Think about the moment when a machine is connected to a Manufacturing Execution System (MES). As many of you already know, this is one of the key steps in any Industry 4.0 strategy, because it is through the MES that all the production data required for monitoring and analysis flows.
Yet, a process that should be straightforward precisely because it is so fundamental has turned out to be anything but.
Since we decided to replace our MES, connecting our machines to the new platform has proven far more complex than expected, despite the fact that every machine in our shop floor was already connected to the previous system.
What has become increasingly apparent is the limited level of cooperation from machine manufacturers and distributors alike, even though enabling this type of connectivity should ultimately enhance the value of their own equipment.
Why this happens, we honestly do not know.
The broader context is fairly clear. The tax incentives introduced under Italy’s Industry 4.0 Plan were designed around a five-year timeframe, and now that this period is coming to an end, a scenario that, in hindsight, was somewhat predictable is beginning to emerge. In many companies, the incentives were effectively treated as little more than a discount on the purchase of new machinery, while key aspects such as machine connectivity, production data collection and data analysis were never considered real priorities.
Companies that, like MICROingranaggi, have chosen to continue their digital transformation journey and are now trying to fully leverage those investments are encountering a number of unexpected obstacles.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect is the attitude of machine manufacturers and importers—even well-established brands—which, in our opinion, are not providing customers with the level of support they should. As a result, companies are often forced to rely entirely on their own internal resources. For small and medium-sized enterprises, however, having those resources readily available is far from guaranteed.
The fact that it is taking several months to connect machines to our new MES—even though those same machines were already connected to the previous one—is certainly thought-provoking.
Of course, we are dealing with software, and there is no such thing as a universal “Industry 4.0-ready” configuration that works seamlessly with every MES. Each platform has its own architecture, collects data from different sources, and relies on different communication protocols. Even so, we simply did not experience this level of complexity with our previous MES. This time, machine connectivity has become the real bottleneck. And we are talking about modern machine tools capable of performing tasks that are technologically far more sophisticated than exchanging production data.
Is this a matter of insufficient expertise? Perhaps. Or is it simply a way of introducing additional costs?
The fact remains that connecting a machine that is already Industry 4.0 compliant—and already connected to another MES—now requires an investment of several thousand euros.
Yet an Industry 4.0 machine should, by definition, make it possible to identify where production signals are available and allow users to manage the interface with little or no external assistance.
Of course, if the project required adding sensors or external hardware, that would be a different matter. But that is not the case here, since the machines are already equipped with PLCs capable of supporting widely adopted industrial communication protocols.
