What is Industry 4.0? | Key Terms to Know | The History of Industry 4.0 | Benefits of Industry 4.0| Examples of Industry 4.0 in Use Today| Implementing Industry 4.0 in Your Factory | Is Industry 4.0 the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
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Experts from around the world agree:
The manufacturing industry is undergoing a substantial change, and it’s happening as we speak.
Thanks to the emergence of cyber-physical systems, the internet of things, and cloud computing, some experts believe we are on the brink of a fourth industrial revolution.
All of these technologies fall under the umbrella of Industry 4.0, which refers to the recent trend towards automation and data exchange in manufacturing.
The transfer of information between humans and machines has enabled manufacturers to enhance and automate their systems, become more efficient, and produce less waste.
Right now, it’s critical for manufacturers to keep up with these changes in the industry, as they are bound to have a large effect on the future of production around the world.
This guide will answer 6 commonly asked questions about Industry 4.0 and get you started on your journey towards implementing it in your manufacturing processes.
Industry 4.0 refers to the promise of connecting the digital and the physical worlds through smart factories that contain cyber-physical systems.
The term includes many different technologies, applications, and concepts which is why many people are often confused as to what exactly is included under the umbrella of “Industry 4.0”.
Here, we’ll outline some of the conceptual terms that are important to understanding Industry 4.0.
Now that you know a few of the concepts surrounding the idea of Industry 4.0, let’s take a look at who came up with the term and how it is being developed today.
The term Industry 4.0 originates from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany, which was a working on project to promote the computerization of manufacturing. (That’s why you’ll often see the phrase referred to in it’s German form, Industrie 4.0.)
The phrase was used publicly for the first time in at the annual industrial technology expo, Hannover Fair, in Germany.
That year Wolfgang Wahlster, Henning Kagermann, and Wolf-Dieter Lukas presented their study Industrie 4.0: Mit dem Internet der Dinge auf dem Weg zur 4. Industriellen Revolution which translates to Industry 4.0: With the Internet of Things on the way to the 4th Industrial revolution. This project proposed the advent of a Fourth Industrial Revolution based on cyber-physical systems like the Internet of Things, advanced analytics, big data and more.
The study states, “The third industrial revolution, marked by new materials, the use of robots and centralized control systems, will be replaced in the next decade with the Internet of Things based on cyber-physical systems: Germany should play the first fiddle here.”
It continues, “Therefore, the promoter group Communication of the Research Union Economy – Science of the Federal Government on January 25, proposed the future project Industry 4.0 in its recommendations for action. The future project has since been adopted, with the implementation of business, science and politics have already begun.”
From there, the German government as well as other various private companies in Germany launched the initiative Plattform Industrie 4.0. The end goal is to establish Industry 4.0 implementation as a major priority in Germany and to help drive the mass adoption of Industry 4.0 worldwide.
Plattform Industrie 4.0 has established five “areas of action” that they believe require decisions to be made by politicians and industrial players:
On an international level, the platform has established alliances with the Industrial Internet Consortium (USA), Alliance Industrie du Futur (France), and the Robot Revolution Initiative (Japan). They’re currently working to create an online overview of Industry 4.0 applications worldwide.
As you can expect, all of these organizations working on pushing Industry 4.0 forward are doing so because of the major benefits that can be claimed to the businesses implementing it. So how can manufacturers benefit from Industry 4.0?
One area that is immediately apparent is the technical assistance provided by cyber physical systems. These systems can do the tasks that are too exhausting and dangerous for humans to complete and even use data collected to make spur of the moment decisions in certain urgent situations without the needing the help of humans.
Resource conservation is another one of the benefits that Industry 4.0 technologies can provide. In , the USDA issued 131 recalls that resulted in over 20 million pounds of food going to waste. Implementing simple temperature monitoring and alert systems can help solve problems like food spoilage and waste. These systems can also send an alert when an environment is too hot or cold for the food so that the issue can be handled swiftly.
One of the most often-cited benefits of Industry 4.0 is the opportunity to remotely monitor and control industrial machinery. For systems that need to be monitored regularly, the ability to check in and control different processes from anywhere is extremely valuable.
