The industrial revolution has brought significant changes in the way we live and work. The easiness in the works that we perform today is attained by the rapid growth in the industrial and economic development. The industrial revolution has begun in the 18th century and from there on the mechanization of labour have been the primary focus of industrialization. Now by 2020 we have evolved through three stages of the industrial revolution and have reached the fourth which is known as industry 4.0. All these industrial revolutions have had several positive social and economic effects whereas on the other hand industrialization also had some negative impact over the society. Let us have a look at the present stage of industrial revolution ie Industry 4.0 in a deeper sense. Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution is focused on automation of machines with wireless technology and sensors, which could help visualize the entire production process and make decisions on its own. Industry 4.0 includes the Internet of things (IoT), cyber-physical systems, Industrial Internet of things ( IIoT), cloud computing, cognitive computing and artificial intelligence. The concept encompasses smart manufacturing, smart factories, light outs etc. Industry 4.0 uses the current digital technologies to monitor physical processes and create a virtual environment of those processes and make decentralized decisions. The ability to make decentralized decisions on its own resulted in attaining a high degree of automation. Smart factories and smart manufacturing Being an outcome of the fourth industrial revolution, smart factories are the digitization of processes by employing technologies such as the Internet of Things, Artificial intelligence, Big data, analytics and robotics. Smart factories are completely automated and run without much human intervention. Visibility, connectivity and autonomy are the defining aspects of a smart factory. With the use of modern technologies like sensors... Continue Reading
