Industry 4.0, also referred to as the fourth industrial revolution, is a concept encompassing a complex process of technological and organizational transformation of companies, which began in 2013. Combining modern technologies with traditional production processes, it involves the integration of the value chain, the introduction of new business models, and the digitization of products and services.
Industry 4.0. according to the European Center for the Advancement of Advanced Manufacturing includes seven stages:
The introduction of Industry 4.0 for manufacturing companies means a profound transformation is required. While all four industrial revolutions have had massive impacts, the current revolution is unfolding at an unprecedented rate, requiring efficient change management, digitization of industrial plants and their automation.
Companies are investing in new technologies, modernizing production lines and developing employee competencies. Integration of IT systems with OT (Operational Technology) is becoming crucial, enabling full automation and remote management of production processes. The result is increased productivity, reduced operating costs, better product quality and quicker response to changing market needs.
One of the biggest challenges for companies in the context of Industry 4.0 is the high initial cost of investing in new technologies. Companies should be ready to purchase modern machinery, IT systems and train employees. However, automation of industrial production is not only about artificial intelligence and smart factories. Cybersecurity is another challenge, as increased connectivity and integration of systems creates new vulnerabilities and risks. Additionally, managing large amounts of data (big data) requires the right tools for analysis and interpretation, which is essential for making effective decisions.
Industry 4.0 opens up huge opportunities for manufacturing companies. The global market for Industry 4.0. is rushing and, in the end, will not spare companies that have remained resistant to implementing the technology, thus delaying their entry into the new era of manufacturing. Integration of Industry 4.0 is inevitable for companies that want to remain competitive in a rapidly changing manufacturing environment. By using modern technologies, they can offer higher quality products at lower production costs. Automated and intelligent processes allow personalization of products, which is becoming increasingly important in the era of individual customer needs. In addition, with better data analysis, companies optimize processes, minimize waste and predict failures, leading to significant savings and increased production reliability.
Implementing the concept of Industry 4.0 is a transformation involving many different aspects, requiring very good preparation, learning new tools and dynamically adapting them to the changing needs of the company. It is therefore necessary to take a strategic approach and remain flexible. Otherwise, the potential of modern technologies will not be fully exploited.
Embarking on a company’s digital transformation is a process that requires strategic planning and appropriate investment. If you want to bring automation to industrial production, the first step is to understand the current technological state of the company and identify areas that could benefit from new technologies. Next, it’s worth creating a transformation plan that takes into account business goals, needed resources and a timeline for implementation. It is crucial to involve management and employees at all levels to ensure a smooth transition to new technologies. Investment in training and development of employees’ digital competencies is essential to maximize the potential of modern tools.
You can read more about it in the article: How to implement the assumptions of Industry 4.0 in a company?
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is the foundation of Industry 4.0, enabling machines, equipment and systems to be networked together. Investing in IIoT allows production processes to be monitored in real time, increasing efficiency and reducing downtime. IIoT sensors and devices collect data from various points in production, providing valuable information for further analysis.
Collecting and analyzing big data is another important part of the Smart Industry. Investing in big data analysis tools allows companies to better understand their production processes, identify bottlenecks and predict future trends. Data analysis also enables better decision-making, leading to increased productivity and product quality.
AI and machine learning are playing a key role in optimizing manufacturing processes. Artificial intelligence allows automation of tasks that previously required human intervention, such as quality control and failure prediction. Industrial automation through AI algorithms can analyze IIoT sensor data and predict potential problems before they occur, allowing for proactive production management.
Cyber-physical systems (CPS) integrate digital technologies with physical processes, enabling more precise and flexible production management. Investment in CPS allows for the creation of smart factories, where machines communicate with each other and make autonomous decisions. CPS increases production flexibility, enabling rapid adaptation to changing market needs.
Automation and robotics are the foundations of modern production lines. Investment in advanced industrial robots allows complex and precise tasks that are difficult for humans to achieve. Automation of production processes increases efficiency, reduces costs and minimizes the risk of errors.
Digitization of industrial plants (implementation of Industry 4.0) is a complex process that requires a strategic approach and appropriate investments. Companies that want to be competitive in today’s market need to focus on key technologies, such as the Industrial Internet of Things IIoT, big data, AI, CPS and automation, in order to realize the full potential of modern technology.
Monitoring production and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a fundamental step toward implementing Industry 4.0. OEE allows for accurate tracking of productivity, availability and quality of production processes, which is key to identifying areas for optimization. By monitoring production in real time, companies can quickly respond to issues, minimize downtime and maximize operational efficiency. The introduction of data monitoring and analysis systems therefore becomes an essential first step in a company’s digital transformation.
