CAYIN Technology Co., Ltd. today announced the release of SMP-8000, its newest addition to the next-gen SMP-NEO digital signage player series. This versatile digital signage player tailored for 4-display video walls was introduced at InfoComm MEA 2015 showcasing a dynamic information center.By integrating the revolutionary software, SMP-NEO, hardware, and diversified digital signage solutions, the SMP-8000 shows promises to enrich the Ultra HD experience. It provides the solutions for users with various needs in different industries, including retail, service industry, education and government institutions, and more. In addition, this compact player also has the ability to simply transform displays into video walls, permitting the possibility to build multi-displays on a budget.Signal distribution methods can be omitted when creating video walls with SMP-8000, as the latest model has 4 built-in display outputs, allowing flexible display modes such as 4x1 or 2x2. Unlike traditional signal distribution box, which significantly decreases signal strength and resolution, each output of the player supports Full HD display resolution, and up to 4K if in Single display mode to present crystal clear images to audiences.SMP-8000 went under development when CAYIN first noticed the shift in the OOH media market. In the past, video wall was widely utilized in bigger chains with higher investment budgets. However, small businesses were often overlooked when considering multi-display digital signage solutions. With limited space and store front, small businesses couldn't afford putting up a conventional video wall, which costs more money and space. Therefore, CAYIN began developing compact video wall solutions suitable for smaller businesses, and thus, the SMP-8000 was born.To learn more about the 4-display-video-wall player, SMP-8000, please go to CAYIN's website.http://www.cayintech.com/digital_signage_products/digital_signage_player_SMP-8000.htmlCAYIN Technology launches video wall digital signage player, SMP-8000, bundled with the most intuitive managing UI, SMP-NEO, on the market.

Entegris, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTG), a leader in yield-enhancing materials and solutions for highly advanced manufacturing environments, has expanded its wafer shipper family of products with the SmartStack 300 mm Contactless Horizontal Wafer Shipper (HWS). The SmartStack 300 mm is the industry's first contactless horizontal wafer shipper capable of holding a full lot of 25 wafers, almost twice the capacity of competitive wafer shippers. Entegris' design departs from traditional interleaf inserts and foam cushions by using a perimeter support ring to contain wafers inside. The wafers are positioned so that they move in unison, preventing wafer-to-wafer contact and potential damage from impact."We designed an ideal solution for shipping and storing 25-lens bumped or thin wafers that offers improved safety over conventional wafer shippers," said Entegris Product Marketing Manager, Doug Moser. "By placing the wafers on rings and removing the interleaf inserts and foam cushions, the wafers are protected from stains, imprints and scratches typically caused by these inserts. Additionally, the new design accommodates 25 wafers in one shipper, thereby increasing shipping density and lowering shipping cost 50% or more, compared with a conventional FOSB."The SmartStack 300 mm is designed to accommodate wafers of varied thickness (150 µm to 1100 µm), for a variety of applications including 3D, 2.5D, SoC, MEMS, LED and power semiconductors. The new design is also available in the 150 mm and 200 mm size. The automation-compatible features of the 300 mm HWS enable ease-of-use and limit manual intervention.For more information about the SmartStack 300 mm Horizontal Wafer Shipper and other wafer handling systems, go to http://www.entegris.com/.New shipper solution provides greater protection and increased capacity.

Global electronic components distributor Digi-Key Electronics, the industry leader in electronic component selection, availability and delivery, is announcing they will soon be shipping its 50 millionth package in the history of the company.Customers can watch the counter (http://www.digikey.com/en/resources/events/50-millionth-package) on its homepage in anticipation of the 50,000,000 mark, which should occur within the next few weeks. To celebrate this exciting milestone, the company will be recognizing key customers in regions all over the world who have partnered with Digi-Key to make their business grow.For over 40 years the company has been serving and enabling design engineers and the maker community well before "makers" was a key industry term. The company continues to adapt to the evolving needs of engineers in order to help drive innovation in the tech marketplace.For more information and access to Digi-Key's broad product offering is available at http://www.digikey.com/.

