[Image courtesy of Bosch Rexroth]
4. Bosch Rexroth: Giving Industry 4.0 a boost
Bosch Rexroth (Charlotte) could be enabling a whole new host of Industry 4.0 capabilities in advanced manufacturing fields such as medtech, thanks to its IoT Gateway debuted at CES in Las Vegas early this year.
The IoT Gateway makes it easy for manufacturers to connect to the Internet of Things (IoT) without intervening in automation logic. The system doesn’t need software for setup, and is entirely configurable through web interfaces. The users don’t even have to learn a programming language.
Advanced manufacturing experts often point to the difficulties of getting manufacturing experts on the plant floor to work seamlessly with the information technology experts seeking to collect analytics. The IoT Gateway appears to make an end run around the problem because it doesn’t need a great deal of IT expertise to run.
Read more about the IoT Gateway.
Most of the innovations shown look like good advances. BUT the oxygen feed system shown in #7 is far more obvious than the devices available here for at least the past 20 years. So unless it offers a real benefit beyond what has existed for many years, what it provides is “not much.”
Now as to the places where innovation is done, what I have observed is that innovation happens where ever it is not discouraged very much. Some companies work diligently to prevent any innovation anywhere except in their R&D departments, while some, such as 3M and a few others, seek to reward and encourage all their employees to innovate. And some companies, while wanting and needing innovation, have embraced cultures that press deliberately at preventing everything that assists creativity.
Thanks for the insights William. It truly is amazing—the number of ways a company can kill innovation.
Also, anything else we should have included in this list?