MiTAC Builds the Foundation of Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is a high-tech project initially presented by the German government in 2011. The government invested over 200 million euros into improving the manufacturing industry’s computerization, digitization and smartization. The original intention of Industry 4.0 was not to create new technologies but to integrate the manufacturing industry’s related virtual and real systems, IoT, sales and product experience. From a macro perspective, past manufacturing industries targeted mass production, but it must fulfill the demand of customers in the future. Therefore, the objective of Industry 4.0 is to make less but with more diversity.
Industry 4.0 to lay a sound foundation
Currently, many discussions regarding Industry 4.0 still focus on new technologies, such as AR/VR, robots, big data, and AI. Regardless of the fascinating side of these new technologies, if data is not collected, these new technologies will certainly not be able to play an effective role. People tend to forget this part, or they think it is nothing more than a simple task.
Taking RFID production tracking system as an example – in early days, barcodes were heavily relied upon, and manpower was required to scan these codes, resulting in many error problems. The RFID technology can automatically collect all incoming and outgoing records without manual intervention, increasing accuracy by a wide margin. It also allows the factory to continue production with lights off while also becoming the database for capacity estimation, quality tracking or AI analysis.
However, RFID technology’s biggest challenge is how to make raw materials or semi-finished products flow through each station while accurately collecting data. As the specifications of each production machine are different, their processing tasks will also be different. MiTAC is one of the few companies in Taiwan that can solve this issue.
Over the years, MiTAC has focused on Industry 4.0 Level 0-Level 2 – areas of physical equipment, sensor and control, monitoring and integration control. The Company has accumulated extensive experience and professionalism and understands that upon the introduction of a system, aside from the technology, it is more crucial to overcome problems with flexible approaches. Through the RFID sensor, reader, antenna and various auxiliary tools specially designed by the MiTAC team, not only can difficult issues with respect to the RFID sensor technology be solved, the RFID system constructed by MiTAC has also proven to be extremely stable and durable, reducing subsequent manual maintenance.
MiTAC RFID Smart Manufacturing System
NEXCOM International, a well-known industrial computer manufacturer, has been constantly investing in the construction of Industry 4.0 over the years. MiTAC has also taken part and constructed a RFID Smart Manufacturing System that includes: material warehouse management system, production tracking management system, semi-finished and finished goods warehouse management system, tools, RFID special tooling management and RFID intelligent shelf management system. Not only has the Company successfully played an important part in the digital transformation of NEXCOM International, it has also laid a solid foundation for Industry 4.0.
MiTAC has developed factory monitoring systems, environmental control systems, automation engineering and RFID Industry 4.0 solutions. It has provided services to the semiconductor, LED, industrial computer, steel and textile industries. In recent years, MiTAC’s services have moved from outside the factory to inside the factory, from factory monitoring to production line process monitoring, mainly to accumulate a considerable degree of technology and integration experience. What remains constant is MiTAC’s focus on collecting basic data, aiming to allow other Industry 4.0 technologies to be better utilized.
With the development of 5G, there will definitely be demand for machine interconnection from future manufacturing industries. The integration of old and new machines and data standardization will be a huge challenge, and for that, MiTAC is well prepared. In August this year, MiTAC became the official agent for CIM Information Technology’s EAP2.0 (Equipment Automation Process and Process Control) / FMS (Fab Monitoring System), constructing smart solutions to win the trust of customers alongside the MiAIOT platform developed by MiTAC. The Company has become the ideal partner for the manufacturing industry when entering Industry 4.0.
