Towards Industry 5.0: digitalisation creates opportunities

Apr 28, 2023

Digital technologies improve the effectiveness and flexibility of production processes: facts and considerations taken from the third edition of the Industrial Software Forum.

Maurizio Cacciamani

After the pandemic and a forced suspension, the Industrial Software Forum finally returned to face-to-face mode, with 150 participants. Promoted by ANIE Automazione Gruppo Software Industriale and organised by Messe Frankfurt Italia at the end of November 2022, the Forum highlighted the role of digital technologies in improving the effectiveness and flexibility of production processes and in facing the today’s challenges affecting the industrial world.

Exchange for developing a strategic approach

To open the proceedings, Andrea Bianchi, Chairman of ANIE Automazione, pointed out that Anie Automazione’s aim with the Software Forum is to accompany companies towards expanded digital transformation. «In a complex and uncertain scenario like today’s, enterprises can exploit the digital transformation to evolve and lay the foundations for what is referred to as Industry 5.0». Bianchi then reminded the audience of the three main factors guiding the transformation: the centrality of people, sustainability and resilience.
In his welcome speech, Donald Wich, AD of Messe Frankfurt Italia, noted how «the Industrial Software Forum is an important occasion for exchange with regards to the digital transformation, which requires the continuous development of human capital and professional figures. We are participating in this interesting project, putting our organizational expertise at the service of training and orientation directed towards innovation and new technologies».
«The technologies, innovative approaches and know-how for moving towards digitalisation already exist», Fabio Massimo Marchetti, Vice-Chairman of ANIE Automazione and Chairman of WG Software Industriale pointed out. «Now, however, it is necessary to move from a tactical approach, limited in the short-term and aimed at more pragmatic and operational aspects, to a strategic approach, for an overall vision over the longer term.». To this end, he underlined how digitalisation generates a return on investment, even without incentives, but for which funds have, however, been poorly used with regards to software.
Alessia Rubino and Lokesh Chandrabalan (Baker Hughes Nuovo Pignone) focused on AI and quality control, illustrating the critical areas of the Additive Manufacturing system composed of 13 machines and how Artificial Intelligence is able to predict their defects, thanks to a vision system.
“MADE 4.0: software at the centre of digital transformation projects in manufacturing” was the theme of the talk of Augusto De Castro, General manager of the MADE Industry 4.0 Competence Centre. He described the organisation and services offered by the “small digital factory” which, so far, has seen the involvement of as many as 12,000 people.

Focus on processes

After the opening plenary session, the day continued with two sessions of exchange and debate, thanks to the contribution of the partner companies. In the morning, the “Digital and Industry - Focus on processes” Panel Discussion involved, as the keynote speaker Giovanni Miragliotta, Associate professor and Senior Director of the Digital Innovation Observatories, School of Management, Milan Polytechnic, and was moderated by Simone Cerroni, journalist of Class CNBC. The panel included: Duilio Perna (Managing Director Beckhoff Automation); Enrico Fossati (Director of Business Development EMEA Engineering - Ingegneria Informatica – Industries eXcellence Global); Giancarlo Carlucci (Ecostruxure Plant Marketing Manager - Schneider Electric); Giulio Folgarait (Digital Manufacturing Business Development Manager - Siemens Industry Software); Michele Ugatti (CEO Techsol), and Fabio Massimo Marchetti (Head of Digital Industries - Var Group).

In his introductory address, Giovanni Miragliotta wished to highlight not only the “imposed” aspect of digitalisation, essential for being competitive, but also the danger faced in the long-term. Today, after a number of years’ experience, best practices are available which everyone can follow in order to digitalise successfully; over time, however, the use of the same technologies and the same services on the part of the vast majority of companies will generate a flattening of the market, in which the difference between the various competitors will tend to disappear. One of the new objectives that anyone dealing with digitalisation has to set for themselves is to construct year-after-year elements of differentiation in order to make the products/services as original as possible.
Many interesting points emerged in the various contributions: the lack of specialised personnel, especially with regards to cybersecurity which is in constant expansion; the importance of the digital twin; IT/OT integration; data management (collection, reliability, analysis and security) which originate from various sectors, such as the factory, logistics, planning, etc.; edge computing, which makes it possible to introduce new services such as pay-for-use, thanks to distributed intelligence, and to capitalise the installed base; the use of cloud, an acceleration factor for small companies; communication between machines and between different systems using open technologies; analysis of business expertise and organization; artificial intelligence supporting quality control; how digitalization helps sustainability.

Intelligent products and IT security

The “Digital and Industry - Intelligent products and IT security” Panel Discussion in the afternoon was introduced by Admiral Andrea Billet (Director of Certification and Supervision Service - National Cybersecurity Agency).

Billet explained that while, on the one hand, digitally integrated infrastructures (IT+OT) improve efficiency, on the other hand, they increase risks. Unfortunately, security has a cost that small and medium enterprises find it difficult to sustain. The Agency has set up projects and established strategic objectives, from a medium and long-term perspective, aimed at the creation of a security ecosystem (also for new 5G technologies) and a network in the territories for training technicians. Other important activities are the certification of technical solutions and services and the drawing up of sustainable standards which promote the overall competitiveness of the “Country System”. «The priorities - Billet concluded - are logistics, transport and infrastructures». Again coordinated by Simone Cerroni, the panel discussion highlighted the proposals and experiences of Matteo Uva (Director of Alliance & Business Development di Fortinet), Paolo Quaglino (Account manager and IIoT Expert of Ixon Cloud), Roberto Motta (Business Development Lead Network and Security Services of Rockwell Automation), Alberto Brera (Country Manager di Stormshield) and Aldo Caraceto (Senior Application Engineer of The MathWorks).
It immediately emerged from the debate how the IT sector is used to facing security problems (antiviruses are 25 years old!) while OT is almost completely unguarded in the face of remote machines, being an easy target for hackers whose attacks increased in Italy by 13% in 2021 against 2020.
It is a good thing that IT best practices can be used in OT, simplifying the procedures. Before proceeding, it is essential to properly analyse the systems in OT before continuing in small steps, starting from the single machine. It is very important to check the robustness of the code of each machine, turning, perhaps, to external companies which are able to give support with various cybersecurity activities, such as, for example, compliance with the new European NIS2 standard.
Bearing in mind that absolute security does not exist and that an attack will arrive sooner or later, it is necessary to be able to limit damage as far as possible by working systematically on SW and HW updates.
Other suggestions: protect data with separation boxes for the various networks, use digital twins to simulate also security, organize notifications so that the machine/system is constantly monitored. Final but very important recommendations: systematic training of the personnel responsible for security, maximum attention on managing the relationships between IT and OT which have different and contrasting objectives. For IT, it’s the storage of data which is essential, to the detriment of the continuity of the service, while for OT it is the exact opposite. All the participants concluded that good security requires strategic projects, not products!