Industry 4.0

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Industry 4.0, synonymous with the fourth industrial revolution, is an expression referring to the increasingly realistic fourth stage of the techno-economic development of mankind from the first industrial revolution on.

It means a new way of organising means of production. The aim is to implement the concept of “smart factories” in such a way that machines can be better adapted to production needs and processes and at the same time more efficiently allocated production resources. This paves the way for a new industrial revolution or Industry 4.0.

There are four design principles in Industry 4.0:

• Interconnection: the ability of machines, devices, sensors and people to connect and communicate via the internet (IoT or IoP).
• Transparency of Information: The transparency provided by Industry 4.0 technology provides operators with a wide range of useful and necessary information to make appropriate decisions. Interconnection allows operators to collect vast amounts of data and information from all points in the production process, helping functionality and identifying key areas that can benefit from innovation and improvement.
• Technical assistance: Firstly, the capacity of assistance systems to support people, add and display information in a comprehensive way to make well-informed decisions and solve urgent problems in short notice. Second, the ability of physical operating systems to physically support people by performing a series of unpleasant, exhausting, or unsafe tasks for people.
• Decentralised decisions: the ability of operating systems to make their own decisions and to perform their tasks in the most autonomous way. Only in the case of exceptions, interference or conflicting goals, tasks are delegated to a higher level.