Can you tell us why Burkert is at Foodpro this year?
We are here at Foodpro 2017 and it is perfectly lined up for Burkert, as we launched our brand new pneumatic air line filled devices capable of being direct head mounted or mounted directly in the field with high IP rating. It offers to the customer minimised processors, increased reliability and thanks to a wide range of field options, with advanced diagnostics, two line LCD display and built in advanced controls it really lines up perfectly to meet the objectives of the customer for Industry 4.0.
What advice would you give to companies who haven’t adapted to technologies like Burkert?
For the customer it's really important that they start from somewhere, that they start small and start now, the issues for the customer is that if they don’t start now, and if they don’t start somewhere, they really risk getting left behind.
And the whole idea behind Industry 4.0 really brings to the customer is the opportunity to increase the margins and as a result of that increase the competitiveness. So our message is start small and start from somewhere and start now.
What are some of the human factors you have seen emerging since the introduction of Industry 4.0?
There have been a number of reports from the media, that we read about robotics and automation and least number of employees required. It is not actually accurate. The reality is that jobs will look different in the future (rather than as we know it now), yes, there will be less employees required and some of those roles might be very manual oriented but the reality is there will be new roles required, it is about upscaling, its about a different type of role and the pitch will look a little different from what it is today, but people will still be needed.
