2017 Spring & GCPS Monday Luncheon

We welcome you to join us listen to Billy Bardin, Global Operations Technology Director, The Dow Chemical Company at the 2017 AIChE Spring Meeting and 13th GCPS Monday luncheon speaking on "Industry 4.0 – Challenge and Opportunity for the Chemical Industry".

*This is a ticketed event and available to bundle registrants only

Industry 4.0 – Challenge and Opportunity for the Chemical Industry

Billy Bardin, The Dow Chemical Company

Disruptive trends come whether industry is prepared to accept them or not. Today we are observing rapid increases in computing ability, application of data analytics, implementation of machine connectivity, and other platforms that are influencing the future designs of manufacturing. Manufacturing is moving from the optimization of the individual unit, plant, or production line to the optimization of the entire production eco-system.  These trends represent the 4th, and latest, manifestation of the industrial revolution, the so-called Industry 4.0.  Industry 4.0 has been defined as the growth of cyber-physical systems within the constructs of the Internet of Things (IoT), big data and ancillary capabilities. In the chemical industry, Industry 4.0 is manifesting itself in rapid advances in enterprise analytics, robotics and other key elements that could combine to create a strategy for a chemical producer and has spawned many Government-Academic-Industry consortia such as the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII), the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC), among others. This paper will reflect on the challenges that Industry 4.0 sets before the chemical industry, and then explores the Dow Chemical Company’s plans to turn these challenges into opportunities.