Introduction to the Industrial Revolutions
Question:
Discuss about the Industrial Engineering Curriculum in Industry.
The three industrial revolutions in the past were triggered by technological innovations in which the initial industrial revolution was characterized by the introduction of automated production amenities in the 18th century. Then came the second revolution with the division of labor and electrification. The third generation was characterized by information technology and more electronics to improve the automation of the production process, for example, the introduction of PLCs. Industry 4.0 is the convergence of industrial production, information and communication technologies to fasten production (Rüßmann et al, 2015). This idea strengthens the competitiveness of the German industry. I think the industry 4.0 helps in improving the industrial process involved in manufacturing, engineering, material usage and other supply chain managements (Gentner, 2016). I think there will be a pattern shift from a centralized to a decentralized production process because of continuous communication between people, machines and the resources.
There are smart products that often know their production history the current and the end state so they can perform their production processes on their own by instructing different machines to perform a stated manufacturing process and after that order, the conveyor belts to conduct transportation to a certain destination or next production stage (Wang et al., 2016). This communication between different machines and devices is a technique to be added in the industry 4.0. This can be done by writing a program to a machine on what task to perform and how they should perform it. I think robots and sensors can be incorporated in this as they play an important role. Industry 4.0 is termed as an integral part of the High-Tech strategy for Germany in 2020.
Industry 4.0 has three important components namely IoT, Cyber-Physical systems and the smart factories (Wan, 2016). Internet of Things is gaining ground in the modern wireless telecommunications. Things are the active participants in business that interact and communicate together to exchange data and information sensed from the environment. Smart factory is a solution for manufacturing which provide flexible production process that solves problems arising from a production facility. That solution could be related to automation involving either the software or hardware. Smart machines will shape jobs, manufacturing processes and the production systems. It was argued that the reason behind the introduction of an Internet of Things into the fourth revolution was to allow various things and objects, for example, the sensors and actuators to communicate with each other and hence cooperate with other smart components to reach a common goal so they ca self-control their tasks (Wang et al, 2016). This leads to the extreme amount of data which can be extracted, visualized and used for end to end engineering (Almada-Lobo, 2016).
They will be producing high tech products. There will be mass commercialization which aims at producing personalized mass products through flexible processes (Liao, 2017). Within a smart factory, products can converse with their surroundings and influence Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (Hozdi?, 2015). Configuration rules then replace the concrete structures and the specifications of the production processes. RMS hence enables the manufacturing companies to familiarize varying production necessities in a cost-efficient way (Almada-Lobo, 2016). Mechanical components can be rearranged according to the mechanical interface. The difficulty of coordination can be condensed while increasing the elasticity by breaking down the production processes into small divisions which share data according to the step process. This makes the employees lose sight of the exact picture and to avoid this overarching modeling of the chain can supply distributed units with reflectors to underline their actions in the production process.
What is Industry 4.0?
In the technology sector, I think decision process will be done by the self-optimizing and knowledgeable manufacturing process as compared to the past where decisions were only made by the humans (Lu, 2017). Distributed systems are only capable of manufacturing smaller batch sizes and aid SMEs to follow the market chances (Sommer, 2015). The target to raise collaboration productivity is lower cost per price so to cab this the ratios between the return of production and the return of engineering should be evaluated (Sommer, 2015). This ensures that all production activities are covered whether in direct and indirect apartments. Productivity improvements are an example of decision-making ability. These are some of the factors that should be considered when adopting the industry 4.0.
As the difficulty of products and the production processes rise, the Collaborative Manufacturing and the Collaborative Development Environment became important for minor and average enterprises. Industry 4.0 enables collaboration productivity. It is motivated by the higher potential for growth of productivity (Schuster et al., 2015). Some research shows that the industry 4.0 will function mostly in the lean manufacturing industries (Sanders et al., 2016).
Industry 4.0 acceptance of information technology and social media system has gradually influenced consumer’s opinion of product improvement quality variety and the speed of distribution. This involves establishing a factory with self-awareness, self-prediction, self-comparison, self-maintenance and self-reconfiguration (Vogel-Heuser et al, 2016). The previous industrial revolutions had a great impact on production processes itself and the shop-floor level. Companies, therefore, gained higher productivity using the steam engines and eventually through electricity in the third revolution. New technologies especially information technology and innovation are implemented in the modern business hence new ways of production and ways of doing business and other services in industrial production. This brings me down to the difference between the industry 4.0 and the industry 3.0 as listed below.
