Industry 4.0

The evolution of information and communication technologies and its introduction into production processes are transforming traditional industry, bringing it to a new level of organizational development. In order to avail the benefits of these technologies to strengthen competitiveness in the global market, a new paradigm is being discussed worldwide. Industry 4.0 or 4th Industrial Revolution are some of the terms used to describe the implementation of "smart" devices that can communicate autonomously along the value chain.

The term Industry 4.0 concept first emerged in the year 2011 from a German Government Project. This was first officially announced by Mr. Klaus Schwas (Former Executive Chairman of World Economic Forum) in the year 2015 and he defined it as?“ In the new world, it is not the big fish which eats the small fish, it’s the fast fish which eats the slow fish”.

Let’s understand the topic stepwise: -

a.???What is the Industrial Revolution?

b.???What is Industry 4.0?

c.???What are the Key Technologies in Industry 4.0?

d.???Benefits of Industry 4.0

?Industrial Revolution:?It is defined as the major changes and transition in manufacturing and industrial process with new innovative technologies.

• 1st?Industrial revolution (Industry 1.0) was introduced in the year 1784 when water and steam were started to be used in the manufacturing process and machines were able to perform by using water and steam as fuel.
• 2nd?Industrial revolution (Industry 2.0) was introduced in the year 1870 when electricity and steel were introduced in the mass production.
• 3rd?Industrial revolution (Industry 3.0) was introduced in the year 1969 when electronic, automation and computers were introduced in the manufacturing process and machines are controlled with PLC and it focuses on digital technology.
• 4th?Industrial revolution (Industry 4.0):- Today we are in the era of 4th?Industrial revolution and it was triggered by the name “Cyber Physical System” and it connects the real world with the digital world.

?Industry 4.0:?It is a new phase in the Industrial Revolution that introduces intelligent networking of machines and processes for industry with the help of information and communication technology.

?Key Technologies of Industry 4.0:

1. IOTs – Internet of things: It is a network of physical objects that can collect data with the help of sensors and exchange data with each other with the help of the internet.
2. Advanced Robotics: Robots are programmable machines that are usually able to carry out a series of actions autonomously or semi-autonomously and robotics is a branch of technology that deals with physical robots.
3. Artificial Intelligence: AI is a computer program which enables a machine to simulate human behaviors like learning, planning, reasoning, knowledge sharing and problem solving etc.
4. Cloud computing: Use of remote servers to store, manage, process data which can be accessed through the internet on demand.
5. Big data Analytics: It’s a process of storing and examining large volumes of data from various sources and systematically extracting useful information from that.
6. Augmented Reality (AR): It is a technology that creates an enhanced version of real world Infront of you by adding a layer of digital information on that.
7. Virtual Reality (VR): ?It is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment.
8. Additive Manufacturing: It is a computer-controlled process that creates three dimensional objects by depositing materials, usually in layers and it is also called as 3D printing.
9. Cyber Security: Cyber security is the practice of defending computers, servers, mobiles devices, electronic systems, networks, and data from malicious attack.

Benefits of Industry 4.0

1. Productivity and Efficiency
2. Cost optimization
3. New opportunities
4. Customer satisfaction
5. Safety

?Developed countries with advanced manufacturing bases are already at the frontier of technological adoption and have focused policy responses on sustaining and regaining manufacturing leadership.

Emerging developing countries have sought to narrow the technological gap, increase competitiveness and expand participation in higher value added parts of global value chains; policy responses have focused on fostering innovation and technological adoption in manufacturing and some of these countries have firms at the technological frontier deploying, or ready to deploy, industry 4.0 technologies, and a challenge is to facilitate deployment in traditional manufacturing sectors of the economy.

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