On June 8, MOXA progressed a seminar, ‘MOXA Industry 4.0 Solution Day,’ with a theme of ‘Industry 4.0’ at COEX, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea. After the seminar in 2014, at the second Solution Day seminar based on ‘Industry 4.0’ and ‘smart factory,’ business trends, tasks, applications for construction, and applicable solutions related to MOXA are introduced.

Currently, in most of the existing IT systems, engineering itself is not fully integrated, and close connections between company and supplier and between customers were difficult in many cases. In generation of Industry 4.0, by developing data integration network and being possible of implementing automated smart value chain that integrates the general process, a company, department, function and capability are expected to have a bigger cohesiveness. Also, the aspect of connectivity with industrial IoT is pointed out as the most significant factor in realizing the vision of Industry 4.0.

MOXA solution provides ‘connectivity’ among devices for implementing Industry 4.0. Especially in connection, MOXA provides connection solution, which integrates legacy equipment and serial-based protocols to IP-based IoT environment, and various means of connection to both wired and wireless. Being implemented through this, a smart factory is introduced that it reduces energy and increases productivity so that companies have higher competitiveness.



Changhan Son, advisor of MOXA, introduced about MOXA that it has more than 25 years of experience in automation industry and it is in the position of the first place for serial connection and the third place for Ethernet infra. He emphasized that the head office is located in Taiwan and the U.S., and it considers R&D significant as 35% of sales are invested in R&D. For implementation of Industry 4.0, mission-critical connection solution that links device such as edge-connectivity to service and cloud is mentioned as a main solution.

Suhyeong Lee, doctor of ETRI, introduced Industry 4.0 and a trend of smart factory. First, he pointed out that although it still seems to be preparing task force organization in the group level to Industry 4.0 at big businesses, but small businesses cannot meet the flow, so, in the future, as the movement is global, it should prepare for this. Moreover, compared to Industry 3.0, he introduced that Industry 4.0 became completely new by integrating IoT in comparison with the model through PLC.

Industry 4.0 came to the fore as rapid change of environment that surrounds manufacturing industry. As representative changes of market, tertiarization of manufacture, diversification and individualization of consumer requirements, faster product release cycle and competition of value chain are mentioned. In manufacture environment, flexible and efficient production system, and in aspect of technology, CPS and IoT are introduced as the major elements. Based on information, Industry 4.0 can construct manufacture system that can connect and handle conditions of all the value chains and customer requirements, so a big paradigm change is expected.


As movements related to Industry 4.0, the advance of CPS(Cyber Physical Systems)-ization in all the industry domains is pointed out. Completely different results are made by integrating physical elements such as equipment and cyber elements such as communication, control, and computing, which enables to recognize the situation with analyzing data, and it meets requirements of each customer. Also, throughout the society and manufacture, an innovative change that includes products, service and organization across all of the stages, is created.

Smart factory of Industry 4.0 contains information needed for manufacturing, so it responds to various individualized requirements and provides flexible production system, which enables autonomous process change according to the condition of factory or product requirements. In addition, it is introduced that Industry 4.0 responds to real-time change in all the value chains and the real-time change is possible based on the customer’s order. For its classic examples, smart factory of Siemens or value chain of Zara, which is a fashion industry, are mentioned.

Meanwhile, the U.S., Japan, China as well as Korea, all countries of the world are pushing forward political movements corresponding to ‘Industry 4.0’. ETRI is performing tasks such as smart factory interworking middleware, which is for production system that has increased control scale according to the extension of IoT, interlocking modeling or simulation technology for virtualization of manufacture equipment. Moreover, in the future interlocking structure of production system, rather than the existing layered structure, each element will be scattered, connected as needed and automated with a base of CPS. It will be eventually connected and integrated in a large area, so its form will be changed to interoperability form.


Edward Lu, business development manager of MOXA, introduced about ‘connection,’ which is a core of Industry 4.0, that connected smart product is consisted of physical parts, smart parts such as sensor, processor, and connection parts, and after going through monitor, control, and optimization, it will go to the stage that has autonomy. In addition, he expected that, among all of the IoT areas, the biggest investment would be made in smart factory. As the main applications, optimization of operation, prediction of maintenance, and optimization of inventory are mentioned.

