Industry 4.0: It’s Now Information Technology Everywhere

Responsible for the creation of “Smart Factory,” Industry 4.0 is the present trend in manufacturing technologies that rely on automation and data exchange. The chief crusaders of the latest industry revolution are cloud computing, cyber-physical systems, and IoT. Industry 4.0 solutions facilitate the interaction between physical and cyber systems, all to allow the industrial sector to gain new elevations in production.

Design Principles

Industry 4.0 is based on four design principles. The aim of these design principles is to allow different organizations identify and implement the latest industrial trend. These principles are briefed up as follows:

1. Decentralized Decisions

This design principle states that the cyber-physical systems involved in an Industry 4.0 solution should have the ability to perform the assigned tasks on their own and make decisions themselves. If there is a case of conflicting goals, exception, or interface, only then systems take command from some higher level, such as a human operator.

2. Information Transparency

With the help of enriching plant models combined with sensor data, information systems involved in industry 4.0 solutions are meant to create an exact virtual imitation of the real or physical world. The sensor data collected for the purpose needs to be converted into higher-value context information.

3. Interoperability

According to the principle of Interoperability, a deployed Industry 4.0 solution should have the ability to make connection and communication possible for devices, machines, sensors, and humans. This is realized by implementing the Internet of Things (IoT) or the Internet of People (IoP) or both.

4. Technical Assistance

An Industry 4.0 solution needs to provide the essential technical assistance required by humans for making use of the Industry 4.0 solution implementation. First, assistance systems deployed in a solution needs to help humans in making informed decisions and deriving solutions for short-on-time urgencies. For achieving this, the assistance systems need to visualize all the information collected in a truly human, comprehensible way. Secondly, cyber-physical systems need to provide physical assistance for tasks labeled exhausting, unpleasant, and unsafe to humans.

Challenges

Industry 4.0 is up against a number of challenges, which are commercial as well as social in nature. It’s only after meeting these challenges that Industry 4.0 can be cited as a revolutionary industrial solution. Some of the biggest challenges faced by Industry 4.0 are highlighted as follows:

1. IT Security Issues

As Industry 4.0 is wholly based on IT systems; security of these systems becomes a major issue. The exploitation of these issues can prove fatal for the industry implementing the solution.

2. Loss of Jobs

Automation is heavily criticized for increasing unemployment. The reliance of Industry 4.0 on self-dependent cyber-physical systems is a part of this criticism.

3. M2M Communication

Machine-to-machine a.k.a. M2M interaction is the basis of Industry 4.0. Increasing reliability and stability of such interactions is a greater challenge to meet.

4. Reluctance in Stakeholders

Several historical incidents highlight the general reluctance shown by stakeholders in accepting new industrial trends. Industry 4.0 is no exception to this scenario either.