Page 55 - July-August-2017

55

An Interview with

André Wissenberg

Vice President - Oerlikon
Manmade Fibers segment,
Germany

Oerlikon is a leading global technology Group Operation Center?
providing market leading technologies and services. André Wissenberg: Another topic in terms of industry
The Vice president of Oerlikon Manemade Fiber 4.0 is our plant operation center, we call it POC 4.0.
segment, Mr Andre Wissenbaerg, during Techtextil It is software that enables our customers to control
shared the belief, approaches and achievements of and to measure what happens in the whole
Oerlikon with TEXtalks. The discussion was production value chain. It is not only focused on the
insightful; explain the company policies and spinning plants, also available for the texturing if you
solutions from the brand. are going to do textured yarn, but also above this
production process. So it is possible to use it along
TEXtalks: What does industry 4.0 means to Oerlikon? the whole textile value chain and you can use it not
André Wissenberg: The industry 4.0 topic is one of only in one production plant, but you can use it via a
the most important topics driving our textile industry. cloud solution also for several production plants you
We – from the Oerlikon Manmade Fibers segment have in the world. Then, you are able to look at your
with Oerlikon Barmag and Oerlikon Neumag smart phone and see all the details and all the
solutions for the production of manmade fibers, dashboards that we are offering. So, as a manager
BCF, filaments, staple fibers, nonwoven and artificial for a company using our Plant Operation Center you
grass – are focusing on this topic and presenting will be able to control a global company.
ourselves since a couple of months at ITMA Asia, at
ITME India and now here are Techtextil in Frankfurt TEXtalks: Can POC also be used for existing
with solutions in the field of industry 4.0. machinery solutions?
André Wissenberg: Plant Operation Center POC 4.0
I would like to give an example: You might know the can be implemented for new machinery solutions
Microsoft HoloLens – it’s a development from and also for already existing plant solutions. Here we
Microsoft in 2016 and we were one of the first are acting like a consultant, let’s say, we have to sit
companies in Germany to come out with solutions together with our customers to find the right
for our customer services activities in terms of solutions for them, to listen to their requests and
remote access. That means if you, as an operator in requirements and then to offer them the best
a plant, might have a problem and you can’t solve it solutions in terms of Plant Operation Center.
by yourself. You just can take the augmented reality
glass and share all relevant information with the TEXtalks: How was the response from the visitors
camera and the screen that is available. You can during Techtextil?
share the situation on-site with an expert, for André Wissenberg: Techtextil Frankfurt 2017 was an
example, sitting somewhere in the world or in our excellent exhibition. It is not an exhibition for
facilities in Germany. Both together than solve the machinery builders like we are in terms of showing
problem. The operator and the expert in Germany machines. We have to listen to the visitors. We have
together can find a solution within a couple of to listen to our customer, because they are talking
minutes and this becomes a win win situation for here, in Frankfurt, about materials – and we are the
both, for us and for our customers. one who can offer them, let’s say “the heart of any
material” in the textile world. The heart of any textile
TEXtalks: Can you describe about Oerlikon Plant material is the yarn – e.g. polyester and nylon – and

we have the production solutions for that. We There are smart textiles, functional textiles and
took the opportunity in Frankfurt to listen to the sportswear – and this is not a classical technical
customers and offer our solutions for the textile in terms of industry textile. So, technical
production of manmade fibers. fibers will be more and more part of our daily
life. But there is another topic at the Techtextil
TEXtalks: How do you see the future of technical that you can see more and more coming up –
textiles? it’s the composites topic. There are also a lot of
André Wissenberg: The future of technical textiles technical textiles in this regard. So, I see the
has many opportunities and as we can see here Techtextil will grow and will adapt and take over
at Techtextil in Frankfurt more and more other topics like apparel and maybe
technical textiles will be used in daily apparel. hometextiles – like the composites.