The talk of Industry 4.0 began at the Hannover Fair for Industrial Technology in 2011. Why 4.0? Because this is the fourth industrial revolution. After the invention of steam engines, electrical networks, and finally the automation of the production system, the time has come for the connected factory, equipped with the latest technological tools, sharing its data through networks and the cloud. It is the meeting point between the modern factory and the new information and communication technologies. The objective is to engage the ultra-connected factory in a dematerialization of procedures, in order to allow operators to concentrate on high value-added tasks. The challenge is to increase productivity in order to provide the customer with an ever higher quality of service.
Industry 4.0: challenges and prospects of the factory of the future
Among the challenges of Industry 4.0, robots will be at the heart of the digital transformation. The latter will therefore require an effort from employees to adapt to a new interactivity with the machines. Being trained and developing new digital skills will become essential to maintain employability.
L’évolution professionnelle des collaborateurs passera par la maîtrise du big data et l’utilisation spontanée des robots. Ces nouveaux processus ont pour but de réduire les coûts grâce à l’automatisation de certaines tâches.
Parmi les outils de l’industrie 4.0, on peut citer :
- les capteurs intelligents
- la réalité augmentée
- l’utilisation des objets connectés
- le cloud
- les imprimantes 3D
- etc.
La transformation numérique s’exprime à travers des objets hautement innovants. L’idée étant de connecter ensemble les opérateurs, les machines ou équipements dans le but de s’adapter aux demandes des clients et d’apporter une réponse immédiate à la moindre variation. L’enjeu est de personnaliser une commande malgré une production de masse.
Environment and safety: for a better allocation of resources
In Industry 4.0, work is understood differently due to the implementation of combined processes between machines and operators. The challenges will be to train these employees in the new technologies as much as in the technical means themselves.
While employees can expect career development in parallel with productivity growth, efforts will also have to be made in the area of safety, such as:
- data protection
- anti-intrusion devices
- the fight against cyber attacks
- etc.
Resources will have to be divided equally between operator training, investment in machines and data protection.
The purpose of Industry 4.0 affects all sectors of the company. The processes that govern the production system end up turning entirely to intelligent and communicating robotics. The aim is to increase productivity and the quality of service offered to customers.
Profits must logically follow the satisfaction of the consumer, to whom one must respond quickly enough, while offering him a personalized product. It is one of the levers that allows any company to differentiate itself from a competitor.