OML , launched just over a year ago, is now growing teeth. The upcoming live public demo of an IoT connected line using OML at the Fraunhofer “Future Packaging” event at the SMT Nuremberg show in May is already generating a great deal of attention. With the use of any new technology that connects two or more parties, there has to be a “critical mass” of adoption from the industry in order to get from the infancy stage, to something more grown-up. This is exactly where we are now for OML.
It is great to see that something that was previously seen as not being possible has been turned into something that is now available for all. Talking has been turned into reality. With the group of companies involved in the Fraunhofer “Future Packaging” line, even from the start, there was only optimism, albeit with a side-order of disbelief at the potential of what was being proposed. It seemed too good to be true that not only could there be a single normalized language specification that all machines on the shop-floor could use, but, all of that information could also be utilized by each of the machines as well. Suddenly, the business model comes alive, and this is in fact the creator of the critical mass we are seeing.
Creating value for the customer is a fundamental element of successful business. Sometimes this takes the form of creating additional value within an existing product so as to increase the competitiveness. In other cases, where the additional value becomes very significant, and perhaps not necessarily needed by all customers, then an added-value addition to the product line is created to provide the value opportunity to the customer. The free and open, vendor independent availability of data using OML brings value creation opportunity to each and every machine vendor, completely under their own control. In addition to seeing the expected live dashboards and reporting, whether on screens or mobile devices, this is the message that will be taken away by the industry at the Fraunhofer “Future Packaging” event at SMT Nuremberg this year.
It is also great to see that in response to the build-up for the event, companies that are not part of this year’s Fraunhofer presentation are also requesting nonetheless to be a part of the IoT “action” this year. There is plenty of opportunity for OML community members to get on board to show their Smart Industry 4.0 intentions with OML at the SMT Nuremberg in May, with time then to put ideas into practice for the Productronica show in Munich in November. Many more companies can come on board to show their customers that they are truly a part of the new IoT, Smart Factory and Industry 4.0 digital manufacturing world. With membership of the OML community now well over 600 companies, things are beginning to happen fast. We do encourage everyone to get on board and be a part of it, by contacting us at Mentor, the community forum, submitting ideas, sharing experiences. The world wants to know and is not hanging around to wait. The digital manufacturing revolution, driven in no small part by OML, is happening this year, with mass adoption of the technology in electronics manufacturing. This is what we trained for….
