Pütz stated that one of the great examples of the e-F@ctory Alliance working toward delivering proven solutions to the requirements of Industry 4.0 challenges was performed at Mitsubishi HiTec Paper Europe GmbH in Bielefeld, Germany and explained that "In the said company, a more holistic approach to predictive maintenance has been achieved by implementing a Smart Condition Monitoring solution developed in cooperation with FAGSchaeffler. This solution allows a whole range of parameters from the machines and its ancillary parts to be monitored. That data is then used to analyse the condition of individual components as well as the health of the individual machine and of the wider plant. The information gained from the system includes maintenance recommendations. Thus, the solution has created a new working methodology, drastically reducing unplanned downtime and the risk of subsequent damage. Overall, the result is vastly improved predictive maintenance, optimised asset lifecycle management and production, while reducing total operating costs."

Pütz stated that when talking about Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things (IoT) is inevitably a key theme as well and added that recent estimates already put the number of devices that are connected through the IoT will increase exponentially, "Combine that prediction with the amount of data that is being generated and processed by a more connected factory, and it is easy to see why companies’ IT infrastructure needs to change", and highlighted the importance of cloud-based data storage and processing services at this point.

Pütz, by explaining businesses are increasingly using cloud services not simply to store large volumes of data, but also to perform analytics tasks, added that "Processing the data means deriving trend information and presenting users with customised dashboards. The intelligence gained can be used to improve overall plant performance and asset management."

Pütz inform that Mitsubishi Electric has developed solutions that support both of these complementary IoT approaches and added that, "Our company offers simple and secure access to a range of different cloud services. The remote devices providing the creation of a numerous information and those are linked over standard open protocols that can be seen as the key to forming a digital nervous system within businesses. The networked digital data is then combined into bidirectional systems to integrate data, people, processes and systems for better decision making."

Pütz explained that within the context of the Internet of Things; they have realised a project together with Intel® and added that the company is using an IoT gateway from Mitsubishi Electric to aggregate and securely input data into a big data analytics server. Pütz stated that for Intel®, this pilot is forecast to save millions of dollars annually.