Read more in the article: https://ttpsc.com/en/blog/oee-is-your-company-stuck-in-a-manipulation-trap/
Industry 4.0 is a concept that may initially frighten even companies that have already taken a step toward digital transformation. However, there is no doubt that the increasing awareness, availability of tools and specialists in the market means that the technological revolution can be carried out efficiently, quickly, and effectively. Check out our offer and contact us – let’s talk about your company’s needs.
A client, a leader in the glass packaging manufacturing sector, identified the need to implement an integrated production data management system to replace outdated, manual reporting methods.
Introduction In the highly competitive food and beverage industry, achieving optimal Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as availability, performance, and quality is essential for maximizing operational efficiency and profitability. A client operating semi-automated production lines was experiencing persistent underperformance in these KPIs. To address this issue, the company required a robust and precise data-driven approach […]
In the aerospace and defense industry, which is characterized by particularly high requirements for precision and reliability, key performance indicators in maintenance, failure prediction or machine condition monitoring, are crucial.
If you think OEE has no secrets to you and your plant maintain highest OEE results… think again. Harsh truth is that most manufacturing plants’ OEE land somewhere between 35 and 43%. They just don’t know about that.
You don't have to replace your machines with the new ones to make your production "smarter" and more efficient. Your shop floor is a data mine, and digitization is the key to unlock its value.
Whether you're a seasoned user or new to ThingWorx, overcoming these hurdles is crucial for IoT success. In this blog, we'll uncover the top challenges, offer tips for newcomers, discuss strategies to enhance your ThingWorx experience, and explore the importance of upgrading your ThingWorx solution.
Very often overlooked or accepted as-is due to being an integral part of the production – in times of crisis and cost-cutting, it can become a major factor that improves the bottom line of your organization. Where to look for significant energy savings to reduce energy costs? How manufacturers should focus on these goals to make an impact?
According to the German Federal Statistical Office, energy consumption by the industry for the production of goods hardly changed between 1995 and 2019. In 2019, it amounted to 3,874 petajoules. This means that it remains at the same level as in previous years. Germany plans to halve its primary consumption of energy by 2050, with the industry having to take part. In the era of the energy crisis, the drive to improve corporate energy efficiency is entering a new level.
In the manufacturing industry, efficiency is key to staying competitive and profitable. One way to improve efficiency is through data visibility. By having access to real-time visibility of the operational data throughout the manufacturing process, companies can identify bottlenecks, monitor production lines, and make data-driven decisions. In this article, we'll explore how data visibility can help manufacturing companies improve their efficiency and ultimately their bottom line.
Energy consumption bills have been a major focus in virtually all areas of industry for many years, and the current global situation is a factor driving up demand for solutions that make it easier to monitor energy consumption or save energy. In an industrial environment, where the cost of utilities has always been one of the main business drivers, the latest twists and turns in the global economy: inflation, natural resources supply challenges and the threat of fluctuating and unpredictable increases in energy costs – are arguably the most important economic factors these days.
The new opportunities associated with Industry 4.0 require companies to adapt to the new environment. In this article, we take a closer look at the current situation in the automotive industry, discuss the challenges it faces and the opportunities offered by digital transformation.
Digital transformation is reshaping the way how people, products, assets, data, and operations are connected to create an outcome for the customers and switch digital data into the customer experience. Digital technologies create new business opportunities across the globe and enable the evolution of enterprise, products and processes for valuable capabilities. The article describes the Internet of Things concept and shows how to use cloud infrastructure to take advantage of the digital transformation in business.
Internet of Things systems have one huge advantage – they can collect lots of data. Temperature, items produced, amount of remaining liquids, humidity, machine uptime, damaged products, vehicle routes, electricity used. Based on this, we can get even more value by calculating KPIs to indicate how close to perfect our system is. Going manually through an endless stream of numbers changing every couple of hours is impossible and inefficient. The simple solution is to visualize the data by using a carefully selected chart type, that will exponentially increase its value. In this article, I want to show you the benefits of good data visualization and explain how it can be applied in your solution.
The sudden epidemic of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease has affected every sphere of the modern world. Caused by an epidemiological threat, the restriction of the flow of people, goods and services has already negatively affected the continuity of production processes in many industries, and each day this situation persists, without credible forecasts of a return to normality, will pull others into the spiral of detention threats.
Scalability in web applications has become crucial in the past years. An ever-growing number of devices and clients, connected to the Internet, makes it difficult to handle the traffic by a single server. Scalability is a characteristic of a system that tells if expanding the resources of a server(s) will make it run faster (or handle more load).
