Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0: the next step in smart manufacturing
SOURCE: ADI
Inside the innovations leading the Industry 4.0 manufacturing transformation, there is an emergence at the sensor-driven level. For manufacturers, taking that next step into the future depends on further investment in the technology underpinning advances in factory automation and flexibility.
Industry 4.0 data generated by sensors and digital systems allow businesses to more effectively monitor processes taking place in the physical world.
TODAY, THE MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE in the manufacturing industry isn’t steel, coal or electricity, it’s data. Companies are beginning their journey of Industry 4.0 manufacturing, the latest industrial revolution driven by artificial intelligence and massive connectivity. In this new age, data generated by sensors and digital systems allow businesses to monitor processes taking place in the physical world, laying the foundation for more flexible modes of production—an approach increasingly required by changing consumer demands.
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But consumer demand is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the current emphasis on industry 4.0. With economic, geopolitical, environmental, and population issues and crises rippling across the globe, industrial labor supply and supply chains are being impacted like never before. The COVID-19 pandemic, for example, is shining a light on this need for advanced technology, real-time data, and flexible manufacturing and supply chains. With increased automation and robots taking on repetitive, dangerous work, manufacturers can augment human labor and
ensure continuity of production. This frees up workers to leverage their cognitive brain power and enables re-shoring of previously off-shored automated and repetitive work. “There are more and more capabilities people are discussing, like the use of IoT, robots and augmented reality in manufacturing settings,” says Kaibo Liu, associate director of the IoT Systems Research Center and associate professor at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. “You’ll start to see higher and higher resolution data gathered from the manufacturing process, making more aspects of decision-making possible in real time.”
in d u s t r ial et h er ne t b o o k
09.2021
