12 / May 2019 / ControlDesign.comlive wire
Dave Perkon
technical editor
[email protected]WITH THE REFRESHING of 8 0% of its enclosure business and
the startup of a production facility in Haiger, Germany, Rit-
tal has fully embraced Industry 4 .0 and is a world-leading
example to study in its application. In March, many value-
creation 4 .0 examples related to its digital processes, new
compact enclosures and new smart factory were presented in
Herborn/Haiger, Germany.
“Rittal’s mission is to become the market and technology
leader in industrial-enclosure-system solutions and data-cen-
ter-system solutions,” said Dr. Karl-
Ulrich Koehler, chief executive of cer
at Rittal International. “Globally we
are the market leader volume-wise,
but there is much more to innovate,
even with our own solutions. When
we innovated the state-of-the-art in-
dustrial large enclosures last year, we
didn’t wait for someone who was chasing us. We tried to lead
these things, which ts our mission.”
And lead it has. Rittal has changed 7 0-80% of its core portfo-
lio to new products. It started a few years ago with the ef cient
Blue e cooling units. Last year it introduced the VX25 large
enclosure, which had advantages with its con guration systems
and integrated digital support from the start. The large enclo-
sure was very successful with 7 0% of customers converting
from the previous TS product to its use in the rst year. Rittal
is con dent that the same thing will happen with its new AX
small enclosure line of products in mid-year 2 019.
With 1 2,000 employees worldwide in 80 international sub-
sidiaries operating with 1 ,500 patents and annual sales of more
than $2.8 billion, Rittal looks like a best-practice business model
to follow, especially related to innovation and Industry 4 .0 and
the digitalization and automation it feeds.
What’s 4 .0 all about? “It’s not value itself; it’s a very powerful
tool,” said Koehler. “Digital integration opens a sky of opportu-
nities, but don’t confuse it with the bene ts of automation, for
example, when you think in terms of productivity. Industry 4.
is a tool that opens the way for new, modern business models—
value-creation 4.0.”
We listen to customers’ needs, we write ideas for innova-
tions, and then we invest in order to get it done in a most
modern fashion.”This modern fashion is highlighted in Rittal’s new plant in
Haiger, Germany. “This new plant provides the chance to try out
a completely new way of manufacturing,” said Koehler. “It’s not
just a smart-value-chain thinking and smart-order processing,
it’s also smart products and services. We have to make sure in
our own fabrication that we demonstrate the latest state of the
art. It’s the philosophy of the company. In case of doubt, innovate
the best of what you already have in the market. It takes courage
and repower to do that. Rittal has that and invests in that.”
It’s been a huge discussion
process trying to nd out what the
bene ts of digital innovation on a
high standard of innovation are,
continued Koehler. “The new facil-
ity has the latest start-of-the-art
installation, producing the latest
start-of-the-art product, the new,
soon-to-be-released AX small enclosures,” he said.
While the automation in the plant is quite impressive with
many dozen robots and high-tech manufacturing lines, it’s
creating orders using its digital twin and other Industry 4.
techniques. The orders are pushed down to the plant oor simi-
lar to MP3 songs in a play list. The orders are played in order on
the automation, and it’s a great song.
Rittal has tools at both the engineering and fabrication
level that help the panel-builder, switch-gear manufacturer or
data-center maker. “Rittal has developed machines to improve
the ef ciency of the large-scale panel builder,” said Koehler.
Combining that with its system of products creates the most
optimal solution and saves a huge amount of time in the build
shops. The product can be made faster, more reliably and with
higher productivity while following ever-increasing industry
standards, he explained.
Many people today draw an enclosure on paper and then
in the build shop make marks on a mounting plate to mount
components or an enclosure for a knockout, continued Koehler.
“If you start ePlan Electric eCAD software, in addition to the
project planning, documentation and management of an auto-
mation project, a digital twin of the nal product is created,”
he said. “This complete data set can be exported as orders to a
machine that can cut the holes, crimp a ferrule and label the
wires and display the system wiring steps on an HMI.”Leading digitalization by example
The automation in the plant is quite
impressive with many dozen robots
and high-tech manufacturing lines.CD1905_12_LiveWire.indd 12 4/29/19 9:42 AM