Cost to implement Industry 4.0 ?
One of the most common questions about #Industry40 aka #SmartManufacturing is
Q: How much does it cost to implement Industry 4.0?
A: Well, there is no clear answer. But I try to provide some pointers. Various cost heads to be considered
- Connectivity – new hardware, sensors, PLC upgrades, licenses etc.
- Edge infrastructure – edge gateways, network, firewalls etc.
- Cloud infrastructure
- Solution licensing
- Supporting software licenses, if any
- Solution provider’s services
- Internal costs
I would elaborate a little bit on Internal Costs. Industry 4.0 implementation needs fair amount of investment from the industry in terms of cross functional team that drives the project. This includes defining specs, working with partner on solutioning, FAT, project management etc. Most important is championing the system to users, securing their acceptance, hand holding them and ensuring sustained usage. Then there are training costs for users.
With all this, how to keep the costs down? Based on our experience of helping several manufacturing companies, we always advise to do the implementation in phases – pick up a small process or part of the workflow. Make minimal investment, learn from the experience, see the ROI, and then proceed with larger and wider implementations.