A few months back Elon Musk tweeted that in Tesla’s Giga factory “people are underrated” and that heavy automation had no planned effects. Isn’t it a brilliant example of what’s wrong with smart digital transformation?! Industry 4.0 and The fourth industrial revolution, and how the industrial landscape can change, is what everybody is worried about? It’s about robots and the modernization of the whole house and no longer about humans in warehouses, everybody claims, well, in my view, this potential picture of development is false!

McKinsey describes Industry 4.0 as “the next step in industrial digitalization.” Indeed, it is the mark (throughout Germany) that is steadily mixed with our increasingly technical climate with conventional manufacturing and industrial activities. The focus of these developments is on much-emerging technology: big files, Internet of Things, robots, artificial intelligence, etc.

Many commercial businesses have today checked these principles and seen important developments and enhancements. Equipment efficacy is reportedly improved by 18% in India, with the use of Iot sensors to track wear by a Michigan plant minimizing downtime by 20%. The organization estimates that data obtained from #workflow processes, throughput, and output will minimize errors by up to 48 percent. Another example is the Optimal Asset Control of IBM, which allows users to hear, interact and diagnose issues on connected devices and machines at a factory. Industry 4.0 surely doesn’t intend to change the development industry, it has!

Industry 4.0 surely doesn’t intend to change the development industry, it has! But it’s not all as good as it seems, and some challenges and questions continue to surface…

Digital transformation: another side of the medals…

All right, let’s say we understand that this is the 4th Industrial Revolution. In reality, we tend to forget it is here to support us, people, to have a better life, not to replace us and to make us unhappy!

Let’s start by clearing some facts:

Buzz Words

Industry 4.0, Production advanced, … all really buzz mots! Why does this happen? Since nobody knows what it really means, everybody talks about it! The first move to effectively applying this idea and the technology behind it is understanding.

Heavy Investment

The past technological deployment took a lot of money, but it is now more affordable. The technology is becoming less costly. Without risking a lot, you will win a lot.

Latest fancy robots

In order to accomplish the strategic goals you need the most trained robots, and that does not mean the most costly or fabulous. Please let’s not forget the science is here to fix our problems.

A connected Factory is the key

Yeah, but the real difficulty is to evaluate and make something out of it. You need to be able to gather info. It is more about interpreting the right details than linking it all.

No more employees

Other jobs will eventually be generated, while yes, some jobs will vanish! You should not need to dismiss and retrain the workers for new automation activities. Further, who understands and enjoys the progress of the factory if you no longer have any person in the factory?

The greatest challenge of Industry 4.0 is that, as Cliff Justice, a partner in KPMG, said, “It is increasing [Industry 4.0] not automating our people,” it seems to us to forget that its principal goal is to find a solution to manufacturing challenges and reach it on the next level.

Humans, underrated in factories?

You will understand, my argument is that people should engage in the current industrial revolution. Manufacturers will need their workers’ dedication to thrive!

It is wrong to say that business 4.0 means zero workers, but it is also wrong to assume that people are holding the same positions. In reality, a lack of jobs currently occurs. “Every year, up to 2024, an estimated 186,000 new engineers are expected and there’s still a shortage of 20,000 graduates per year,” says Manufacturing Global. Really, robots don’t take work, people don’t want to do it anymore, while people’s jobs move to more valuable jobs.

Examples on how the digital revolution produces more jobs than a loss in Germany, how robotics can assist people with simple and challenging tasks and improve employee welfare, as well as why Mercedes has opted to go back to basics with the replacement of their robots by humans despite having had experience with household automation. Finally, the KPMG Industry 4.0 report is an insightful reading on this subject. Industry 4.0 is about all people.

Agricultural workers were 40% of the people before the first industrial revolution. Today, it’s just 2% and still works. It is important to note that all industrial transformations have culminated in changes in the categories of workers. People have still found a way to function, though. Agricultural workers were 40% of the people before the first industrial revolution. Today, it’s just 2% and still works.

Industry 4.0: What should we expect then?

