What is industry 4.0? || Why industry 4.0 is future of Indian manufacturing? (A Case study)

 

What is industry 4.0?

It is the fourth industrial revolution, where we focus more on the artificial intelligence.

Industry 1.0 was the evolution of steam engine then in industry 2.0, electrical energy came in to picture and in industry 3.0 computerized automations were done.

Now in the era of industry 4.0 we talk much about cloud computing, internet of things, virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence and autonomous robot. For an example, we are making 100 parts per day from a lathe machine. If we gather all the machining criteria in all the cycle and store the same in cloud, over a period we collect all the data and do analysis and find for a particular range of spindle speed defects are more. Then we can decide the same machining speed to minimize scrap. Also we can determine at what criteria machine health remains good or at what period of the shift, defects are more. Probably at the end of shift because of tidiness operator runs machine with increasing machine speed to finish target which leads to increased defects and so on. Also the inventory status can also be tracked at every time by the dispatch team.

We use electronics devices like Alexa at home to connect things like home appliances and operate them remotely is the best example of internet of things which is also and key element of industry 4.0.

Why industry 4.0 is future of Indian manufacturing? (A Case study)

There are hundreds of companies those have been shut in the competition and out now. Let’s say for example HMT. That was the time when it used to be a favorite brand for all but today it is nowhere in the competition.

Journey of no competition to out of competition. There may be thousand reasons but one reason we must admit that it failed to predict the future of market. Failed to do proper data mining. Though it maintained the quality for decades but didn’t focus on the new features. In the era of cellphones it struggled to sell wrist watches where many other companies found opportunities to manufacture smart watches like fit bit.

Why this case study is relevant to the topic?

We still don’t have a device in our shoes which can tell us the calories burnt and the weight on daily basis which later can help to know our health status.

Every one of us are not able to afford a brush that can tell us our brushing style for example number of horizontal, vertical or circular movements. If the data will be stored in a cloud and can be analyzed so that we can bring a conclusion how the brushing style should be and how it is relevant to a cause of blood pressure and cardio deceases.

Also we can’t afford to have a device to measure sleep quality on daily basis.

Imagine how it will be, If data collected from all the devices will be stored in cloud and one display can represent graphically in a mobile app or in our fit bit.

Many other companies who do the timely analysis are the market leaders today.

Major percentage of Indian companies are small and medium scale industries. Only 5 % of them come out of the race and the rest struggles. Probably the industry 4.0 is the solution for them. They can also predict the market by doing data mining and maximize productivity, identify right product, minimize cost and many other benefits.

India has 80% of ago lands. Off course there is huge space in manufacturing agro products. Even today our farmers are not able to afford a device that can monitor the parameters like soil quality, crop quality or humidity. If such data’s can be gathered in a common platform, an aligned outcome can be concluded.

Hence I believe there is lot of scope for industry 4.0 in manufacturing industries.

Off course it may lead to a job scarcity in lesser percentage but undoubtedly it will create new job opportunities also.

Actors like saharukh khan also made body to survive in Bollywood, why can’t we upgrade our skill level to that extent.