Industry 4.0 and How to implement it
Since the 18th century we have seen 3 Industrial revolutions. They completely changed the manufacturing industry forever. The process of making a product and the operations revolving around it were completely revolutionized. We are now experiencing the fourth Industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 which is revolutionizing the manufacturing sector today.
So what is Industry 4.0?
Industry 4.0 is the ongoing digital transformation of industry process and automation where there is a seamless integration of IT and OT to make manufacturing and operations smart. OT or operations technology are the systems which actually do the groundwork of manufacturing/producing goods. IT or Information Technology on the other hand is where data or information is transported, manipulated, processed and stored. Industry 4.0 joins these two with the help of technologies such as IoT, cognitive computing, cloud computing, robotics, etc. This provides unprecedented access and control over the process of manufacturing as well as the operations related to it.
Industry 4.0 not just makes a factory smart but also opens the gates for fast paced decision making by providing business and operation intelligence.
Is Industry 4.0 helpful for MSMEs as well?
Industry 4.0 is often thought to be the big player’s game. However, that is not true. Implementing Industry 4.0 into
MSMEs can directly result in increased competitiveness with much bigger firms, improved productivity, better operational IT, cost reduction through new gen digitization, predictive maintenance and more accurate predictions of supply chain pitfalls and shortages.
A full-fledged implementation of Industry 4.0 will directly influence the growth of any firm.
How do you implement Industry 4.0?
Well, the first and most important thing to implement an Industry 4.0 solution is that a firm should have Industry 3.0 already implemented. Without Industry 3.0 implementation, a firm cannot proceed with an upgrade. Assuming this is already in place, the most important things that you should be concentrating while doing an E2E implementation of I4.0 (Industry 4.0) are the following:
IoT Stack
IoT or IIoT is primal to connect OT to IT. But in order for that to be seamless and reliable, you need an IoT stack in place. There is no one way to choose or implement a technology stack, however the best choice is to incorporate a loosely coupled architecture which can be scaled.
Even if you are building a customized solution for a specific factory only, it must be scalable, or else you might have to keep expanding efforts to accommodate the integration of new devices.
Data management or analysis stacks
The world is nothing without data. In the case of an Industry 4.0 solution, it is indispensable to create a low latency, high availability system to handle processing and normalizing of data. It should also be capable of running data analysis and in certain cases machine learning.
Cloud storage and streams
For the processed data to hold any value, it must be stored. Cloud storage can also be used as a dataset for machine learning and data mining. Data streaming service is needed for enabling data delivery through APIs and IoT endpoints.
User Interface
This is required for the user to access the data, view reports, control devices, etc. The UI should be capable of visualizing data for Business and Operational Intelligence.
Cyber Security
One of the key and most often ignored things you should not be forgetting when implementing an Industry 4.0 solution. Integrating IT and OT without security is dangerous. Exposed vulnerabilities in a solution might result in a cyber-attack. Compartmentalization and encryption are very important. You can follow the OWASP top10 to ensure the safety of your solution.
How can we help you implement it?
Our product, Enture has brought the Industry 4.0 stack into an open platform. We are using edge IoT technology to collect and process data. With Enture, you can easily integrate across industrial OEM devices (VFD, energy meter, PLC, etc.) as well as discreetly monitor and control other devices with our plug & play IoT nodes. With the help of Enture, you can generate custom reports, triggers, alarms, notifications, etc. We provide a highly customizable and scalable platform with which you can easily cater to complex use cases. Enture enables you to implement Industry 4.0 and end to end energy management solution. Our Edge computing reduces the cost to function and can provide an affordable solution for Industries to use.