Industry 4.0 | AllAboutLean.com

KUKA FAMULUS Turns 50—The First Modern Industrial Robot

Christoph Roser — Tue, 16 May 2023 11:00:45 +0000

Fifty years ago, the FAMULUS industrial robot was introduced by the German machine tool maker KUKA. This articulate-arm kinematics industrial robot with six axes was the first of many modern industrial robots. This design is nowadays still the most common type of industrial robot. Pre-industrial Robots The idea of machines doing manual labor is quite ... Read more

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The Van of Nerds in France—Trains and Cars

Christoph Roser — Tue, 27 Dec 2022 11:00:41 +0000

In this post I would like to talk about two other plants that we visited as part of the Van of Nerds in France. One is a railway repair and maintenance plant by SNCF, and the other is a body shop and final assembly by the well-known French car maker Renault. Both offered interesting insights. ... Read more

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The Van of Nerds in France—Internal Logistics in Well Exploration and Military Products

Christoph Roser — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 11:00:39 +0000

This post looks at two plants we visited during our Van of Nerds tour in France in 2022. Both plants are in areas in which I have little experience. The first one was SLB, specializing in sensors for oil field exploration. The second one was the Thales Group, where we visited the location manufacturing military ... Read more

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The Van of Nerds in France—Aircraft Engines and Parts

Christoph Roser — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 11:00:36 +0000

This post looks at more plants we visited on our Van of Nerds tour in France in 2022. The focus this time is the aircraft industry, in particularly the engines. We visited a major maker of aircraft engines, or their nacelles and thrust reversers to be more precise, Safran in Le Havre. But we also ... Read more

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The Van of Nerds in France—Research Laboratories

Christoph Roser — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 11:00:32 +0000

As part of our Van of Nerds tour through France, we also visited two research laboratories. While not shop floors, these are the places to experiment with new technologies. Campus Fab, Bondoufle The Campus Fab in Bondoufle near Paris is an innovative demonstration lab with lots of fancy technology to showcase Industry 4.0, including advanced ... Read more

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The Van of Nerds in France—Overview and Aircrafts

Christoph Roser — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 11:00:31 +0000

In 2019 I organized an Industry 4.0 tour through southern Germany for a few friends. We called this the “Van of Nerds,” and you can read all about it in a series of blog posts starting here. The participants liked the van trip so much that we wanted to repeat this experience… and then came ... Read more

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The Modern Way to Buy Screws

Christoph Roser — Tue, 24 May 2022 11:00:54 +0000

Screws, or more generally fasteners, are a main staple in most industries. Recently I visited a factory and saw a nice way to automate the procurement of screws and other fasteners. This Industry 4.0 solution is part of a vendor-managed inventory (VMI), where you not only buy the screw, but also the service of always ... Read more

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The Problem of Industry 4.0: Data! – Part 2

Christoph Roser — Tue, 17 May 2022 11:00:48 +0000

In my last post I started to look at the difficulties of handling data in Industry 4.0. I looked especially at the complexity and the often underestimated problem of merging data from different sources or machines. This second post of this two-post series finishes up this topic and will look at the also important and ... Read more

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