Kilopass Technology, Inc., the leading provider of semiconductor embedded non-volatile memory (eNVM) intellectual property (IP), will unveil at ARM TechCon its new eNVM, the X2Bit bitcell, delivering 10X power reduction compared to currently available eNVM technologies.The patent-pending X2Bit bitcell has been silicon proven since Q2 2015, and its use in the macro-level Gusto product line will be optimized for extremely low-power Internet of Things (IoT) devices in Q1 2016.Kilopass has pioneered the antifuse One-Time-Programmable (OTP) eNVM technologies since 2001, including all variants of 1 transistor (1T), 1.5T, 2T, 3T, and 3.5T versions. A new programming method for its most popular bitcell topology, the 2T bitcell, yielded the 10X improvement in lower power consumption."The X2Bit bitcell is a very exciting innovation, and somewhat unexpected in my long career in the non-volatile memory industry," remarks Harry Luan, Kilopass' chief technology officer. "The tenfold improvement is obviously important for the emerging IoT market. But to achieve it without having to change any bitcell architecture, topology, or layout means we can go right to the market and deliver the benefits to our licensees without years of field trial and validation. It's truly remarkable."The X2Bit bitcell technologyThe X2Bit bitcell retains the configuration of the existing bitcell in the current XPM, Gusto-2, and SecretCode OTP products. However, using a patented new programming method, the new bitcell achieves a much lower turn-on voltage, the voltage at which the "1" memory bitcell generates current to distinguish itself from the "0" bitcell. For example, in the 55nm technology, popular for IoT devices, traditional Kilopass OTP bitcells have a typical turn-on voltage of more than 1V. With the X2Bit bitcell, the turn-on voltage that is much lower than 1V. As a result, Kilopass products employing the X2Bit bitcell would operate with core voltage supplies as low as 0.75V that are used in the emerging Ultra-Low-Power (ULP) process technologies from semiconductor manufacturers."We are excited about the potential of the X2Bit bitcell memory bitcell," says Linh Hong, vice president of marketing at Kilopass. "The X2Bit bitcell technology is a quantum step forward in the development of antifuse NVM IP in the standard logic process. We believe it's the next natural step to deliver the relentless cost, power, performance and integration improvements the industry demands."Implementation benefitsThe X2Bit bitcell is ideally suited for next-generation IoT devices that demand less than 10uA/MHz in read currents. Currently available eNVM technologies typically consume 100uA/MHz under comparable operating conditions. The X2Bit bitcell lowers the turn-on voltage by optimizing the programming condition. This patent-pending implementation results in a more ohmic programming of the N-MOS transistor with controlled locality toward the source, drain region rather than in the middle of the channel.Benefits are twofold. First, since power consumption is directly proportional to the square of operating voltage, lowering the read voltage by two-thirds would result in tenfold power reduction. Equally important, with lower turn-on voltage, the memory macro would be able to operate at the same operating voltage as the rest of the chip, without resorting to power consuming charge pumps and voltage regulators.AvailabilityKilopass has completed the mini-array test vehicle of the X2Bit bitcell in a 65nm manufacturing process technology. The first product, likely the next-generation Gusto, using the X2Bit bitcell will tape-out in Q1, 2016. Pricing is available upon request. For more information about taking advantage of the X2Bit bitcell, contact info@kilopass.com.Kilopass at ARM TechConKilopass will exhibit at ARM TechCon (Booth #827), demonstrating the X2Bit bitcell Wednesday, November 11, and Thursday, November 12, from 11 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, Calif.For more information, visit http://www.kilopass.com/ or email info@kilopass.com

