15 Things to know about Industry 4.0

“Digital is the main reason just over half of the companies on the Fortune 500 have disappeared since the year 2000.”
Pierre Nanterme, CEO of Accenture

“You cannot wait until a house burns down to buy fire insurance on it. We cannot wait until there are massive dislocations in our society to prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
Robert J. Shiller, 2013 Nobel laureate in economics, Professor of Economics, Yale University

1. Industry 4.0 is a subset of the core topic ‘Internet of Things’

2. It is started by German Government in 2013 in order to remain technology leader and competitive in Manufacturing Industry by combining the IT Innovation with the Manufacturing Techniques

3. Along with Germany, USA and Japanese Players perceive Industry 4.0 as an opportunity (Germany 92.0%, USA:90%, Japan: 78%)

4. The core of Industry 4.0 is Cyber Physical System. As the term suggest, integration of Cyber System like Mobile Networks, Cloud Services, VPN etc. with the Physical Systems /Objects like Machines, robots, mobile devices etc. are undertaken.

5. Definition: System of physical objects and corresponding virtual objects that communicate via omnipresent information networks.Cyber Physical System comprises smart machines, storage systems and production facilities capable of autonomously exchanging information, triggering actions and controlling each other independently. With the help of Cyber Physical System, the organization will be able to establish the global network connecting their machinery, warehousing systems and production facilities.

6. German Industry will invest € 40 billion year by year till 2020. Industry 4.0 could increase turnover by 12% in 5 years. Enterprises in Germany expect an increase in productivity of more than 18% by 2020.

7. Automotive and Logistics are the Industry in the first wave on implementation of Industry 4.0. This is apart from the IT, Technology and Communication industries which are forerunners or enablers of the Industry 4.0.

8. The major benefit of industry 4.0 is Batch-1 Production i.e. Full customization. In series production, each product/component can be different. In addition, I have personally observed and studied the production line in Mercedes and Audi and what Industry 4.0 makes the biggest difference is Flexible and Modular Production. The IT modules of robots or machines can be exchanged or updated with the new ones by which a company can have a new production line or an updated production line

9. Other benefits include higher productivity, flexibility, increased sales, cost reduction, inventory reduction, development of new services and new business models

10. IT Mega Trends which came along with Industry 4.0: IT Security, Mobile Computing, Cloud Computing, Big Data & Analytics, Cyber Security

11. Trends which came along with Industry 4.0: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Machine to Machine Communication, Machine Learning, Service Apps & Portals, Recommender Systems

12. The ‘Kleine und Mittlestand Firmen’ Small and mid-sized companies will have a good potential for growth in terms of offering new services and customer satisfaction while the big groups sees the potential in terms of quality management and new services as the key areas of development

13. Cyber Security, Data ownership, IT architecture, co-ordination among value chain etc. are among the top barriers in implementation of Industry 4.0

14. Top five applications in which manufacturers are interested in: Digital performance management, Predictive maintenance, throughput optimization, next level automation, digital quality management

15. Top German Players in industry 4.0: