SIEMENS

Exactly 100 years ago, in 1913, Henry Ford introduced assembly-line production for the manufacture of Model T cars. This reduced the price of the “tin Lizzie” by almost 60 percent and laid the foundation for the mass production of automobiles. By doing so, Ford sounded the death knell for a tradition that had lasted thousands of years. Until his innovation came along, whenever people had made things, those objects were uniquely shaped by the skills of a craftsperson or artist. But once the production of the 15 million units of the Model T had begun, that tradition was over. Manufactured products became interchangeable. A sentence that is often quoted in this context was written by Henry Ford himself in his autobiography. In the chapter called the “The Secret of Production,” he wrote: “Any customer can have a car painted any color he wants so long as it is black.” Most of the cars produced by Ford at that time were available only in black.

In today’s era of automated mass production, such limitations no longer exist. If we consider all of the colors and types of special equipment that are available today, customers shopping for cars can choose from millions of variants. Nonetheless, the contradiction between productivity and flexibility still exists; in fact, it seems almost impossible to resolve. If we want to address customers’ individual wishes as flexibly as we can, it’s difficult to have an extremely efficient and economical production process. In view of this, what might the future of production look like? This is the overarching theme of one section of this issue of Pictures of the Future (“Manufacturing and innovation”). That’s because today we are facing a new transformation of production processes. In Germany this development is connected with the Industry 4.0 initiative; in other countries, the concept of “advanced manufacturing” is used. Both of these concepts refer to the next generation of production processes, which are based on a smart combination of software with sensors, processors, and communications technology in order to link the digital, virtual, and real worlds of production.

The goal is to use information technology to seamlessly link the value chain all the way from design and product development to the actual production process, maintenance, and service. Siemens will be an important pioneer in these flexible production processes, thanks to its leadership in automation technology and related software solutions in areas such as product lifecycle management.

A number of projects, including some conducted with manufacturers such as Ford, are already yielding considerable increases in efficiency. Costs, as well as the use of resources and energy, are being reduced, while quality is increasing. And this development is going even further. It ranges from vehicles designed in a worldwide “co-creation” process by thousands of enthusiasts to additive manufacturing. In the latter process, Siemens researchers are using lasers to weld metal powder into highly complex workpieces. The process, which is directly controlled by computer data, is ideal for the production of replacement parts on site – or on demand, so to speak – among other items.

Efficiency is the central theme of this issue of Pictures of the Future. In the section titled “Maximizing Efficiency”, the focus is not only on production but also on how power plants can increase their output through modernization and how power grids and cities can be designed to be more sustainable. The section “Where Mobility Is Going” looks at the efficiency of transportation systems that operate on water, land, and in the air. The topics dealt with in this section range from electrically operated ships and buses to the question of how innovative traffic systems and smart telematics services can improve mobility within cities. After all, even the best and most individualized vehicles aren’t very useful if they’re stuck in a traffic jam.