Imagine you are an account manager. You visit a printer and get an order for 500 tons of magazine grade that is due in 2 months with a basis weight of 34 lb./3000 ft2, glossy finish, and high tensile strength. This grade is called "LSS" (Light Shiny Strong). The printer creates a PDF file of a purchase order for 500 tons of LSS and emails it to your sales department. In a couple of days someone in the sales department gets to this email and manually enters the order in an Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP). A week later the corporate supply chain director has the weekly meeting and looks over all orders in ERP to determine how all the orders will be delivered. There are 5 mills that can make LSS. It is decided that since mill #4 already has a production run of LSS scheduled and does not have any time critical orders afterward that this order can be added to that run to avoid an unnecessary grade change and meet the delivery date. The supply chain group sends an email to the mill #4 manager with all the new orders. The mill manager tells the production supervisor (or order execution group) to enter the new LSS order in the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) as an extension of the existing LSS run. The following week the paper machine superintendent looks in the MES and sees that the next schedule grade is LSS and tells the lead operator to start making LSS after the next reel is turned up. After turnup the operator uses an automated grade change in the DCS that quickly gets the basis weight to 34 and produces LSS that meets all specifications. After the prior order is completed the machine continues to make 200 more tons for your order for the printer. Then the fan pump fails and the DCS automatically sends alarms and shuts down the machine. When the problem is identified, replacement parts are ordered while the mill manager looks at the due date in the MES system and calls the supply chain director to express concern regarding meeting schedule. The supply chain director calls the mill managers at the other 4 mills and decides that trying to upset their production schedules will cause too many other problems and headaches, so the COO tells #4 mill manager to hurry up. When the fan pump is fixed the machine starts up, but production efficiency is low because of an epidemic of sheet breaks. You get a very unwelcome call from the printer on the due date saying they have not received the 500 tons of LSS, and don't expect any future orders.
What I have just described is Industry 3.0. The ability to automatically change grades and shutdown did not exist in Industry 2.0. This was enabled by the application of computer technology to provide a platform for interlocks, alarms, advanced controls, and many other features that made industry safer and more efficient.
What I also described are obvious inefficiencies that inflated costs and resulted in lost future revenue. I described an open loop ERP.
The closed loop ERP is the end of the rainbow for Industry 4.0. The promise of Industry 4.0 is the enterprise that is fully connected from the plant floor to the top of the enterprise with real time data used for automated processes. We are a very long way away from this and without careful engineering it can be dangerous, but if your competitors leave you in their dust you may be unable to compete and out of business.
I will now retell the story with the Industry 4.0 closed loop ERP.
You visit a printer and get an order for 500 tons of LSS that is due in 2 months. You provide the credentials for the client to submit a purchase order in your ERP from a webpage. The ERP is connected to the MES systems at all 5 mills and automatically schedules an extension of the LSS production run at mill #4. When the prior grade completes the MES automatically initiates the grade change. The fan pump will not fail because it has been continually monitored with machine learning, so predictive maintenance was performed a month ago. However, a major snowstorm is expected to hit in 2 days so if you wait to ship the order when it is complete it will be late. ERP tells mill #4 MES to suspend production and looks at the other 5 mills. Mill #2 is equidistant from the client but will not get hit with the storm, and has a very high operational efficiency with non-time-critical production schedule so it can interrupt the schedule to make LSS on time. ERP schedules mill #4 MES to ship 200 tons of LSS to your client, end the production run of LSS at mill #4, and schedules a high priority LSS run of 300 tons in the mill #2 MES. Your client gets both shipments ahead of schedule and tells you they are ready to place their next order.
Do you want closed loop ERP?
