History of Industry: From the Past to the Present

Industry 4.0, or the 4th Industrial Revolution, is a collective term covering many contemporary automation systems, data exchanges and production technologies.

This revolution is a set of values made up of the Internet of Things, the Internet of Services and cyber-physical systems. This structure also plays a major role in the creation of the smart factory. Because this revolution makes it possible to collect every piece of data in the production environment and to monitor and analyze it well, more efficient business models will emerge. In this article you can find the details of these industrial revolutions..

 

From Industry 1.0 to 4.0

 

► Introduction of Mechanical Production Facilities (18th Century)

• 1712 Invention of the Steam Engine

 

► Transition to Mass Production Based on Electricity and Division of Labor

• (19th Century) 1840 Telegraph and 1880 Telephone Inventions
• 1920 Taylorism (Scientific Management)

 

► Automation of Production Processes (20th Century)

• 1971 First microcomputer (Altair 8800)
• 1976 Apple I (S. Jobs and S. Wozniak)

 

► Autonomous Machines and Virtual Environments (21st Century)

• 1988 AutoID Lab. (MIT)
• 2000 Internet of Things
• 2010 Cellular Transport System
• 2020 Autonomous Interaction and Virtualization

 

The Structure of Industry 4.0

 

Industry 4.0 is a collective whole of technologies and value chain organization concepts. It is based on the concept of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and the Internet of Services. This structure contributes greatly to the vision of smart factories. Industry 4.0 generally consists of the following 3 components.

► Internet of Things

► Internet of Services

► Cyber-Physical Systems

Within modular smart factories, Industry 4.0 aims to monitor physical processes with cyber-physical systems, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralized decisions. Through the Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems will be able to communicate and cooperate with each other and with people in real time. Through the Internet of Services, both internal and cross-organizational services will be offered and used by the participants of the value chain.

 

Principles of Industry 4.0

 

Industry 4.0 is based on 6 principles.

1) Interoperability: The ability of cyber-physical systems (e.g. workpiece carriers, assembly stations and products), people and smart factories to communicate with each other over the Internet of Things and the Internet of Services.

2) Virtualization: A virtual copy of smart factories, created by linking sensor data with virtual plant and simulation models.

3) Decentralization: The ability of cyber-physical systems within smart factories to make their own decisions.

4) Real-Time Capability: The ability to collect and analyze data, which enables insights to be gained quickly.

5) Service Orientation: Services of cyber-physical systems, people and smart factories are offered over the Internet of Services.

6) Modularity: Provides flexible adaptation of smart factories to the changing requirements of individual modules.

 

Applicability of the Industry 4.0 System

Production in an Industry 4.0 system is likened to a system in which machines offer services and share information with products in real time. The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) demonstrates how such a system works in practice at a small smart factory in Kaiserslautern, Germany, set up with the contribution of 20 industrial and research partners including Siemens. It uses soap bottles to show how products and manufacturing machines can communicate with each other. The empty soap bottles carry radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, which allow the machines to recognize the color of the bottles. Thanks to this system, the information a product transmits via radio signals can be stored digitally from the very start of production. In this way it emerges as a cyber-physical system.



 

Advantages of Industry 4.0

 

► Easier system monitoring and fault diagnosis

► Self-awareness of systems and their components

► Sustainability through environmentally friendly and resource-saving system behavior

► Higher efficiency

► Increased flexibility in production

► Reduced costs

► Development of new service and business models