Bill Kushner, Global Product Director, MicroCare Corporation

Looking back we can say that 2019 was the year when the industry realized the importance of connectivity as the foundation to achieve Industry 4.0.

I expect that 2020 will be the year when many companies clarify their strategies to achieve these higher levels of connectivity. New industry standards will be part of this equation, but other factors such as legacy equipment and existing software interfaces must be considered to come up with a viable plan.

At the end of the day Industry 4.0 will not be achieved by a single vendor, a single system or a single protocol. The underlying connectivity and data collection technology must be open enough to deal with the installed base and to deal with an uncertain future. The only certainty is that technology will continue to change at an ever increasing rate and manufacturers need to avoid getting boxed in and keep their options open.

At Cogiscan, in collaboration with our strategic partners, we will continue our pragmatic approach to connect different machines and software systems to enable Industry 4.0 today.