The end of mass production?

I came across an old article a couple of weeks back about Toyotas history. The story about the masters of lean management, very efficient automotive production and at the side some figures from their (at that time) last year. Toyota sold 8.5 million cars that year. On average only 5 have been the same - [...]

By |2014-07-18T11:36:00+00:00June 21st, 2014|future manufacturing|Comments Off on The end of mass production?

RFID & Industry 4.0

We talked a lot of industry 4.0 theory in our recent blogs. Now we found a video (in english) which shows you industry 4.0 in action. The video explains unique codes, shows RFID steered logistics and mentions benefits of collaboration along supply chains. You can't show the overall complexity in just 5 minutes but we [...]

By |2014-07-16T21:06:23+00:00May 29th, 2014|future manufacturing|Comments Off on RFID & Industry 4.0

industry 4.0 – the big picture

In the past weeks we talked a bit about industry 4.0, cyber physical systems, smart manufacturing which all are part of the fourth industrial revolution. Generally speaking the "internet of things" will be created. Every machine, products and humans get connected. It still is a vision and experts think it will take the next 20 years [...]

By |2014-07-16T21:07:27+00:00April 12th, 2014|future manufacturing|Comments Off on industry 4.0 – the big picture

cyber-physical systems

Today I'd like to continue to talk about the future of manufacturing. In recent blogs we described what industry 4.0 means and how smart factories work. In both articles I mentioned a lot technical expressions and talked about computer chips which are responsible for the workflow or the organisation of entire supply chains. To make [...]

By |2014-07-16T21:07:52+00:00April 7th, 2014|future manufacturing|Comments Off on cyber-physical systems

smart manufacturing

In our previous blog about industry 4.0 we discussed smart factories. We got a couple of responses. Many of them where questions so we decided to bring a bit more light into the buzz word tunnel. What are we having today? Today many manufacturers produce very large quantities. Economies of scale are important is the [...]

By |2014-04-07T23:42:31+00:00March 26th, 2014|future manufacturing|Comments Off on smart manufacturing

industry 4.0

One of the "new" buzz words around is industry 4.0 - It creates some specific hype in manufacturing because the industry starts talking about smart factories. The term refers to no less then the fourth industrial revolution. As in all previous industrial revolutions experts expect an increased living standard, more efficiency and better productivity. little history [...]

By |2014-04-23T07:32:47+00:00March 24th, 2014|future manufacturing|Comments Off on industry 4.0

transformer stations for offshore renewable wind energy

From February to June 2013 we've been involved in the construction of one of the first converter platform for offshore wind energy. The project was made for Since it is a rather unusual project we've often had to explain it to clients, partners and future customers. We just came across a youtube video from a [...]

By |2014-03-12T13:28:27+00:00March 5th, 2014|renewable energy|Comments Off on transformer stations for offshore renewable wind energy

heat usage of biogas engines

In many biogas plants you do get heat as a waste product. Waste product? Yes the huge biogas engines burn the biogas to create electricity. The energy will be used locally or is injected to the national grid. Everybody who did stand next to a car engine after a hundred miles trip knows that engines [...]

By |2014-03-12T13:30:56+00:00February 4th, 2014|renewable energy|0 Comments

interconnected traffic

How many hours do you use your car per day? Half an hour, three hours, ten hours? – The rest of the time it is just parked and therefore basically in the way. How often in your live have you been angry about people parking on double yellow lines and slow down the traffic in [...]

By |2014-03-12T13:34:29+00:00October 14th, 2013|efficiency|Comments Off on interconnected traffic

the other use of parking meters

I’m sure you’ve seen the news a couple of weeks back about the latest German invention. In Bonn, the old West German capital the city council introduced parking meters for prostitutes in an attempt to tax the world’s oldest profession. The ticket will be around £5.30 per night and like real parking meters it just [...]

By |2014-03-12T13:44:28+00:00September 17th, 2013|efficiency|Comments Off on the other use of parking meters