SCHURTER expands its wide range of current compensated chokes with high current types for PCB mounting. The new DKIH series are available for single and three phase applications with rated currents from 10 to 50 amperes. Due to its open design, the chokes are light weight and compact, ideally designed to suppress EMI noise caused by power applications on the PCB.Like all other aspects of electronic design, the power portion is oftentimes built today using discrete components on printed circuit boards. With the trending integration of components, to achieve smaller and smaller form factors, thermal problems and high currents on the PCB can arise. It also becomes increasingly challenging to meet EMC requirements with a filter package due to the resulting space constraints; therefore a filter on PCB with discrete components is a good solution. Next, the capacitors and a common mode choke, with asymmetrical effective inductance, are very effective to dampen EMI noise.The new DKIH-1 series is suitable for single phase AC or DC applications from 10 up to 50 amperes. Light weight and compact, the common mode chokes are easily placed on the PCB with through hole technology (THT). They are designed and approved according IEC 60938, UL 1283 and CSA 22.2 no. 8. The voltage rating is 300 VAC (IEC, UL) and 250 VAC (CSA).The new DKIH-3 series is suitable for three phase AC applications from 10 up to 50 amperes. The common mode chokes are also designed according IEC 60938 and are rated 600 VAC, making them suitable for many applications.The DKIH-1 and -3 have a wide temperature range of -40 to +100 degrees C. They are available with a standard pin out or customer specific pin out. Variations in the winding are also available on request.Common mode chokes for 1- and 3-phase applications mount on PCB

ThroughTek, IoT platform solutions provider, today announced that the Kalay Platform has exceeded 100 million device connections per month. The Kalay Platform has quadrupled in number to currently support over 7 million connected devices. In the next year, ThroughTek expects the Kalay Platform to grow at an extraordinary rate as the smart home and surveillance markets continue to expand.The Kalay Platform is currently leading in its multimedia applications among IoT platform service providers. According to a report ThroughTek commissioned research firm YouGov to poll, home security is the most popular purchase motivation; one in three consumers would elect to spend money on IoT devices that monitor home safety. Kalay VSaaS (Video Surveillance as a Service) cloud module enabling live streaming and video recording capabilities up to 60 seconds for enhanced security at an affordable cost. While VSaaS provides an end-to-end video solution, the application can also extend to home automation with data intelligence for monitoring usage behavior and detection of anomalous events to deliver alerts with event captures.ThroughTek, a member of the AllSeen Alliance, is also currently integrating a set of service applications to the AllJoyn framework, with delivery of video streaming among connected devices being one of the top priorities in advancing smart home and surveillance solution. Working with AllJoyn-enabled devices, cross-industries can greatly benefit from the combination of multimedia applications with other cloud services including push notifications, automation, device management and data analytics to help businesses achieve greater control and access to end points."Members such as ThroughTek, which joined us in Seattle last week for our AllSeen Alliance Summit, are a lifeline for innovation for us," said Philip DesAutels, senior director of IoT, Linux Foundation. "This is great milestone achievement for the Kalay Platform, and we're pleased the company continues to actively contribute its multimedia and video streaming expertise to the AllJoyn framework, helping to improve home automation and surveillance solutions.""We have been working closely with AllSeen members in developing strategic services to optimize product experiences across company lines and industries. By creating a standardized set of APIs to enable multimedia data transmission between AllJoyn devices, as well as other applications, we are potentially changing the nature of communication and interaction between users and devices," said Yuping Tseng, Chief Technology Officer, ThroughTek.The Kalay Platform provides turnkey IoT solutions with SDK integration for businesses to deploy connected devices, while providing comprehensive cloud services that engage and enhance the user experience. With a flexible pick and choose model, technology brands can customize IoT ecosystems with a set of cloud services that are built to meet business needs and provide feature-rich products to stay ahead of the competition.For more information, please visit ThroughTek website: http://www.throughtek.com/