Modern web applications that serve data and content to millions of users run in clustered environments. Dealing with a huge amount of connections at the same time requires many resources. That resources are CPU time and RAM. Each and every connection produces an additional load on the server. Having just one server would require a vast amount of resources and we already know that Moore's Law is no longer valid. That said we need multiple servers ready to respond to users’ requests. Web applications use HTTP(S) protocol which works in the request-response communication method. Upon user's request, the server will prepare the response and send it back. Every response needs to be processed by the server and that's the key factor in provisioning resources for the server - requests may be different, starting from simple static data like CSS or images to more demanding like requesting data from database, filtering or calculating certain data.
The ThingWorx IoT Hub Connector is the bridge that connects the ThingWorx platform to the Azure cloud (more specifically to Azure IoT Hub). It provides secure (certificate-based) communication, thanks to which we can use the enormous possibilities of cloud computing. It is also a very extensive, but generic solution.
Synergy, this is how you can define this natural combination of technologies that will significantly affect the appearance of the future of production. Recently, in addition to the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining more and more popularity. The connection of these two technological trends heralds a real revolution in industry 4.0.
This year's Liveworx, due to the global situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, has exceptionally been held only online. On the very first day it was announced that a new version of ThingWorx - the most popular platform maximizing the potential of the industrial Internet of Things - will be released for commercial use. According to the announcements of Joe Biron, CTO responsible for IoT technology at PTC, it is supposed to be faster, cheaper and more effective.
The evolution of artificial intelligence, as well as machine learning has gained momentum in the last few years. The constant drive to increase the computing power of computers has given the opportunity to use algorithms and mathematical apparatus created in the second half of the 20th century on an unprecedented scale. With the imminent arrival of a commercial quantum computer, we can slowly become afraid of scenes from the movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger as Terminator. However, without going too far into the future, and focusing on the present, I decided to check the possibilities offered by the technology available today and whether it can be used to predict the spread of COVID-19 disease.
The Industrial Internet of Things changes our view on the classic concept of production today. The largest manufacturing companies are eager to reach for technological solutions that streamline and increase the efficiency of production processes. With the development of subsequent technologies, interest in the concept of industry 4.0 increases, and thus, the number of connected devices. To meet the demand for infrastructure with adequate capacity and speed it was necessary to evolve towards the next generation of networks - 5G. How will 5G affect the development of Factories of the future and why is this crucial from the perspective of the Internet of Things? You will learn everything from the article.
The Internet of Things is being used more and more, and even global giants are already using the optimization or information gathering solutions. All this to improve existing processes, acquire, process and report more data, or even introduce new services for their clients, thereby increasing sales revenue. How is the Internet of Things changing the reality of the aviation industry?
Following up our partnership with Rockwell Automation, our team of business and technical experts found their way to Munich, Germany to participate in TechED EMEA. It is a unique event during which you can listen, talk and test the latest news in the field of industrial automation and directly participate in the next industrial revolution.
Nobody would be surprised by a statement that the Automotive industry is innovative in its nature. Cars are machines that historically revolutionized many areas of industry themselves, and today we can’t help but notice that the industry has not slowed down even for a moment and has always been focused on technological growth that serves both the business and its customers.
It might seem that the Internet of Things is dedicated only to industry. However, transport and logistics are closely connected to it, and they can also take advantage of the ongoing revolution. In the end, every industry uses transport services or logistic processes to some extent.
As every time for the last couple of years, our strong team of representatives was present in Boston to attend one of the most important IoT events of the year – LiveWorx, 2019 edition. Get the ball rollin’ And even with 10 participants from various business areas, actively seeking new information and presentations, […]
Industry 4.0 and its foundation, the Internet of Things (IoT – especially in industrial version: IIoT), in the last years have dominated the way of thinking of advanced management concerning manufacturing business resources.
PTC is phasing out its Axeda platform. Although they look similar at first sight, Axeda and ThingWorx differ very much in capabilities.
While ago, PTC announced a new release of ThingWorx Platform (8.4). Among other exciting features, this release has OOTB support for integration with InfluxDB.
The approach that has been underestimated for a long time is nowadays spreading its wings and becoming a crucial set of solutions for global corporations. However, not only for them as medium and small companies are following the biggest ones as well. Thus, the advantages of the Internet of Things have been recognized by everyone. […]
Recent years were hyped about the Internet of Things (IoT) and how it was supposed to re-shape the whole industry. However, so far we’ve seen many more people talking about it than actually implementing it enterprise-wide. Is IoT mature enough to be “the real deal” and bring measurable value to businesses? The term IoT […]
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