HARTING’s Smart Factory "HARTING Integrated Industry 4 You" (HAII4YOU) provides a comprehensive implementation of solutions. This facility demonstrates total vertical integration – from the customer to the versatile production of a product – using the example of a modular Han^® connector. Starting with configuring and ordering in a Web shop, the further processing within SAP and production take place fully automatically. So the customer can assign their own identification (e.g. item number) to a connector.

Distributing production in production cells

The HAII4You factory is special because it distributes production throughout three production cells. These have their own controllers and are controlled by special flowcharts which are assigned to the product as product memory. The activities in each production cell are carried out by one KUKA lightweight robot, which can also be used for human-robot collaboration (HRC).

An innovative circulating belt is used to transport materials between the cells. The product is identified within a production cell using HARTING RFID technology based on HARTING’s MICA^® Edge Computing System.

Remote service using the digital twin

Nowadays, anyone who designs a machine also creates a virtual image of the machine in parallel. PerFact, the newest member of the MICA.network, has developed a digital twin of HAII4You which will be presented at the trade fair stand. When used together with the PerFact MPA (Meeting Point Architecture) solution, the MICA^® is the core of the digital twin. Here, the MICA^® provides the perfect foundation for safely constructing a remote connection to the machine. Machine data are recorded and displayed clearly. Condition-based and proactive maintenance can be controlled centrally using the maintenance manager. The digital twin enables an ideal maintenance situation. Thus, an on-site technician and a specialist (connected via the internet) can access this same data.