AVEXIR Technologies Corp., the world's leading manufacturer in exclusive patented breathing LED & plasma tube technology memory products, today announced two ASUS ROG certified memory products - IMPACT series & Red Tesla series.Undoubtedly, the brand of Republic of Gamers (ROG), founded by ASUS, has become legendary among gamers and enthusiasts worldwide for its performance & ultimate computing experience. It released many computer components, including motherboards, graphics cards, keyboards and etc. except memory products.Therefore, ASUS ROG launched certification program, "Together, We're stronger", only to qualified partners. As a pioneer of high end memory manufacturer, Avexir is one of the ROG certified partners, and IMPACT series& Red Tesla series are designed to work perfectly with products from ROG. Also, those memory products have undergone extensive testing and validation by ROG engineers, and only the very best succeed. Double assurances of quality and performance from ASUS ROG and Avexir, double values for purchasing.Now, Avexir is proudly to announce two certified memory products:IMPACT seriesIMPACT series retained the well-known breathing LED light effect design and added Mayan-inspired markings on heat spreaders, exactly presenting ROG feature and spirit. Being low height, IMPACT series has no clearances issues with CPU coolers. It gives you a fitting design at remarkable performance. Moreover, IMPACT series utilized the latest LED light guide bar and released Red LED color only to perfectly match ASUS ROG spirit.Red Tesla seriesRed Tesla series is re-designed from Raiden series. To perfectly express the core spirit of ROG, plasma tube lighting effect has changed to red color lighting effect. Also, heat spreaders design is based on black/ red color with Mayan-inspired markings.Both products above are high performance DDR4 gaming memory modules. They are built for your confidence which passed 16 hand-picked AIST (Avexir Ic Sorting Technology) processes. Specification of speed is from 2666MHz. Exclusive OC function with ROG motherboards, enabling automatically and enjoying the blazing speed without any moves, just simply plug and play. Moreover, they contain lifetime warranty.ASUS ROG certified memory product- IMPACT series & Red Tesla series

Established for 346 years, Merck is one of the oldest, and yet most innovative technology company in the world. This is a result of its long-term growth, continuous expansion, and constant changes. In order to reflect its current new position, Merck has launched a new branding system, which was inspired by the multiple forms of chemical molecules under optical and electron microscopic observation. The new branding look brings a vivid, colorful and splendid style of how Merck intends to shape the future.Right after the rebranding campaign, Merck held the "Display Insight 2015" just in time to showcase the new changes in the company. The most obvious one is the use of the name "Display Insight" instead of "LC Insight" for the seminar. This years' Display Insight, which took place at Sheraton Hsinchu Hotel on October 27th 2015, is renamed to deliver a clear message. Through mergers and acquisitions, including AZ Electronics Materials and Qlight Nanotech Ltd., an Israeli quantum materials company in the past years, Merck has acquired cutting edge technologies to provide a comprehensive product portfolio to its display customers and to expand with new technologies outside of liquid crystals.By exploiting these new technologies, Merck aims to sustain its leadership in the display materials industry. Through broadened product portfolios and further technological advancements, Merck implemented customer-centered business model to help customers to achieve differentiation in the market and sustain their outstanding performance.Before the event of Display Insight 2015, DIGITIMES interviewed Dr. Sang-Kyu Lee, R&D Head of Merck Display Technologies. He highlighted new display technologies like UB-FFS, a newly introduced liquid crystal material, next generation low-K dialectic material Siloxane, as well as Merck's quantum material "Q-Rod", which helps improve color impression and energy efficiency of display devices. At the seminar, Dr. Lee also introduced liquid crystals for beyond display applications to expand the usage of display materials to the industrial partners and event participants.UB-FFS dedicated for 4K Smartphone display and further applicationsUB-FFS (Ultra Bright Fringe Field Switching) is Merck's newly developed liquid crystal materials particularly for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. This technology has recently won 2 prestigious prizes, including the 2015 German