Industry 4.0

This article is about the 4th industrial revolution.

Industry 4.0 comes out by Germany.
• The fourth industrial revolution will bring about intelligent factory i.e. “smart factory” where man, material, machines are interconnected within the internet of things.

• The fusion of real and virtual world of production will bring about highly individualised, agile and resource optimised mass production bringing manufacturing closer to the customer.

• Industry 4.0 is a name given to the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies.

• It includes:
a) Internet of things
b) Cyber physical systems
c) Cloud computing
d) Cognitive computing
• In these factories everything is interconnected wirelessly.
For example –
At the German research centre for artificial intelligence. The future factories will consist of modules that are intelligent, they have standardised modules which hopefully could connect and combine quite easily. Each of this module have a particular functionality and in the future they can combine them to form an internet within the factory. A bottling plan for liquids set up together with Siemens is used to demonstrate the most important component of the intelligent factory of the future. Each bottle contains an RFID chip storing an prescribed description of how it has to be processed, which liquid, which lid and which label that each station the bottle communicates with the machine telling it how it has to be processed. At the end the computer checks the bottle has actually been produced as desired. All devices, machines and materials will be equipped with sensors and communication technology and connect to each other. This system is known as CYBER PHYSICAL SYSTEMS. The highlight is that they communicate with each other and also control each other cooperatively. When you look at industry 4.0, it is based on the logic of cyber physical systems. That we got autocratic, independently operating systems which self-optimise and communicate with each other and ultimately optimise production as whole. Every sensor and every actuator is a part of internet of things. Each device thus has its own IP Address, so it can be addressed in this network. For the customer it is tailor made products with relatively affordable prices. For industry highly flexible mass production that can rapidly adapted to the market changes because in future product life cycle will be even shorter.

• Benefits of industry 4.0 –
1. Improved worker safety and output due to the fewer people in the factory.
2. Access to data across the supply chain for better decision making.
3. Ability to have more customised manufacturing.
4. Improved productivity through flexibility and sharing of information.