What is industry 4.0?

The fourth industrial revolution, industry 4.0, is a term inspired by Germany’s ‘Industrie 4.0’, which promotes connected manufacturing, converting factories into a smart & flexible environment.

Of course, before talking about the fourth industrial revolution, we should briefly mention the others:

• The industrial revolution – transforming economies into large-scale industries, mechanised manufacturing using water and steam power
• Mass production, using electricity and people-based assembly lines for efficiencies of volume
• Automation and early robotics with computer & PLC control systems to enhance productivity and reduce costs

What is ‘industry 4.0’?

Put simply, Industry 4.0 is the implementation of new digital industrial technology to improve productivity, quality, and sustainability by harnessing process-relevant data from previously unavailable or unconnected sources. Taking advantage of ‘cyber-physical systems’ (The Cloud, Internet, Internet of Things) The Industry 4.0 ‘digital transformation’ will allow us to work with smart connected machines and factories in much more flexible and highly productive ways.

In the UK, you will typically have heard of the phrase ‘Made Smarter’, this essentially covers many things from cloud-based analytics working out your preventative maintenance program, down to the ability to cost-effectively make bespoke products by using automation and data, without the cost and overhead of traditional customised products.

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