INDUSTRY 4.0 – MANUFACTURING AT A CROSSROADS

Industry 4.0 – Manufacturing at a Crossroads

by Paul Lavoie

An Overview

First Industrial Revolution – Steam Engine

Second Industrial Revolution – Mass Production and Assembly Lines

Third Industrial Revolution – Digital Technologies

Fourth Industrial Revolution – Automation and Data Exchange

Industry 4.0 is a name given to the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, cloud computing and cognitive computing.

Industry 4.0 fosters what has been called a “smart factory”. Within modular structured smart factories, cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralized decisions. Over the Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real-time both internally and across organizational services offered and used by participants of the value chain (Source: Wikipedia)

Trumpf Smart Factory – CLICK HERE

Benefits of Industry 4.0

Identify opportunities: Since connected machines collect a tremendous volume of data that can inform maintenance, performance and other issues, as well as analyze that data to identify patterns and insights that would be impossible for a human to do in a reasonable timeframe, Industry 4.0 offers the opportunity for manufacturers to optimize their operations quickly and efficiently by knowing what needs attention. By using the data from sensors in its equipment, an African gold mine identified a problem with the oxygen levels during leaching. Once fixed, they were able to increase their yield by 3.7%, which saved them $20 million annually.

Optimize logistics and supply chains: A connected supply chain can adjust and accommodate when new information is presented. If a weather delay ties up a shipment, a connected system can proactively adjust to that reality and modify manufacturing priorities.

Autonomous equipment and vehicles: There are shipping yards that are leveraging autonomous cranes and trucks to streamline operations as they accept shipping containers from the ships.

Robots: Once only possible for large enterprises with equally large budgets, robotics are now more affordable and available to organizations of every size. From picking products at a warehouse to getting them ready to ship, autonomous robots can quickly and safely support manufacturers. Robots move goods around Amazon warehouses and also reduce costs and allow better use of floor space for the online retailer.

Additive manufacturing (3D printing): This technology has improved tremendously in the last decade and has progressed from primarily being used for prototyping to actual production. Advances in the use of metal additive manufacturing have opened up a lot of possibilities for production.

Internet of Things and the cloud: A key component of Industry 4.0 is the Internet of Things that is characterized by connected devices. Not only does this help internal operations, but through the use of the cloud environment where data is stored, equipment and operations can be optimized by leveraging the insights of others using the same equipment or to allow smaller enterprises access to technology they wouldn’t be able to on their own.

(Source : Benard Marr – What is Industry 4.0 – Forbes Magazine 9/2018)

Issues for Local Manufacturers and Educators

Industry 4.0 requires an entirely different skills set. We need a workforce for the jobs of today, which may be part of the second industrial revolution, and we need to be prepared for jobs of the future. And these jobs require a higher level of sophistication and advanced education.

Published: June 3, 2019