A look at the factory of the future

By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 7/1/2000

How is the factory of the future likely to be different than that of today? Several manufacturing experts during an International Press Forum, sponsored by Siemens in late May, addressed that question.

Michael Spear of Siemens Energy and Automation said that optimization will make all the difference between then and now. While the factory of the future will be built on existing facilities, it will operate at efficiency levels not easily attained today.

Central to optimization of current processes and practices will be information technologies. Key information systems, in Spear's opinion, will be enterprise resource planning, manufacturing execution software, and individual machine control systems.

Oliver Hauck, also of Siemens, agreed. He believes that greater optimization will require many companies to concentrate on their primary core competencies while outsourcing the rest.

Companies must determine what it is that they do best and then train for that core competency, he said. Outsourcing enables firms to share management risks, lower fixed costs, and share expertise and knowledge.

Tom Newton, a plant manager for wholesale energy supplier State Line Energy predicted companies will work hard to gain a competitive advantage from three major trends.

First, globalization forces intellectual and capital investment to move to where opportunities are the greatest. Secondly, hyper-competition between companies means that any gains made are only temporary. Companies must have speed and flexibility to constantly reinvent themselves and their products. The third factor is a push to develop collaborative alliances that allow companies to share risks and rewards.