I am a scientist, and I try to understand how the world works, particularly in my field of manufacturing and lean production. (I also try to teach others about this, e.g., through this blog.) Hence, in this post I will look at different equations used in lean. Somehow, there are not that many…
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(EN) Asking Man—Machine—Material—Method… and Then Some… for the Toyota Practical Problem Solving
In my last post, I looked at the questions What—When—Where—Why—Who—How… and Then Some… for the Toyota Practical Problem Solving. In this post I will look into another, similar structure that could also be used, namely Man—Machine—Material—Method, again with quite a few possible expansions and alternatives. This can be used both to structure the problem (i.e., a root cause analysis) or to break down the problem into smaller, more manageable pieces.
(EN) The Van of Nerds in France—Research Laboratories
As part of our Van of Nerds tour through France, we also visited two research laboratories. While not shop floors, these are the places to experiment with new technologies.
(EN) The Van of Nerds in France—Overview and Aircrafts
In 2019 I organized an Industry 4.0 tour through southern Germany for a few friends. We called this the „Van of Nerds,“ and you can read all about it in a series of blog posts starting here. The participants liked the van trip so much that we wanted to repeat this experience… and then came COVID. We held two online Van of Nerds mini-conferences (organized by our Nerd Torbjörn Netland), and finally, on September 5–9, 2022, we were able to take another real-world tour with our van of nerds, this time in France. The tour was organized thanks to nerds Franck Vermet and Michel Baudin.
Künstliche Intelligenz in der Fertigung: Hype oder hilfreich?
Es gibt einen großen Hype um alles, was mit Computern in der Fertigung zu tun hat. Ich habe bereits einige kritische Artikel zum Thema Industrie 4.0 geschrieben. Dieser Beitrag befasst sich eingehender mit der künstlichen Intelligenz (KI). Es gibt mögliche Anwendungen von KI in der Fertigung , aber im Moment sind diese noch selten. In diesem Beitrag möchte ich ein wenig über den Hype sprechen, aber auch ein paar Beispiele vorstellen, wo es tatsächlich funktioniert. Lassen Sie es mich Ihnen zeigen:
(EN) Industry 4.0 Tour in Germany – A Van Full of Nerds – Presentations and Tryouts
To round up our tour of a van full of nerds to study Industry 4.0 in Germany, here is the report on different presentations and tryouts. These were not plant visits, but different demonstrations by some smaller and one not-so-small (Bosch) companies. The first four were at the Arena 2036, a research collaboration to explore the future of the automobile. The other three were at the respective companies locations. Also quite insightful.
(EN) Industry 4.0 Tour in Germany – A Van Full of Nerds – Kärcher and Siemens
As part of our van full of nerds tour through southern Germany to study Industry 4.0, we also visited two companies, Kärcher and Siemens. Siemens is probably well known to all of you. We went to their Amberg plant where they make programmable logic controllers. Kärcher is a smaller company that makes pressure washers and industrial cleaning machines. Let me show you what we found.
(EN) Industry 4.0 Tour in Germany – A Van Full of Nerds – Overview and Audi
In 2019 
I organized a non-commercial Industry 4.0 tour for some friends through my university, the Karlsruhe University of Applied Science. For the first week in July 2019, we rented a van and toured southern Germany. We visited fourteen different locations in five days to understand the current state of Industry 4.0 in Germany. Almost all of these locations were Industry 4.0 award-winning enterprises. However, our assessment of Industry 4.0 often differed from these awards. Since we all come from the lean corner, we often have a different outlook on things than people who specialize in Industry 4.0. Let me give you an overview of our tour: