The great promise of new connected concepts of industry like 'Industry 4.0' is their ability to deliver a historically unparalleled level of responsiveness and flexibility. While modern supply chains are already heavily integrated and designed to be fluid and fast moving, a large swathe of manufacturing still remains beholden to economies of scale, large production runs, and careful preplanning.The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is set to change this by allowing small-batch or even custom manufacturing on a truly industrial scale. With machines whose functions are not set in stone, but flexible and determined by their operating software and with a new form of connectivity bringing industrial engineers, product manufacturers, and end users closer together than ever before. Ad-hoc adjustments to automotive parts, for example, during active product runs or the bespoke manufacturing of custom sneakers become very viable options indeed.Much of this remains a theoretical vision, but IUNO, the German national reference project for IT security in Industry 4.0 demonstrates the new capabilities in action with a secure technology data marketplace running a smart drinks mixer.

McDonald’s Save the Sundae Cone campaign had a McDonald’s Sundae Cone on the digital billboard, which was slowly melting in the heat of the city. To “save” the sundae cone, the audience needed to spin a giant fan that would ‘cool’ the sundae cone and ‘un-melt’ it. They did this by spinning a mini-fan, which was accessed through their mobile device’s web browser. At the end, participants were given a voucher on their smartphone to be redeemed at a McDonald’s across the street for a free sundae cone. The realtime network needed to be able to handle hundreds of users simultaneously, and with such a large audience, 100% uptime was vital for the campaign.

In the Industry 4.0 world, Desoutter’s customers call for a higher degree of flexibility in the way they can use their products. The company looked for a solution that could bring that level of versatility within reach for every customer and help establish Desoutter’s position as an Industrial Internet frontrunner in the market.