There are countless applications for Industry 4.0 which means that the benefits are varied as well. Below are some of the other ways manufacturers can benefit from these solutions:
It’s easy to talk about the technologies and benefits of Industry 4.0 but real life examples are often the push that higher ups need in order to start really considering how the smart factory of the future could help bolster their businesses.
Below are some examples of Industry 4.0 initiatives that are being used today:
Lockheed Martin is on track to save $11 million over the next five years by using technologies such as additive manufacturing to reduce the cost of the F-35 joint strike fighter’s full mission simulators.
Chinese construction equipment manufacturer LiuGong is embracing Industry 4.0 technology to enable them to target $7.18 billion in operating revenue by .
Europe’s largest lawn and garden machinery company, Global Garden Products, uses connected sensors to track and monitor engine vitals as well as sending the readings to cloud data storage. They’re getting the information they need right now to build better engines as they’re bringing the Internet of Things into their manufacturing processes.
Bosch’s factory in southern Germany used Industry 4.0 technology to reduce their cycle times by 8% resulting in a cost savings of €500,000 in the first year alone.
GM has started using collaborative robots to aim headlights and calibrate radar for cruise control in their vehicles. The process now takes only three seconds and has reaped huge efficiency gains for the company.
Cake manufacturer, Mongini’s, retrofitted their factories’ production lines and facilities with IoT systems that enable quality assurance food safety teams to know immediately whenever impurities are detected in their products. And they’ve updated their cold chain and modified their commercial freezers so that factory supervisors can optimize the whole production process from batter to bite.
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Jackie Rednour-Bruckman is working with the Georgia Department of Agriculture and Daxima Software to use blockchain to track animals from conception to consumption. Jackie says, “Farm to table suddenly becomes a wealth of information with just the scan of a bar code.”
At this point, you may be ready to start really thinking about the ways that you can improve processes with Industry 4.0 in your factory. However, you are probably wondering what barriers to entry you should expect along your implementation journey.
Challenges of implementation can include lack of buy-in and knowledge from the top down, the skills gap of your current employees, data security concerns, and scalability and reliability.
However, with technologies like Temboo’s Kosmos System, the process can be made much easier.
Kosmos enables businesses to more easily implement Internet-connected sensors, actuators, and machinery in their products, processes, and facilities. It’s unique among IoT offerings in that:
Temboo has helped companies all over the world get started with Industry 4.0 technologies. We’ve seen first hand the challenges that are faced with digital transformation and we’ve also seen the ways that companies overcome those challenges.
We’ve also come up with a 7 step checklist to help get you started and have many tutorials, overviews, and case studies available on our blog.
The first industrial revolution was brought on with the use of water and steam power as well as mechanization in the late 18th Century.
The second is widely regarded as the period during which the assembly line was invented as well as the first use of electricity in industry which happened around .
In the late 60’s the third industrial revolution was spurred through the use of computers and automation such as the PLC.
Nowadays, there are some people who equate Industry 4.0 with the 4th Industrial Revolution.
However, others argue that the changes proffered by Industry 4.0 have not yet had a significant enough impact on the process of manufacturing to be considered a new Industrial Revolution.
According to Dmitry Lukovkin, AI Business Director of Zyfra Group, “Technologies we have now can really make a significant impact on manufacturing….But we are far from what’s suggested to be a fourth industrial revolution.”
He continues, “The total critical infrastructure is yet to be created. But the picture will change in 5 years. The countdown to the Fourth Industrial Revolution starts not when a few companies implement Industry 4.0 technologies, but when it starts to influence the market. By -25 we’ll see and feel the changes.”
Stefan Issing, Global Automotive Industry Director at IFS agrees that the evolution of technologies within manufacturing has had a significant impact already. “Within manufacturing, Industry 4.0 has changed the way we collect and analyze data, and how humans, machines and systems collaborate with each other. We’re well into changing processes – such as how we make manufacturing actions more automated, efficient, safer, and streamlined. But, what will push us over the precipice to the fourth industrial revolution is when Industry 4.0 is the driver to change entire manufacturing business models.”
