Industry 4.0 and Business Models for Manufacturing Companies

What is Industry 4.0? It is a very new concept that originated in 2013 when the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology joined forces to fund an industrial upgrading concept that was developed under the advice and promotion of German academia and industry, including the German Academy of Engineering, the Fraunhofer Society and Siemens. The "Industry 4.0 Cooperation" was announced after the third round of government consultations between China and Germany.

The "Industry 4.0" concept encompasses a fundamental paradigm shift from centralized to decentralized and enhanced control, with the goal of establishing a highly flexible production model for individualized and digitalized products and services. In this model, traditional industry boundaries will disappear and new areas of activity and forms of cooperation will emerge. The process of creating new value is changing and the division of labor in the industry chain will be reorganized. 

According to German academia and industry, the concept of "Industry 4.0" is the fourth industrial revolution, or revolutionary production method, led by smart manufacturing. The strategy aims to transform the manufacturing industry into an intelligent one by making full use of a combination of information and communication technologies and the Cyber-Physical System, a virtual system in cyberspace.

The "Industry 4.0" project is divided into three main themes.

The first is "Smart Factory", which focuses on intelligent production systems and processes, as well as the realization of networked and distributed production facilities.

The second is "Smart Production", which focuses on production and logistics management, human-machine interaction and the application of 3D technology in industrial production processes throughout the enterprise. The program will pay special attention to attracting the participation of SMEs, trying to make them become the users and beneficiaries of the new generation of intelligent production technology, as well as the creators and suppliers of advanced industrial production technology.

Thirdly, "Smart Logistics", mainly through the Internet, Internet of Things and logistics network, integrates logistics resources and gives full play to the efficiency of the existing logistics resources supply side, while the demand side, on the other hand, can quickly obtain service matching and logistics support.

For manufacturing enterprises, in the era of Industry 4.0, business model is crucial for manufacturing industry. We can boldly predict that in the future, manufacturing enterprises will not only sell hardware, but also provide after-sales service and other follow-up services to obtain more added value, which is soft manufacturing. The system with "information" function becomes the new core of hardware products, which means that personalized demand and batch customization will become the trend. Manufacturing entrepreneurs should add as much value as possible in the manufacturing process, expand more and richer services, propose better and more complete solutions to meet the personalized needs of consumers, and take the road of soft manufacturing + personalized customization.

After more than 20 years of development, the global industrial automation industry has made great progress, and the output has been maintained at an annual growth rate of more than 20%, which also shows that the industrial automation market demand has great potential. Especially with the rapid rise of workers' wage level, industrial automation enterprises at home and abroad are facing increasing cost pressure. For domestic industrial automation enterprises, the appreciation of RMB has repeatedly weakened the low-cost advantage of manufacturing industry. Therefore, if enterprises want to stand firm and gain a long-term foothold, they must have a clear plan for the development of products and services.

According to the analysis and research of automation products and services market, Microcyber's industrial communication product line is planned according to the product strategy of "general-purpose products as the main focus, supplemented by large OEM customers", and the general-purpose products are divided into engineering application products and embedded OEM products, while Microcyber will also provide industrial communication-related communication At the same time, we will also provide multi-faceted services such as communication, testing, R&D consulting and R&D training related to industrial communication.

In addition to providing services related to industrial automation products, Microcyber will not only be a useful supplement to the business of industrial communication products, but more importantly, it can show the company's technical ability and advantages in industrial communication, which will play a good effect on the brand promotion and product promotion of the company.

1.Pre-testing service

Many users do not have the corresponding test platform, Microcyber can use the special test platform purchased by itself to provide pre-testing service for these users, and at the same time help users analyze and solve the problems arising from the test.

2.Development Consulting Service

Microcyber provides development consulting service for some manufacturers who have the ability to develop products with industrial communication interface by themselves, providing consulting service including program design, hardware and software design and development process, so that users can save development time and improve development efficiency. Development consulting service can also be provided together with development boards, development kits and embedded communication modules. 

3.Development Training Service

Microcyber provides development training services for different fieldbus to enable users' R&D personnel to quickly master the development technology of industrial communication interfaces. The development training service includes both paid and free services, which can provide users with different levels of paid training, including entry-level, professional and expert level, and can also be provided as a package with related products. The free service mainly provides introductory product development, which can be combined with industry associations and can play a good propaganda effect.