OPC UA should become the global language of production. Does the NPE have an influence beyond the American market?
Anderson: It certainly has. Over time, NPE has developed into a major international platform. The relocation of the trade fair to Orlando in Florida also contributes to the fact that many Latin Americans visit the trade fair. We are expecting visitors from 110 countries. And we are estimating that around 30 percent of all visitors will come from outside the United States.
Kühmann: The increased importance of the NPE is extremely helpful for us. It is exactly the right place to present and publicize OPC UA to a large community. We have representatives from all over the world there. If you have such an international audience in one place, you can address international topics all the better. You can summarize it like this: The international production language meets the international community at a major trade fair like the NPE.
Your mission is to highlight the benefits of OPC UA for the users, the plastics processing companies. Can you give some practical examples?
Kühmann: A manufacturing company that owns several injection molding machines from different manufacturers can operate them uniformly via one control system with an OPC UA interface. This makes the production process more efficient, and the connection of new machines requires significantly less implementation effort. As an industry, we are facing fundamental changes worldwide that we have to deal with. Energy consumption must be reduced, as must CO2 emissions. We have to use materials efficiently and sparingly and we need cost-effective production. All of this requires very precise system control. The first step towards this is always well-coordinated communication in the system and the handling of control data. OPC UA provides the basis for all of this.
OPC UA also helps in dealing with the important question that Glenn raised at the beginning: the shortage of skilled workers. There is a worldwide shortage of qualified young people. But if you are supplying high-precision machines and cutting-edge technology and there is a shortage of people who can control these systems, then you need digitalization to simplify the system and make it work. OPC UA makes this possible.