Industry 4.0 – The era of smart factories
Industry 4.0 – a German term
According to Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon Industry 4.0 has been created as a marketing term by the German government. It was originally used to name the government’s future project concerning the industrial development. In this way, Industry 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution. After the steam engine, the assembly line, computers and robots, with smart factories a new era of industry has begun.
What is Industry 4.0 and what are smart factories?
Industry 4.0 is about smart factories which enable better connection between developer, producer and consumer of a product. Connection is the keyword of Industry 4.0. It is not only realized between the different actors in the producing and consuming process but also between the various machines integrated in the system. This interconnection between all parties enables more individual and more efficient production.
Meeting the consumer’s needs is all about knowing them
First of all, integrating the consumer and his needs in the production process better allows better meeting of the consumer’s needs and consequently more effective production. If the consumer is able to communicate his wishes to the developer, the producer can adapt the product in order to meet the consumer’s individual needs. Due to intelligent factoring processes the machines easily adapt to special requirements without making the production more expensive.
Intelligent machines communicate and make decisions
Even more important than the integration of the costumer is the connection between the machines incorporated in a production process. Using IoT, the interconnection between gadgets and machines is easy and allows better coordination of operations. Consequently, connecting the various machines makes the production process more efficient. Moreover, smart machines work independently without following a strict programme. Their ability to make certain decisions on their own allows them to adapt to upcoming events. In case of an unexpected incident the machine reacts and communicates its reaction to other smart machines integrated in the process.
By doing so, the communication area is not limited to a factory but all the machines belonging to a smart production process are interconnected even beyond the boundaries of one factory. That means, for example, if a machine recognizes running out of a certain material the supplier will be contacted and the material will be ordered automatically. And since smart machines also consider the delivery period, there will never be a lack of raw materials.
Industry 4.0 is more than production
Intelligent industry is not limited to the fabrication processes, but also includes the disposal and the further use of the products. In this way, Industry 4.0 deals a wide range of the everyday life like public mobility, healthcare system, climate and energy, etc. Actually, smart industry systems can replace conventional industries in many fields of work. Driver assistant systems, various robots and a smart grid are just some examples to get an idea of the broad field of Industry 4.0.
Digitalisation of data: increased efficiency but also more vulnerability
Intelligent processes make the Industry 4.0 more efficient. Due to perfect coordination and cooperation in factories and between different companies, precious time, resources and consequently money can be saved. However, the implementation of smart industry implies the complete digitalisation of data because more than ever the industrial processes are dependent on the exchange of data. Although digital data was already important in the previous industrial era, in the Industry 4.0 it is ubiquitous since it is essential to the whole industrial system. Anyways, the digitalisation of all data does not only allow workers to work more efficiently but also provides hackers with a target. In this way, complete digitalisation leads to the problematic fact that company and private data can be hacked and abused.
Ethical aspect of intelligent industry
Already in the previous industrial era automated machines have replaced a lot of human workers. The innovation of Industry 4.0 are smart machines which work more and more autonomously and are even able to react to upcoming events making decisions on their own. In this way, smart machines are not limited to supporting the work-process controlled by human anymore, but start to control processes themselves. However, the decision-making ability of smart machines is a critical aspect which is still missing satisfactory solutions. Since the machine is no human, it does not have the ability to distinguish right from wrong in an ethical or moral way.
When a machine makes decisions, then they are based on the machines programmed interpretation of ongoing actions. The most severe problem of the machines decision-making program is the missing moral checking instance. Therefore, especially if they affect humans, wrong decisions caused by wrong interpretation of the situation can have severe impacts.
Industry 4.0 – a new era in the early stage of development
Because of the mentioned ethical aspect, fully autonomous working machines are not implemented yet. However, the industry’s development is moving straight towards more and more automated and even independent processes. But only providing the intelligent machines with a moral instance will be a satisfactory way of preparing the ground for fully independent acting machines, particularly when they are in direct contact with humans.