Given India’s aspiration to establish “Make In India”, encourage startups and move up the manufacturing share to GDP from 16% now to 25% by 2022, creating 100 million additional jobs in the process, it is important that companies embrace the advantages of Industry 4.0.
It would not be incorrect to state that with our Prime Minister’s dream of making India as a country a self-efficient country, India is moving towards the forth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, which is automation of various traditional industrial practices into modern smart technologies. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Neural Network and Deep Learning are few well known techniques and algorithms which help out and boost up overall industry performance and help in this Industry 4.0 revolution.
What is Industry 4.0 and how does it work?
The first industrial revolution was mechanization through water and steam power, which lead to mass production and assembly lines using electricity as second industrial revolution and then came the third revolution in industries where computers were adopted for industrial working and now in India the fourth industrial revolution is unfolding which includes automation and enhancement of industries with smart and autonomous systems fuelled by data and machine learning.
When computers were introduced in Industry 3.0, the transformation was disruptive. But now, as the Industry 4.0 unfolds, computers are connected and communicate with each other using cloud computing, Internet of Things, Machine learning algorithms and make decisions with least human involvement which make Industry 4.0 possible and the smart factory a reality. With this revolution of using smart machines, our factories will become more efficient, productive, less wasteful and results in the true power of Industry 4.0.
Here are a few practical examples,
- Since interconnected machines fetch a humerus volume of row data that can maintenance, perform tasks and other issues, as well as analyze that data to identify patterns and insights that would be impossible for a human to do in a reasonable timeframe, By using the data from sensors in its equipment, an African gold mine identified a problem with the oxygen levels during leaching.
- Robots move goods around Amazon warehouses and have reduced costs and better work efficiency.
- 3D printing technology has improved tremendously in the last decade and opened up a lot of avenues for production in the country.
This technology revolution is current and an on going automation trend which has arrived in India to stay for a long time and hence, it is important for all management and PGDM students to have an in-depth understanding of Industry 4.0. Why I am saying so is because, PGDM as a course is always referred to the course which keeps its course curriculum abreast with the changing industrial trends and knowledge requirement.
By – Prof. Pradeep Verma