The big reason why companies cannot easily embark on smart factory although it has many advantages is a lack of confidence about absence of interoperability standard, security, effect and cost recovery of investment. In construction of smart factory, a concern about integration with the existing legacy device is pointed out as a significant consideration. About these points, MOXA emphasized that it can overcome ‘entry barrier’ to smart factory through its solutions.

In aspect of interoperability between each element that constitutes smart factory, it is introduced that a common language is needed at the general system and infra, which reaches from a single sensor to ERP. Moreover, in aspect of the connection, MOXA suggested ‘V-on’ technology, which provides high reliability with fast recovery at the level of ms in disturbance situations, as a solution of a connection to video part that requires high reliability. Also, it suggested a structure using industrial gateway as a solution of connections among various devices in industrial site and protocol conversion.


Reference architecture of Industrial Internet Consortium is divided into edge, platform and enterprise tier. MOXA’s solution provides a connection between device and gateway in edge layer and a connection to platform tier of gateway. In security part, by emphasizing that a number of security problems occur by inside forces, MOXA introduced a three-stage protection layer concept through VPN and industrial firewall for responding to the general threat.

As a concern about security threat from industrial automation becomes realized, a security related standard such as ISA/IEC 62433 or NERC CIP V5 from electric power industry had appeared to respond to the concern. Among them, IEC 62433 prepares regulations across the general ecosystem; regulations about suppliers such as components, control system, SI, etc. and regulations about users. MOXA is providing an installation wizard for environment configuration and an event alarm system for management as well as observing security regulations related to components, and it added that a view for the general management would be in the fourth quarter.

Connecting the existing legacy equipment to a new system is pointed out as a part that has a chance as big as not connecting 85% of equipment yet. Of course, in connections between legacy equipment, they are not always easy due to the presence of sensor, the use of older serial interface, or compatibility problems of protocol. Therefore, MOXA introduced that it provides connectivity, which enables data based application by connecting legacy equipment to wired/wireless IP based network with various product lines.


Sunghan Kim, director of MOXA, introduced about application for smart factory construction. First, he presented that connection of ‘legacy’ equipment is one of the important tasks in the recent smart factory implementation, and 85% of legacy equipment is not connected yet, so requirements about it are constantly being brought up. He added that, as reasons of a switch to smart factory, that 20% of energy reduction is possible through recent technology and that the aspect of production improvement is possible are largely considered.

As tasks that should be solved in implementing smart factory, three things are introduced. The first thing is ‘data integration,’ and it contains integration of different systems and protocols. Secondly, ‘data transmission’ includes protection of important information and supply of wired/wireless connection environment that can respond to a variety of realistic environment when transmitting data. Lastly, ‘data management’ is a part for effectively collecting data, analyzing or performing management.

In aspect of data integration, MOXA introduced that it has solutions of edge computer and gateway for a response to different protocols and connections of edges. In aspect of data transmission, it has solutions such as wired/wireless connection solution, computer with cellular communication, industrial Ethernet, wireless switch, router, etc. In aspect of data management, it has solutions such as MX studio that provides functions of management, data log, network and configuration problem solving.


As an example of smart factory configuration for energy reduction, VFD(Variable Frequency Drive) related is introduced. All over the world, since 60% of device that uses power uses motor, 20% of energy reduction expected to be achieved through improvement of motor control efficiency. Energy reduction is possible with more efficiency control through PLC and sensor integration. Especially, it is introduced that raising sensor data to datacenter through IOLogic, and improving energy efficiency and motor control by controlling a motor with PLC.

It would be able to perform implementation in aspect of reduction and power monitory by collecting and analyzing data before the problem occurs, so that it can predict and respond to the problem and finally it can prevent a problem. Moreover, monitoring of the general power infra could be implemented by using gateway in the connections between these infras.

In production optimization, the aspect of combination of CNC and DNC is introduced. Currently, 600,000 CNC equipments are sold every year, and the efficiency is expected to improve by connecting it to DNC. The existing CNC is connected to RS-232 serial, but now, one DNC PC has performance of managing several CNCs. At the same time, when using NPort product to that for Ethernet-serial conversion, it can control CNC by easily connecting to both wired and wireless.

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