Do you know the term “automation”? This English term is now used by engineers not as a translation of automation, but to add an algorithmic dimension. Automation is software-enhanced automation. Repetition, commonly associated with industrial assembly lines, is no longer systematic in automation: this was the subject of a roundtable organized on March 26, 2024 at the Global Industrial Exhibition in collaboration with Sciences and the future – research. You can see this exchange again in the video below.
“Automation hell”, an expression tweeted by Elon Musk
The title of this round table referred to “automation hell”, “a phrase tweeted by Elon Musk in 2017 when he invested too much in software and was unable to make a Tesla Model 3”, recalled Luc Leroy, President and CEO of Vitesse Automation; the former director of automation at Tesla worked to integrate the Autopilot automated driving program into vehicles designed by the famous electric car maker.
“No optimization without data”
Automation arises from the digitization of the industrial process, from the digitization of all data involved in the production chain. “Automation is the opening of Industry 4.0explained François Portier, director of the Industry 4.0 research program at Alten, who specifies that if it ever becomes “hell” it is when the digitization of the production unit recedes “trend” rather than a true industrial necessity.
The question is not to lose sight of the challenge of this digitization: “It must allow us to predict”move industry “from curative to preventive regime”continued François Portier. “No optimization without data”Luc Leroy added: “It is absolutely necessary to be able to measure the performance of tools, processes, employees, know where to invest and gain strength.”
The place of humans in the system was debated: are these data-driven factories purely and simply delivered to the machine? “A factory without people is a nightmare. On the contrary, the big lesson of Industry 4.0 is that people must be the focus!assured Pascal Laurin, Director of Industry 4.0 at Bosch Rexroth France. “Technology must serve people, not the other way aroundhe continued it is essential that people do not suffer from technology.” This way of seeing gave birth to a new concept,“industry 4.0, to which we add a strong dimension of CSR (corporate social responsibility, editor’s note)” explained Pascal Laurin and what we call industry… 5.0!