| | DECEMBER 20228THE PANORAMAThe Industrial revolution 4.0, popularly known as Industry 4.0, has become increasingly crucial in modern manufacturing for a multitude of reasons, and mainly constitutes the next wave of technology by driving efficiency across operations. What would cause organizations to fall behind is when they fail to adopt the technology of the Fourth Industrial revolution since the operations of these organizations will not be digitalized enough to match their competitors. According to a MarketsandMarkets research report, the Industry 4.0 market size is anticipated to reach $156.6 billion by 2024, globally. Factors bolstering this market growth include the increasing adoption of the industrial internet worldwide in manufacturing units, increased attention on enhanced efficiency of machinery and systems, and reduced production costs.REVOLUTION ON THE ANVILIndustry 4.0 is revolutionizing the way factories manufacture, improve, and distribute their products. While manufacturers are integrating enabling technologies, such as IoT, cloud computing and analytics, AI, and ML into their manufacturing facilities and throughout their operations, these smart factories are equipped with advanced sensors, embedded software, and robotics that collect and analyze data which help in better decision-making. Not just that, even higher values are created when data from production operations is amalgamated with operational data from various sources such as Enterprise Resource Planning, supply chain, customer service, etc, to give a whole new level of visibility and insight from previously siloed information. This technology has not only resulted in increased automation, but also predictive maintenance, and self-optimization of process improvements. Above all, it provides a new level of efficiencies and responsiveness to customers that were not previously possible. Building smart factories offers an incredible opportunity for manufacturers who are entering the fourth industrial revolution. Furthermore, analyzing the humongous amounts of data that are collected from sensors on the factory floor ensures real-time visibility of manufacturing assets and helps in providing tools for predictive maintenance to minimize equipment downtime. Using IoT devices in smart factories leads to higher productivity and improved quality. While replacing manual inspection with AI-powered visual insights reduces manufacturing errors and saves money and time, the quality control personnel can set up a smartphone connected to the cloud to monitor manufacturing processes from virtually anywhere, with minimal investment. The highlight is that manufacturers can detect errors immediately, instead of finding them at later stages when the repair is more expensive and this can be achieved by applying ML algorithms.CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTATIONIndustry 4.0 which is the manufacturing side of digital transformation has the enthralling potential of "smart factories", which delivers intelligence on demand. Also, the evolution of data-driven autonomous systems and ML tools reinforces the promise of Industry 4.0 since organizations/factories look to connect IoT devices, gather critical metrics and also visualize data in real-time, analyze results and optimize manufacturing processes. While a typical factory now generates one terabyte of production data every day, 90 plus percent of this data isn't properly utilized. Then, how do the manufacturers leverage their existing resources, implement new solutions, and also revolutionize factory-floor intelligence? With the advent of IIoT, amazing technologies such as robotics, 3D printing, advanced analytics, and Artificial Intelligence now offer the potential for connected, additive, and autonomous manufacturing processes. And, this is critical for organizations that are looking to extend their machines' lifespan, increase throughput and reduce device breakdowns. However, organizations face a major challenge and the challenge is `connection'. When manufacturers are asked regarding IoT, most of them will say that they have been doing it for ages now by leveraging networked "legacy" controllers and sensors. These include PLCs and smart devices that store data both locally and with historians. But unfortunately, today, this is not enough, as most of the assets in factories are in isolation. Furthermore, the smart factories of Industry 4.0 will have to deliver better device security, ease of connectivity, and common platforms, to meet IIC consortium standards. Lastly, by bridging the gap between HOW INDUSTRY 4.0 IS TRANSFORMING THE MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY
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