Manufacturing

Originally, the term Industry 4.0 was coined by the German government to describe a variety of technological changes identified in the production sector.

Despite the origin of the term, Industry 4.0 is actually phenomenon of global proportions that generated a real digital revolution in the manufacturing sector.

In general, the concept of industry 4.0 refers to the means of automation and the exchange of data in the production technologies, among which we’ll cite the following principal ones:

• Cyber-physical systems,
• Internet of Things,
• Big Data and Analysis,
• Augmented reality,
• Additive production,
• Simulation,
• Integration of horizontal and vertical systems,
• Autonomous robots,
• Cloud computing

In this scenario the IoT has a central role because it facilitates the connection between objects, machines and environments.

Before this digital revolution, the manufacturing sector had already gone through powerful transformations starting from industry 1.0 until reaching today's 4.0.

We can see here the main phases that led to the introduction of IoT in manufacturing:

• Industry 1.0: Introduction of water and steam (about 1780)
• Industry 2.0: mass production was introduced as a principal means for production
• Industry 3.0: Advent of the digital revolution during the 20th century
• Industry 4.0: a global change through the digitization and automation of every part of the company, as well as the production process.

The companies that will be able adopt the concept of Industry 4.0 will make themselves even more competitive on the market.

The advantages of Industry 4.0 make it possible to make production more efficient and less expensive thanks to an easy exchange of information between products and production machines that act simultaneously and intelligently.

Industry 4.0 allows the manufacturing sector to digitize with integrated detection devices, thus allowing each productive sector to evolve much faster than any of the three previous industrial revolutions