A New Lease of to Manufacturing with 4IR!

1. A New Lease of to Manufacturing with 4IR! ----------------------------------------------------- Not too long ago, technology was a word that had everybody’s attention. The innovations were far too few and subject to loads of curiosity and excitement. As already mentioned, this was all about the recent past. Since the 1990s though, things have changed. Technology has witnessed a dramatic change over the last couple of decades, and the sheer pace of its evolution has made industries take notice of its potential for their advantage. This shift in technology encompasses what industrial scholars term the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or 4IR in short. What is the 4IR? Today, the world is at the threshold of technological expertise that is already altering our ways of living like never before. As more time passes, this transformation will enhance in terms of scope and scale, becoming something that the world has never seen ever before. 4IR is the fourth iteration in the industrial world. Understandably, there have been three previous ones over time: The First Industrial Revolution made the use of steam and water for automating the production process. The Second Industrial Revolution leveraged IT and electronics for the purpose of manufacturing automation. The Third Industrial Revolution was the digital revolution, where things started becoming digital and everyday households were introduced to the Internet. The 4IR has been building upon this Third Revolution, which was active since the last century. The technologies in use have been bundled together, which has diluted the lines between the digital and the physical world.

2. The 4IR technologies have truly ‘revolutionized’ the manufacturing industry. Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing, Robotics, Cloud computing, IoT, and related wireless technologies have been very disruptive, to say the least. 4IR and the Manufacturing Industry Most of the organizations dealing in manufacturing still look very similar to the assembly lines they had till about two or three decades ago. The involvement of manual labor, with supervisors coordinating with their crew, after which this crew worked their shift on the same machines for about 8-10 hours. This was all good till the machines and the plant worked properly. The moment a breakdown happened, and it all went down the drain. The advent of 4IR, with efficient digital resources, made manufacturing to be referred to as the digital transformation industry 4.0. Manufacturing sites have been completely transformed by adopting 4IR in their processes. Such sites witness a dramatic change in the way things operate, some of which we mention below- Monitoring the status of equipment and machinery in real-time allows in forecasting the pain points well in advance and transfer this information to the appropriate departments. Use of wearable technology to enter the premises and keep the unit’s warehouse in check. The production plants can get to learn from their past errors based on feedback and make appropriate changes in their system settings. This will generate a better quality of output with time. What we have pointed out here are practices that have been implemented in quite a few manufacturing industries already, and the benefits have become visible for everyone to see. Benefits of Digital Transformation Industry 4.0 Here’s a look at some of the many benefits that 4IR have brought to the manufacturing industry as a whole-

3. 1- The Revenue Gains Start Going Through the Roof With technologies like Big Data working with deep integration into the whole process, manufacturers get a much better understanding of the customers in terms of their behavior and buying preferences. The insights derived after every production run can then be used for better product development that can lead to better customer experiences. Once customers start loving to head back frequently, the overall revenue increases, thanks to 4IR adoption. 2- Enhanced Productivity & Efficiency Robotics technology has brought the team of humans and robots together on the factory floor. With these new robots, manufacturers can automate the low-value production processes and reduce the time to deliver their products to the market. 3- Reduction in Machine Downtimes This is where predictive maintenance is something that the 4IR has brought with it. Predictive maintenance allows manufacturers to be informed about the errors that might occur in machinery in the time to come. To add to it, the right industry 4.0 solutions provide manufacturers with the opportunity to adjust according to different scenarios that might present themselves. Conclusion The 4IR is a term that’s here to stay for a long time. The benefits to the manufacturing industry are too many, and it has given a new lease of life to a domain that was in danger of becoming too error-prone and boring too soon. KBMax is a tool that uses all the relevant 4IR technologies beautifully in its solution, making manufacturing a breeze!