INDUSTRY 4.0 – Enter the World of Smart Factory

When I was thinking for writing on Industry 4.0 first thing came in my mind was, what I seen traditional old Indian hand flour mill actually in working, which is use for grinding wheat and other grains. The design comprises of having two stone kept one over the other i.e. in pair. The stone which is kept below is a stationary and above that another stone which is rotating one around a lever and this rotating stone serve the purpose of actually grind the grains. The top stone is rotate manually by hands with help of handcrafted wooded lever fixed on top stone. These traditional mills are called as Chakkis Hindi written as चक्की and Jata in Marathi written as जात. These traditional old Indian hand flour mills convert to traditional water mills, can see the example in Himachal Pradesh a state in India and called as “GHARATS” in local language. A picture of “Gharat ” in Himachal Pradesh that uses water power to grind grains (Picture source: http://www.indiawaterportal.org/articles/age-old-grinder-himachal-pradesh-goes-out-styl) At global level also lot many such example we can find, which shows the phases of industrial growth. In the present time when we are marching towards “everyone to have mobile phone and internet” for communication and connectivity, then why not there will be communication and connectivity between the machines, between people and machines with digitization, this will results in new dimension to value chain, digital business model and an ecosystem for industry. So I feel, “Industry 4.0 is going to transform the entire world of product and service industry in total value chain. It’s time to get ready for change!!!”

History of Industry 4.0

1. The concept of Industry 4.0 (Industrie4.0) first known to world from Germany where it originated.
2. The name or this term first introduced in 2011 at Hanover fair.
3. Its plans and report came in 2013 and adopted by German Government.
4. The German federal government adopted this concept for high tech strategy for 2020.
5. The name Industry 4.0 is based on the evaluation of industry in last three phases.
6. In 2003, developed and published first set of recommendations. Their vision entailed that.

                                “these Cyber-Physical Systems comprise smart machines, storage systems and production facilities capable of autonomously exchanging information, triggering actions and controlling each other independently. This facilitates fundamental improvements to the industrial processes involved in manufacturing, engineering, material usage and supply chain and life cycle management.”(Source: internet)

Phases of earlier industrial growth:

 Broadly industrial growth categorized in three phases earlier than Industry 4.0.They are  Industry 1.0, Industry 2.0, Industry 3.0 base on the generations of industrial growth and can be put as end of 18^Th century, beginning of the 20^th century, beginning of the 70^th century respectively. On the basis of particular year to year, these three phases are detailed out as below:

1. 1760 to 1840 – In this era machines are powered by use of steam and water in Mechanical production, railways and steam engine.
2. 1870 to 1940 – Assembly lines are come in picture with a vision of mass production with the use of electricity. Some data goes back to 1850.This electrification in factories result in introduction of railways.
3. 1960 to 2010 – This is referred as digital Revolution where use of Computers, semiconductors, main frame computing, personal devices, internet started ,this in other word, can be put as change from analog and mechanical system to digital system.

What makes the Industry 4.0 a different from earlier three revolutions?

The concept of Industry 4.0 is totally base on production through automation of manufacturing process and this automation is based on communication between the machines and communication of machine with people. The communication between machines is called as Internet of Things, abbreviated as IoT , And Communication with people is called as internet of People, abbreviated as IoP. This overall communication IoT and IoP called as Cyber physical system.                  Cyber-physical system (CPS) is a system of collaborating computational elements controlling physical entities. CPS is physical and engineered systems, whose operations are monitored, coordinated, controlled and integrated by a computing and communication core. They allow us to add capabilities to physical systems by merging computing and communication with physical processes (Source: Internet).

 Design Principle of Industry 4.0

1. Interoperability: Industry 4.0 requires a very high level of connectivity and communication between the machines , devices and people and this can be carried out by cyber-physical systems with use of Internet of Things and the Internet of Services.
2. Virtualization: In order to monitor the product and simulate the process virtualization is required.
3. Decentralization: The ability of cyber-physical systems to make decisions on their own
4. Real-Time Capability: To act on, communication system must be capable of not only collecting the data but also expected to analyze the same on the real time basis.
5. Service Orientation: Services are offered through the Internet of Services
6. Modularity: System should be as flexible as possible so, that it is compatible during the change in process and system requirement.

Representation of building blocks of Industry 4.0

The basic requirement for Industry 4.0 is mentioned as below and these requirements make the concepts of Industry 4.0 and termed as building blocks of Industry 4.0.

• Autonomous Robots
• Simulation
• Horizontal and vertical system integration
• Industrial Internet of things
• Cyber Security
• Additive Manufacturing
• Augmented Reality
• Big Data Analytics

 Impact of industry 4.0 on ecosystem

Industry 4.0 will impact on the ecosystem through following focused points,

• Economy
• Business
• National and at Global level
• On Society ,and
• On individual.

 Ways to overcome challenges to execute Industry 4.0

1. In view of emerging trend of Industry 4.0, there is need to make the changes in the education system / learning system with concept of “ ACT & START NOW”.
2. There is immediate need to organize the various seminars, workshop which will help to give ideas on “Internet of Things”, “Cyber Physical System” and related things; this will help in general to increase awareness.
3. Industry 4.0 required handling the huge data and in handling such data there is always risk. So, need to take steps to reduce the risk and increasing the security of data.
4. This required changing in organization working pattern, specifically conventional verticals and horizontal pattern required to be replace with some arrangement where cross functional communication can be happened.

Industry 4.0 will hit throughout industry in very shorter period as historical data shows that, web takes 7 years to reach 100 million people where as Pokémon Go just in one month. Now, when Industry 4.0 is going to be a reality, then there must be QUALITY 4.0 which can take care of requirements of Industry 4.0. It will be further interesting to write on concept of Quality 4.0 or something like that. This may include:

1. Connecting to Lean Six Sigma
2. TQM methodology
3. TPM methodology
4. ISO 9001 which is having one of the focus area, “Risk Base Thinking”.
5. Leadership and
6. Continuous Improvement part and many more.

Till then happy reading………