Innovation Award and Display Component of the Year Gold Award of SID (Society for Information Display). UB-FFS provides higher light transmittance, better image resolution and consumes less energy, which is very important especially for higher end smartphones.Dr. Lee was the development team leader of UB-FFS and has made important contributions to this technology. He joined Merck in 2005, after he received the PhD degree in University of Bonn, Germany. Dr. Lee worked for Merck's R&D department as his first job until now and he never left Merck ever since. In the summer of 2015, he was offered the position to lead Taiwan Display Materials R&D team, where he intend to help customers adopt the latest technology, including UB-FFS liquid crystal material. He explained in detail the many advantages that UB-FFS can bring to display makers. .First of all, mobile devices rely on battery power to perform its functions; therefore, extending battery life is critical for smartphones. All mobile display materials need to feature power saving scheme equipped with very low voltage driving capability. Taking 4K resolution smartphone LCD panel as an example, there are four times of image pixels squeezing into the same square inches of panel area. The aperture ratio of display panel drops dramatically and leaves challenges of display materials. The strength of high light transmitting ratio of UB-FFS overcomes these issues, and at the same time, saves immense power consumption.Meanwhile, the higher display transmissions smartphone panels enabled by UB-FFS technology allow greater design freedom for product developers. Devices now can be made slimmer because of the possibility of using thinner batteries. Alternatively, designers can opt for a longer battery life because less backlighting source will be required for display panels. Using UB-FFS materials also leads to cost reduction for manufacturers and hence benefits for consumers.Secondly, another important feature of UB-FFS is dynamic frequency driving capability. Smartphone or tablet users view static pictures or web pages more than video clips. The capability to give alternative display frequency options can benefit a great deal of extra energy saving. If display frequency of panel reduced from 60Hz to 30Hz, even aggressively in 10Hz, the display panel will save energy for 30% than normal display conditions, according to experimental records tested in the laboratory. This is one of the bestselling points for all smartphones or tablets of global brands, and it is also the reason why UB-FFS has successfully achieved high market penetration rate in the world. You can easily discover the global brands in United States, Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan to launch flagship smartphones that leverage the strength of UB-FFS technologies.Low-K material Siloxane plays the key roles in 8K display panelThe next generation LC display will be a triumph in taking resolution to the 8K level. There are several technology challenges when squeezing smaller pixels into different panel sizes. The impact of lower aperture ratio of display caused by higher resolution can be overcome by higher light transmittance from liquid crystal material. But the effect can be further enhanced with Merck's functional dielectric material "Siloxane". Siloxane materials provide low-K and high optical transparency features suited for process having superior planarization and gap filling properties on uneven surface. Using Siloxane materials reduces the resistance−capacitance (RC) delay and signal interference in the high resolution display panels. This will enhance panel's aperture ratio and increase the energy efficiency to save power.Siloxane has many astonished features including high temperature resistant up to 350�J, and high UV resistant, which enable to go through the advanced manufacturing process. Siloxane will be the most competitive material especially in 8K panel manufacturing process. It can significantly improve image quality and energy efficiency for 8K display panel.Quantum Rod depicts the future of display panel materialsQuantum Rod (Q-Rod) is nano-grade semiconductor crystal materials. Since 2007, Merck started to develop this technology with Qlight Nanotech, a former Israeli company which Merck acquired in July 2015. Unlike the conventional quantum material that are dotted shaped, Merck created its material in rod-shaped and calls it Q-Rod. The materials offer the features to absorb incoming light of short wavelengths (usually deep blue light) and emit colors