There is a greater difference between the industry 4.0 and industry 3.0. Industry 3.0 preceded the industry 4.0. The third revolution was also termed as a digital revolution and was set around in the 1970s. In this advanced electronics and information technology was established. This led to the further computerization of the production process. In industry 4.0 the amount of data collected and stored will be more as compared to industry 3.0. This is because the production process will be fast therefore more data will be stored. The Internet of Things allows separation of data from the important to the less important therefore helping in drawing conclusions and support in carrying out business activities. Big data helps in analyzing data at an advanced level. In industry 4.0, there will be the integration of all available technologies instead of developing their technologies to come up with a more improvised manufacturing industry. Industry 3.0 developed their technologies, for example, robots, the PLCs and SCADA but they never connected them to IT. This is what the industry 4.0 is aiming at to improve their productivity (Almada-Lobo, 2016).
Industry 4.0 will be so important to business because it will help create competition in the business sector. This will force the respective personnel to offer and produce commodities of higher quantity and quality. There will be increased self-awareness among the customers, and many industries were hence increasing the number of sales and therefore expanding the market. The data that will be acquired and stored will be used to enhance customer service and responsiveness, therefore, improve customer relations and intelligence. Industry 4.0 will care to assess the industrial engineers avoiding much shock created by the information technology issue (Sackey, 2016).
Components of Industry 4.0
In industry 4.0, there is the interconnection of many different components to achieve a certain goal that is the production of a certain end product. People are also connected to these devices over the IoT. These devices include the machines, devices and sensors. Sensors are devices that can detect a certain environmental quantity, for example, a light sensor. Wireless communication technologies play a fundamental role in allowing internet access (Brettel et al, 2014). Through the IoE people and objects can share information, and this forms a basis for collaboration to achieve a common goal after that. This collaboration enables the market to adapt to fluctuating market demands. Modularization is a concept needed to increase the variety of the products that the industry 4.0 will borrow. For proper modularization, the product will need to be decoupled into very small subsystems with little interdependence. This is to attain proper economies of scale.
Industry 4.0 is, therefore, one of the best revolutions even though it has its challenges one of them very high income. A lot of money will be incurred in buying other devices and machines. Also acquiring the right value or the correct devices to use is another task that has to be put into consideration. This will cause unemployment t many people because machines will be there to perform the tasks which people would have performed therefore creating poverty (Bonekamp, 2015). Also, there will be more connections hence being more vulnerable therefore a lot of care must be taken making such nodes meet. Many devices for example the PLCs should be properly connected in the industry to avoid faulty connections (Vogel-Heuser et al, 2016). Digitalizing using the big data files is also one of the big challenges. For example, using the data to predict the buyer’s trend and be able to feed into the system. There is also the issue of security. The big files are prone to hacking, so security threat is one of the bigger issues (Prause, 2015). Employees should not be allowed to connect personal devices as hackers will get a way through for hacking. An attacker may also attack a system by either destroying it or blocking it by changing the authentication details. Another challenge is that there will be the change in the management of different industries. The employer will also be in a position to recruit new members with different talents, for example, those who will be responsible for making the connections. Also, he or she will have the job of redirecting employees about where an action is required in the industry or constantly reminding them whenever they lose track. The employees should also be taught the importance of keeping their passwords confidential, which is not sharing them with other people who are prone to stealing big industry data.
Therefore, industry 4.0 is the best revolution as compared the last three revolutions. It will assist in making work easier because the machines will perform several tasks. Although it has many challenges, it is of great significance to the business sector because the core of every industrial revolution is to increase the productivity and IT strategy. The market sales will increase and also the self-awareness of the market will be high because of increased customers. According to my opinion, the introduction of industry 4.0 will be a great significance to the industrial sector, and this will trigger more innovations, therefore, more revolutions after that.
Smart Factories and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems
Reference List
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