Industry 4.0 is a term that brings together many concepts. Knowing what it is, understanding the technologies behind the concept and assessing what kind of improvement they can actually bring is the most complicated task for a manufacturer.

In closing, I ask you not to believe anything about Industrie 4.0 and Advanced Manufacturing (just a mantra, heavy investment is needed, the job ends…) and phase by step continue to execute programs. Try not to change the company as a whole, but step on by fruitful initiatives involving and engaging the staff. And whatever you say, don’t forget that production firms are concerned with life or death!

“This fourth industrial revolution is now breaking in the morning. The future crowded with brand-new hopes and ambitions: smart factories, clever towns, clever Martian colonies. It actually looks like the old future. We’re still needing highways, but we’re not drivers, where we’re going.”

Industry 4.0: challenges and opportunities

Industry 4.0 is on the way to helping industrial businesses solve the obstacles and pick up opportunities. It is up to technology suppliers.

Revolutions are, by definition, distracting, and industry 4.0 is no exception to the fourth industrial revolution. Indeed, analysts expect that this latest phase of revolution would inspire almost as much progress as previously. However, while past advances of steam-energy, control, and digital equipment are focused exclusively on emerging technology, Industry 4.0 relies on the use of modern and current resources in engineering.

The emergence of robotics, along with factory employees, and self-sufficient cars, has been seen in Industry 4.0. Connecting designers with plant personnel with intelligent machines and software autonomously via the cloud, and installations linked in real-time to suppliers and consumers, was the basis of sensor networks and connectivity technologies.

The automotive industry provides too much scope for intelligent innovations or, perhaps, the intelligent use of technology.

Instant reviews on costs and efficiency forecasts may be given to engineers. Automatically, plant operations may be delegated by factory machinery and logistics facilities. Cloud-based AI systems may compare components and procedures in order to improve efficiency and machine-based computer systems, allowing robotic systems to learn from and work with little feedback from managers.

Paul Redmond, global smart services manager, IT invention with RS Parts, describes the fact that smart factories can help businesses to anticipate when their equipment will malfunction and thus to take precautionary steps to ensure that the incident maintenance team is not informed or informed of the incident earlier so that they can respond more rapidly. “IoT could save companies, via predictive maintenance, tonnes of money or in real-time notify them via re-active maintenance,” he said.

This is just the tip of a massive, quickly rising iceberg.

It is believed that practices such as these would flexible production, increase competitiveness, and promote modern, more productive market practices and entrepreneurial approaches.

Martin Strutt, the EEF Regional Director for Industrial Organisations, says “It’s not like businesses can go out of business if they don’t take advantage of the new technology. “But to deal with the businesses that do so would be tougher.”

A new Future Industry Insights study estimated that intelligent factories will earn $215 billion by 2025. This is 51,9 billion dollars up in 2014. General Electric notes that in the next 20 years the idea of an intelligent factory could amount to $ 10-15 trillion in global GDP.

There are, however, those who are hesitant to consider such improvements, considering the possible benefits. About half of the CEOs surveyed in PwC’s January annual survey voiced concern about the concept’s mistrust of customers, workers, and the public at large.

UK leaders surveyed voiced concern about the fact that they need to build modern systems and adapt them to emerging technology would be challenging to find new people with the digital skills required. Smart networks often associates with their ability to connect with factories, vendors, and consumers with various systems.

Strutt suggests the above will improve by industry-specific standardization of results. He says that businesses should use a common platform with both their consumers and vendors.

However, those pertaining to data security remained the core concerns of the sector. A June 2016 accounting and business advice study by BDO LLP showed that 73% of surveyed engineers claimed that investing in smart factories raises the likelihood of security violations – hackers who access IT networks through IoT. Just 48 percent believed they had a cracking IT device, but 35 percent claimed that they were all right with a range of infringements, as long as IT updates were available.

Strutt notes that security vendors must educate manufacturers of their product’s protection features and clarify how cyberattacks are avoided. For Redmond, working in close cooperation with operations teams in general and following a shared IoT. The approach is also important to IT teams. “Teams of IT must think about market goals, advantages, and performance. The team of operational technology can understand better what IoT should offer and specifically identify benefits,” he said.