at longer wavelengths (green and red color) with very narrow bandwidths. Q-rod materials can be used in the backlight units of liquid crystal displays to increase light throughput, extend the color range, and provide stronger, more natural greens and reds.Q-Rod materials provide a similar color conversion mechanism and extend colorgamut like spherical quantum dots. Their unique advantage is that they emit polarized light and allow an even higher light throughput through the polarizer, which results in remarkable brightness improvement for display panel. In addition, its impressive power saving features can drastically extends battery life in mobile devices. Due to their special physical properties, Q-Rod materials also enable the development of future display technologies and modes.Beyond Display continuing the efforts to develop innovationThe demonstration of Beyond Display is always the most eye-catching for visitors. Through the events of Merck's LC 2021 initiatives to different technology forums, Smart Window (Liquid Crystal Window) is one of the key fields that Merck tries to expand its display technology.Focusing on continuous driver of technology and innovation for display materials in fields beyond displays, Merck is exploring new business fields outside of classic displays. By making different use of liquid crystal materials and working with product designers and industrial experts, smart products such as Smart Window, Smart Antenna, Smart Lighting applications are developed to enhance people's lifestyle with technologies. ."There are more emerging applications that are becoming more popular than before", Dr. Lee highlighted. "For the headlight design of Europe luxury cars, display materials can also be used to enable Smart Lighting to enhance safe driving and road traffic safety with automatic brightness adjustment when two passing cars are facing each other." Other applications include naked eyes 3D holography for implementing genuine 3D technology using holography that is increasingly used at gaming solution providers and education markets."As a market leader", Dr. Lee insisted," Merck will keep focusing on the development of display materials by investing in technology research and acquisition." With continuing material innovations, Merck has been playing the active role to serve the industries. In the event of Display Insight 2015, with a wide range of product portfolios to be showcased, Merck will present to participants and partners to witness its latest display materials and technologies.Merck's new branding image in front of its Innovation Center at the headquarter in GermanyDr. Sang-Kyu Lee, R&D Head of Merck Display Technologies

Indium Corporation announces the release of its newest informational video detailing the benefits of using low-temperature solder alloy systems based on indium and bismuth.This brief video features the company's Indium and Bismuth Product Manager, Carol Gowans, as she explains to electronics manufacturing expert Phil Zarrow, President and Principal Consultant for ITM Consulting, the properties and applications of indium and bismuth."Both alloy systems, indium and bismuth, offer significant and distinct advantages based on the manufacturing process needs," Gowans said. "These alloys are available in numerous forms from paste to ribbon to wire to preforms."This video can be found at www.indium.com/blog/phil-zarrow.Gowans has more than 30 years of experience in sales and product management, focusing on emerging markets and technologies. Covering a variety of markets, including medical, aerospace, and electronics manufacturing, her goal is to identify the requirements of each target market and to select the right tools (including products, technical support, etc.) to meet those requirements. Gowans has authored papers on Solder Fortification and improving solder joint reliability with the use of solder preforms. She also authors a blog on engineered solders, which can be found at www.indium.com/blog/carol-gowans.Zarrow has been involved with PCB fabrication and assembly for more than 35 years. In addition to his background in automated assembly and cleaning, Zarrow is recognized for his expertise in surface mount reflow soldering technology, and in the design and implementation of SMT placement equipment and reflow soldering systems. His extensive hands-on experience also includes set-up and troubleshooting through-hole, and SMT processes throughout the world.For more information about Indium Corporation, visit www.indium.com or email abrown@indium.com.