No matter when or how the Fourth Industrial Revolution is brought on, it’s undeniable that the technologies that fall under the umbrella of the term are gaining traction with manufacturers around the world. In fact, one report has estimated that the component markets of Industry 4.0 will be worth more than $4T by . Statistics like this prove that Industry 4.0 adoption is on the rise and continuing to grow.
“So, how does your platform work?,” you ask the artificial intelligence (AI) Industry 4.0 vendor.
“Well, our agnostic AI technology feeds on all of your data sources in real time, and generates predictions, warnings, prescriptions, and recommendations that help you optimize your yield and throughput, while minimizing your losses.”
He continues with a slick visualization showing streams of bits flowing gracefully into a cloud, with valuable business insights coming out the other end.
“But what exactly are you going to solve for us that we were not able to solve with our existing models?”
“Most of our data isn’t really that good, how are you going to predict and optimize the process without understanding the fundamentals of the process?”
“Our process changes quite a bit, rarely running the same way for more than weeks at a time. How can your platform handle that?”
“Can this integrate with our existing process control or monitoring systems?”
“How can our engineers and operators build trust and accept this platform if they don’t understand the logic behind it?”
“Have you actually done this on a facility such as ours? What are the use cases?”
These are just some of the questions that arise as you dive deeper and begin making decisions about your path forward. If this AI vendor serves a wide spectrum of industries, you might not be satisfied with the answers. The vendor offers a demo of the AI technology on your historical process data: “Just an offline data exercise, what have you got to lose?”
In case you do move forward with the demo, chances are you will find yourself or your busy colleagues spending hours on end teaching the vendor application engineer the intricacies of your specific manufacturing process. When the vendor circles back with their findings, to your disappointment, the results do not provide you with significant new insights. The results might not exceed the capabilities of your current linear empirical models or rigorous kinetic models. Some industries might find this vendor useful for simpler applications, where analyzing process data and building models is not very common, and low hanging fruit are abundant. But that’s not your industry, and it’s certainly not your company. You are looking for a much more accurate and deliberate approach to employing AI to optimize your complex process. What are your options?
One option is to build AI capabilities internally and combine them with your internal manufacturing process understanding, building tailored applications to solve specific problems. While this may be done with homegrown data science groups, even the largest companies will try and avoid building their own AI products. It is difficult for a large corporation to compete with an external data science company that doesn’t employ thousands of people who run processing plants. Most in-house products lack a long-term roadmap and support when the developers switch roles.
Another option is an AI vendor who has dedicated itself to you and to your industry. This vendor understands that in order to solve the most difficult problems that you and your team left unsolved, it takes more than state-of-the-art AI. It takes a carefully curated combination of state-of-the-art AI and world-class expertise uniquely focused on your specific process.
This vendor has built a dedicated team of application engineers who worked in your industry for years, in companies and plants just like yours. They will understand exactly where your most valuable and difficult challenges are. What tools and models you have at your disposal, and what problems are worth going after. These folks speak your language and know your process like the back of their hand. They know how to align the right stakeholders in the plant around the right common objectives. They have done it before. This vendor knows how to treat your noisy and missing data, integrate the process first principles into the model, and verify the correctness of relationships that the model has learned between different variables. Since this vendor is focused on your industry, you are benefiting from the massive experience they bring, and will continue to bring, from applying the AI platform on plants just like yours.
You are no longer working with just a vendor. You now have a partner, that will guide you with confidence through a structured and methodical procedure to develop models, and safely deploy them while fully respecting and understanding your process control environment. They will work with you on the management of change (MOC) documents you need and provide you with operator and engineer training materials. Your partner will work with you to commission your application, prove its economic value, and stay by your side to help you sustain the value for years to come.
Yes, it is actually possible to navigate the sea of Industry 4.0 AI vendors and ambiguous answers, to find the right solution for your company. You will know when it’s the right fit when you find a partner that is dedicated to your domain and speaks the same technical language as you.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Industry 4 0 Teaching Platform Supplier. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.