increases productivity of wind farm management by reducing manual tasks and through higher efficiency in the turbine maintenance since problems are diagnosed or fixed remotely, or can be completely prevented.

Rapid Business Prototyping for digital value in the manufacturing industry

According to a recent study by Oliver Wyman, Industry 4.0 brings a global margin potential of USD$1.4 trillion by 2030 - however, that additional value arises only partly from the optimization of production. The largest margin potential lies in "partly non-production, indirect areas". The firms surveyed by Oliver Wyman stated that the biggest obstacle to the exploitation of this potential is the "lack of creativity to think beyond existing operational and business models". At Hanover Fair, HPE presents methods and services for the creative development and implementation of digital business model innovation in the manufacturing industry. They help manufacturing companies to break with the traditions and rules of their own organization and industry and to use new forms of innovation development and market introduction. These services are based on concepts such as Business Model Canvas, Design Thinking and Lean Startup. New products, services or business models are thereby tested very early in the market without large upfront investments. A company thus gets quick feedback on how the new offerings are accepted by customers, and how great its revenue and margin potential is.

Embedded Systems today and tomorrow

With HPE Edgeline, HPE presents in Hanover a recently introduced line of IoT Gateways based on standard server technology. As embedded part of machinery and equipment, the Edgeline IoT systems unify and integrate communication between machine systems and IT-based services (e.g. MES, PLM, ERP). HPEs IoT Gateways are thus a key element in the decoupling and "virtualization" of the machine data and machine control that is required for the vertical and horizontal integration of production.

With The Machine, HPE gives a view into the future of embedded systems. The Machine is the name for the largest current research and development project at HPE, which is intended to solve a core challenge of the evolving Internet of Things: The massive volume of real-time data will in future exceed the performance power of today's computers and mobile networks. With The Machine, HPE is reinventing the architecture and all essential components of the computer: memory, data transfer, chip design, operating system and databases. Thus, a complete server room with hundreds of processor cores will be reduced to the size of a tablet computer. This paves the way for, among others, highly intelligent sensors and actuators in connected manufacturing.