Industry 4.0
You might have often heard from your colleagues or friends about the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 a.k.a I-4.0, but what is Industrial 4.0? As defined on i-scoop.eu from guide to industry 4.0,” The current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of things and cloud computing. Industry 4.0 creates what has been called a “smart factory”. It is the on-going automation of traditional manufacturing using smart machines and something which used to be fiction and imagination will be turning into reality in near future.
An automatic factory is a place where raw materials enter, and finished products leave with little or no human intervention. (Autofac - science fiction 1955)
In short, it is little to no human intervention in the production process and all tasks from monitoring, analyzing to issues diagnosis are done by the machine itself. I-4.0 is the digital transformation of manufacturing i.e. a conglomeration of trending and emerging disciplines like Digitization, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Cyber-physical systems, CIM, Big Data, etc., all together. Prior industrial revolutions from 1st to 3rd (i.e. mechanization, electrification, and globalization) were focused on single technological advancement and didn’t consist of sub-disciplines whilst 4th revolution is multidisciplinary advancement.
Different stages and disciplines of the industrial revolution from 1760 to the current year.
In this day and age, every manufacturing sector is racing to cut down their production time, and who can do it better with accuracy and precision other than programmed robots. You’d be surprised to learn that FANUC is using light out manufacturing since the year 2001 i.e. robots making machines with no human presence even the air conditioning and heat is shut down, according to FANUC’s vice president. Nowadays, we see the trend of Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning catching up with manufacturing industries, which can be combined with robots or cobots to predict failure and avoid unnecessary interruptions. It’s hard to say that when this change will take place and start effecting the SME’s, it could be in a year, 5 years or a decade.
Effects of New Revolution
Although there is a long list of challenges and effects that come along with this massive change in industries across the globe, the question is which issue comes first and should be tackled as we progress and approach toward I-4.0. Among different categories of challenges from Economic, Political, Social and Organisational; 2 of the issues that stood out most for me is (a) Loss of jobs of Blue collars workers and (b) Lack of adequate skillset for the transition to 4th industrial revolution.
Even if the task performed manually is replaced by the robot, there will be need of someone monitoring the activities of machine and ensuring everything is running smooth. It is inevitable to stop the loss of jobs for blue collar workers if robot can do the same task more efficiently, but at the same time new set of job might be created for advanced skillset like programming the robots, machine maintenance, ability to create custom solutions and fixing bugs and issues in the production process. The effect of job loss can reduced by skill development program provide by the government programs, companies or self-learning by the individual himself.
UR10e (cobot) setting up part using Profeeder Airvise in Haas VF2 cnc. (video credit: FUSIONOEM YouTube)
Future of Education
In this constantly evolving world, the amount of knowledge and discovery is increasing every day. Looking from the past trends, educational institutions is behind and depends on changes in industry when it comes to teaching or introducing new courses, curriculum or recently created in-demand industry skill. Few years ago, coding was for students who are pursuing higher studies or completed high school, but in last decade you can see increasing trend of introducing coding to kids from younger age. Some countries are taking steps to make it mandatory from kindergarten giving it equivalency and likeness to that of mathematics.
According to world economic forum and digital toolbox for different personas created by Deloitte insight here are the top field or subject which will used in future manufacturing and we need to start thinking about how to incorporate it into our education institutions for future generation looking careers in manufacturing and for current workers adopting to this shift.
Future technology and skills that will be used in future manufacturing (2025) according to Deloitte insights.
Positive side of the revolution is there is still space for human being to put in the loop of this advancement, especially analytical and soft skill like critical thinking, creativity and people management is something which cannot be overtaken by the technology.
The reason for this post is not only to start the discussion but to see what is being done to up-skill community and employees and take action as we progress toward the unprecedented change in industries. It is important for current students in college and university to question and analyse their curriculum, keep future trends in mind and having less focus on subject which may become obsolete in near future. Practicals to operate and understand how digital devices interact and work will be mandatory skill to learn for youth across the globe.
Let us know your thoughts below and get the conversation going.
Disclaimer: The information is extracted from the mentioned references down below and the views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent that of anyone mentioned in the articles or of my current employer. I am/We are maintaining this blog in an effort to increase awareness and open the door for dialogue in any form about the history of manufacturing, current trends in the industry, and opportunities for the future.
References
- https://www.i-scoop.eu/industry-4 0/#:~:text=Industry%204.0%20is%20the%20current,called%20a%20%E2%80%9Csmart%20factory%E2%80%9D. – Guide to industry 4.o
- https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/manufacturing/articles/future-of-manufacturing-skills-gap-study.html – Future skills in manufacturing
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_out_(manufacturing) – Lights out manufacturing and automation
- https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/
Ali Farhan
Blogging and Creating Youtube Videos Tutorial on Industrial Design, Manufacturing, and Gaming. Toolroom Machinist at Nahanni steel plant, learning and sharing knowledge.
