Smart Factories and Industry 4.0

Let’s talk smart factories. We all know the first Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and early 19th centuries marked a major turning point in the world’s history. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, we relied on manual labor to manufacture things. But that changed with the invention of machine-driven production.

Machines forever changed the way societies manufactured goods of all types, and now the IoT is driving a new Industrial Revolution marked by automation and data. if the first Industrial Revolution was marked by a transition from man to machine, the current Industrial Revolution—sometimes called “Industry 4.0”—is marked by a transition from “dumb” to “smart” machines. And while I don’t make a habit of getting information from Wikipedia, I thought its definition of this trend was worth noting.

Wikipedia says: “Industry 4.0 is the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, and cloud computing. Within the modular structured smart factories, cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world, and make decentralized decisions. Over the Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in realtime …”

And now we’ve reached the key point: smart-factory systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in realtime. Data from factory equipment is important for a couple of key reasons.

To read more, visit https://connectedworld.com/machines-have-something-to-say/