Introduction to Industry 4.0 – Automation & Application

“Industry 4.0 is the digital transformation of manufacturing/production and related industries and value creation processes”.

Industry 4.0 is used interchangeably with the fourth industrial revolution and represents a new stage in the organization and control of the industrial value chain.Industry 4.0 refers to the intelligent networking of machines and processes for industry with the help of information and communication technology.

Industry 4.0 has been defined as “a name for the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies, including cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things, cloud computing and cognitive computing and creating the smart factory”.

Industry 4.0 is a vision that evolved from an initiative to make the German manufacturing industry more competitive (‘Industry 4.0’) to a globally adopted term. It is characterized by,

1) Even more automation than in the third industrial revolution,

2) The bridging of the physical and digital world through cyber-physical systems, enabled by Industrial IoT,

3) A shift from a central industrial control system to one where smart product define the production steps,

4) closed-loop data models and control systems and finally the most important characteristics,

5) personalization/customization of products.