Industry 4.0: The smart factory arrives

The plants that produce automotive systems and vehicles are increasingly employing intelligent systems, Big Data and advanced analytics to improve quality, safety and efficiency.

A new “data-driven” manufacturing facility that Faurecia opened in Columbus, IN, in October 2016 embodies perfectly the premise and promise of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT): a smart environment that gathers vast amounts of information, seamlessly intermingles automated robotic vehicles with humans and ultimately ushers in the end of “dirty jobs.” The 400,000-ft² (37,160-m²), $64 million state-of-the-art plant will employ 450 people and produce a new, advanced emissions-control product for the commercial vehicle industry.

One of those employees will be a full-time, on-site mathematician whose sole purpose is to help mine the terabytes of data being generated daily at the factory, cull insights and forecast issues before they occur. This job illustrates the shifting nature of the manufacturing landscape, according to Dave DeGraaf, president of Faurecia Emissions Control Technologies North America-to one that is clean, technologically advanced and proactive, and aimed at attracting employees with different and advanced skillsets.