Ask for challenges in production and wholesale and you will get the answer "find and retain staff". You can cover a machine with safety stickers, assemble instruction screens, give introductory courses and upgrade hand scanners, but if the motivation is lacking, the result is limited or even lost.

Scanners, Shop Floor Control and continuous learning are aspects of Industry 4.0. But people are the core. Even with the best hand scanner it goes wrong if mistakes are made. But why do people make mistakes? How can you respond to this? Are warnings, for example, ignored due to unwillingness, due to a lack of time or is there another reason? 

Industry 4.0 translates problems into solutions by looking at it from a different angle. Going one step further with existing resources as much as possible. Take CCD cameras as an example. They are mounted at a conveyor belt to measure fill levels or detect deviations. They are mounted at the ceiling to keep an eye on who is walking in and out, with or without movement detection. Suppose we combine these two options, what can we achieve?

Microsoft gave an example of a company that uses cameras to monitor risk zones in the workplace. If someone places a pallet or a reach truck in a place where it does not belong, a signal is sent to the safety adviser. He can intervene directly and in a targeted manner. Result: a potentially dangerous situation is resolved so quickly that the perpetrator can be reminded of the safety instructions on site.

This is an example in which camera surveillance and real-time image analysis (cognitive recognition) are combined. The safety advisor can work better and faster by thinking out of the box. The shop floor is being watched more closely, safety is on the rise and time remains to arrange other matters. That is what Industry 4.0 is all about. Achieve more as much as possible with existing resources.

The afternoon brainstorming sessions were the highlight of the customer day. In smaller groups, those present could lay down problems and jointly think about solutions. Shared issues such as quality control when goods were received, a multitude of hardware and software solutions in the organization and product tracing in the warehouse came to the surface.

Recognizable scenarios and potentially interesting solutions came from one day of brainstorming and thinking. Thanks to the efforts of TechData and the hospitality of Microsoft, we were inspired by an innovative environment. Moreover, theory and practice also met directly in the Experience Center. The first question from the audience: "Nice, such a remote repair, but who is liable? The person who wears the Hololens or the person who controls it?"