How to accelerate production speed? That’s one of the most burning questions in the modern manufacturing industry. The solution might be, obviously, using the latest technologies. Welcome to Industry 4.0! Follow our short guide to learn how it can improve the efficiency of factory work in the 21st century.
What is Industry 4.0?
Industry 4.0 is a name for the next industrial transformation. The first one was about process mechanization, the second - electrification, and the third one can be called a digitization era. Now we’re facing the next revolution which is simply focused on using even more advanced digital tools in order to bring manufacturing to the next level.
The goal of Industry 4.0 is to connect all electronic components in an integrated network supporting mass production. This is based on the most modern technologies such as:
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Machine Learning (ML)
- Cloud Computing
- Big Data
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Machine-to-Machine (M2M).
Using them helps to build an efficient and interconnected network ensuring the right production pace and efficiency.
Benefits of Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0, unlike Industry 3.0, enables machines to communicate and make decisions in a way similar to human intelligence - but without human involvement. Thanks to this, companies can manage their manufacturing processes in a much smarter, more efficient and agile way. Implementing Industry 4.0 in the company can contribute to:
- Exchanging information - thanks to machines’ interconnection, they can quickly and automatically communicate in order to maintain high efficiency of the manufacturing process.
- Data analysis - Industry 4.0 tools can help to calculate business measures similarly to humans thanks to using Artificial Intelligence.
- Risk prediction - by using solutions imitating intelligence, Industry 4.0 is able to understand patterns and to predict problems before they happen in order to eliminate them automatically.
- Robots creation and configuration - in Industry 4.0 jobs typically performed by humans will be more and more commonly carried out by robots.
Challenges of Industry 4.0
Although Industry 4.0 faces many challenges, such as vulnerability to cyber threats, adaptation issues or lack of staff, sooner or later its technologies will be used widely in the manufacturing industry. Although they will most probably never be able to fully eliminate humans, we can expect that future employee will be expected to perform completely different and more technology-oriented skills than ever before.
There are already more and more examples of excellently organized and modern factories in Europe, such as LG or Volkswagen. To learn more about the latest news about Industry 4.0, follow our blog to learn how to use robotization and automation in order to improve your manufacturing processes.