Industry 4.0 : Changing tunes

The cautious mentality of producers of manufacturing lines will also discourage businesses from taking on emerging smart innovations, according to Andy Ward, chief technical officer at Ubisense, specialists in business locations.

“Meeting, again and again, people do same thing and they don’t want to stick to anything that fits fairly well,” he says.

“They know how they function, but they have to choose if they want to play on something different,” he explained. “There are no resources for them to achieve concurrently quality development, cost-cutting and complexity management problems.”

At the same time, customers increasingly expect sophisticated goods. Which Ward finds to be increasingly important for the manufacturing industry as intelligent technology. For example, it describes why car buyers today want model designs that designed according to their own requirements.

“For producers, challenge is to reconcile repeat and automation with need for variants while retaining a high-quality product,” he said. “Whatever the operation at a given point in the production line. It is crucial for a certain tool to work properly, for the correct period of time at the right time. An operating company must just select product, use it on car, and does correct thing rather than customize each tool for every task.”

Ubisense manufactures sensors to monitor the instruments and technology positions in the whole plant. The program allows the device to immediately see how far a given product has gone down the manufacturing line while an indoor GPS tool is in operation.

Naturally, converting plant systems to Industry 4.0 required a lot of investment that may view as a possible roadblock for widespread use. The good news is that administrations and coalitions pledge themselves around the board to help keep things rolling.

The German government said last year it would contribute €500 million to fund Industry 4.0 research.

In the US, the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Alliance, a non-profit group financing $140 million in public and private funding, founded by technology businesses, distributors, retailers, government agencies, and universities.

Theresa May declared in the United Kingdom in January of this year that Industry 4.0 is one of the five fields in the government’s strategy to improve the British economy following Brexit. In November, for innovation and growth in fields such as automation, artificial intelligence, mobile 5G, and smart energy, the Government declared that it would have $4.7 billion available.

“From time to time people are anxious because the entire thing is too massive,” says Redmond. “I would suggest that businesses think large, but start small. Start with a simple non-invasive and preferably interoperable intelligent, modular solution, maybe an intelligent motor on the conveyor line, or a smart lighting portion, see how it performs, validate how much money it saves and what benefits can be gained from generated data.

Strutt notes, “To make a big move forward, it doesn’t have to be a huge investment. There will be just as successful a set of evolutionary phases. Even the headlines frighten people.”

While these issues have resolved, things appear to have begun well. 56% of CEOs surveyed at Capgemini’s Digital Care Institute indicated that over the last five years they have spent the US $100 million or more in intelligent businesses, as do 46% of UK producers.

Generally speaking, by the end of 2022 producers expect 21% of their plants to be smart plants.

In the meantime, 67% of industrial production and 62% of aerospace and defense, but only 37% of pharmaceutical firms have invested heavily in the smart business initiatives.

In addition, 84 percent of CEOs report Capgemini state either they have an intelligent manufacturing initiative in place or intend to incorporate it. However, only 8% are happy with their success and 31% say the definition is challenging.

For Ward, intelligent technology suppliers must show manufacturers high expectations to win market confidence. “Providers need more than what is now there and reliable to show their technology works,” he says. “That’s just £300 a second when a car factory ceases, but not at the end of production.”

Strutt recommends that businesses should not pay by themselves in infrastructure. They should instead have a good idea of their own approach and of how they compete, and then look at what is possible to help that.

This being said, he thinks UK businesses should take advantage of the possibilities provided by Industry 4.0. “We already have a wide range of technical qualifications, and there are more degrees in data analytics,” he says.

However, the emphasis is on management and leadership in an unpredictable climate. “Sometimes things won’t work the way it was intended, and if not then do something more,” says Strutt. “These people are willing to try new stuff.”Various businesses have varying requirements. Go out to see what’s at your mercy.”

Conclusion

Thus, our step-by-step introduction to Industry 4.0 has ended. Feel free to visit our website for more interesting and helpful facts about Industry 4.0.