Strictly speaking, Industry 4.0 isn't just about automated production, which can only increase production efficiency and quality but can't let you enjoy the full benefits. In order to realize the vision of smart production, you will need further integration of digitized information, supported by big data analytics applications.Industry 4.0 is currently a hot topic, and it seems like everyone in the manufacturing industry is talking about it. However, if you look at most of the players in Taiwan's manufacturing industry, the degree of automation at their production lines is still low. Many manufacturing facilities still require manual labor when handling materials between different machines as well as inserting materials for production. For these types of companies, in order to achieve Industry 4.0, they will first need to build sensor technologies as well as connectivity capabilities into their production equipment. Then, they will need to build seamless production environments by designing efficient traffic routes and integrating the work flows at their factories. Even after accomplishing all of these, they will not have achieved Industry 4.0 yet."By achieving automated production manufacturers will only have achieved about 40 to 50% of what it takes to reach the ultimate goal of Industry 4.0," explains Brian Shen, president of Tatung System Technologies Inc. (tsti). The next critical milestone would be to digitize their information and upload the status of their equipment, production information, as well as logistics data into the cloud. Then, they need to integrate all of the data and information with their manufacturing execution system (MES) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, allowing the status at the manufacturing end to be analyzed and monitored in real time. The entire production process – the sourcing of supplies, the feeding of materials to the machines, the manufacturing and the delivery of the finished products – will be closely monitored with measures taken quickly when necessary. By achieving these, the manufacturer will have achieved 60 to 70% of what is required to achieve Industry 4.0.Achieving Industry 4.0 through Integration and Analysis of InformationIn order to achieve the last mile to Industry 4.0, manufacturers will need to build a big data platform into their ERP systems for conducting advanced analyses, making decisions and feeding the results back to the front end. For example, if the system discovers (through analyses) signs of potential changes (such as a shortage of materials or delivery delays), it will issue an alert via the indicator lights on the front-end instrument's panel and at the same time notify procurement personnel to make emergency material purchases. The system may also notify sales personnel to provide updated delivery schedules to the customer. Once these visions are realized, the manufacturer will have fully achieved the goal of Industry 4.0 smart manufacturing.Therefore, if we view building smart production capabilities into individual machines as a starting point for achieving Industry 4.0, we would subsequently need to achieve full-factory automation, integration of information and communication, and implementation of big data analytics. This is a long process involving both operational and information technologies. In today's market, only a very limited number of service providers are able to provide integration of all the aspects beginning from lower-level onsite production facility monitoring to higher-level data collecting and analysis. If this situation persists, it will surely be an obstacle to Taiwan's manufacturing industry on their road to Industry 4.0.Because of this, tsti began actively building a strong foundation in this area in 2014. Through mergers and acquisitions as well as internal assistance from its own SCADA team, tsti has vertically integrated the upper and lower level services ranging from PLC to BC (block controller), SCADA, MES, and ERP. In addition, services from OSI's PI analytics software, Microsoft's APS system, or HP's Vertica system can also be integrated, achieving a diverse scope of big data analytics in order to fully meet the requirements of Industry 4.0 and provide information integration services for smart manufacturing.Increase gross profit by closely monitoring production process according to ordersBrian Shen points out that even before Industry 4.0 began attracting so much attention, many manufacturers in Taiwan had already been putting considerable efforts into establishing automated production. By doing this, they were able to successfully enhance quality as well as efficiency. However, this did not allow them to solve the problem of low profits. Clearly, regardless of how fast or how well you are able to produce "me-too" products, your sales still won't take off. In order to overcome this predicament, you must achieve customized production and prevent inventory from accumulating, which would help increase gross profits. However, a sudden switch to low-volume high-diversity production could result in chaos in the production line. Only through the adoption of information digitization can these problems be solved.Through information digitization, upper-level information and communication systems as well as data analytics will be able to control production schedules, material deliveries from suppliers, production volumes and delivery schedules according to the specifications of the orders, thereby ensuring that all production resources are used effectively and all production requirements are met in an orderly yet flexible manner.In addition, through information digitization, stability of the production line can be guaranteed and downtime prevented, Brian Shen further explains. For example: CNC cutting tools need to be replaced periodically due to wear; in addition, after motors or cooling water pumps operate for over a year, they need to be inspected and repaired. In the past, due to a lack of detection capabilities (sensors), repairs would only be carried out after equipment failure or malfunction. This results in system downtime, which could reduce utilization rates and create considerable losses. Once IoT technologies are adopted, we will be able to conduct timely maintenance or repairs when the system shows signs of anomalies but has yet to completely fail. This avoids potential downtimes and losses.In this scenario, SCADA can be used to collect information of power characteristics, temperatures, humidity levels, CO2 levels, weights and others, which is then fed into the PI software for analysis of the conditions of the various equipment in order to detect any potential issues and fix them before any major problems develop.Tatung System Technologies President Brian Shen stresses Industry 4.0 can be truly achieved only by adopting connected sensors at the bottom level, implementing smart production, full-factory automation, information digitization, and back-end big data analytics.