Managing industrial environment with Robotic

A good friend of mine was telling me recently about a trip to Europe where he got to visit a manufacturing tissue plant that had managed to successfully implement a large portion of the concepts we have been discussing in class over the past few weeks.
The integrator for most of this technology was a company called Elettric80. Fanuc Robots were operating most of the equipment and LGV (Laser Guided Vehicle) were doing everything from feeding the material to emptying the production line and loading the trailers. With the help of sophisticated logistics software and integrated industrial wireless system, a small group of maintenance employees could oversee the whole process from a centralized control room. The motors, drives and conveyor system were all interconnected through Profibus and Profinet high speed where real time changes could be done to either slow down or speed up a line. The robots were simply amazing; just like the LGV, they were programmed to become smarter and communicate to each other to optimize production. If one line was operating better than the other one, the LGV and other robots would give priority on the production to them so they would not have to slow down. The LGV were even setup to change their batteries when needed.
Commands were given to the LGV to either ship finished goods material or store it in racking systems; inventory controls were all done via RFID and most of the internal communication within the plant was VOIP. I could not believe that this one company had managed to successfully implement all this technology, but it made me realize as future managers the importance of information system and what it can do to make us better and more competitive. The importance of understanding information systems has always been important, but today it could make the difference between surviving in what has become a very fierce competitive market. I would invite you to take a look at their website and have a quick look at those videos; it’s like taking a visit in the future!