Industry 4.0

What is Industry 4.0?

The concept of industry 4.0 or industry of the future corresponds to a new way of organizing the means of production. This new industry is asserting itself as the convergence of the virtual world, digital design, management (operations, finance and marketing) with real world products and objects. Under this broad overall concept, Industry 4.0 is bridging the gap between physical and digital technologies in order to create dynamic, interconnected organizations capable of making more informed decisions. Industry 4.0 incorporate machines that can prevent breakdowns and trigger maintenance processes independently, as well as autonomous logistics that adapt to unexpected changes in production It has become imperative for production companies to adapt and control their operating models. Otherwise, they risk losing their advantage at various levels, including in the area of ​​market competition and customer relations.

Industry 4.0 applications

Digital Manufacturing, or Industry 4.0, can be summarized as the application of digital technologies to the world of manufacturing. It brings together all the solutions leading to having the right information, in the right place and at the right time. The goal is to link disparate systems and extensive processes across multiple departments and business functions so that production stakeholders have quick access to more information to improve their decision making. Thus, Digital Manufacturing can be broken down into three dimensions:

1. Around the product: Once the product has been defined in 3D, Industry 4.0 makes it possible to define the stages of its production and their execution and to always have the version up to date throughout the life of the product.
2. The Smart Factory: This includes smart machines, sensors and other tools that exchange data directly with information systems to provide real-time information to operators.
3. The management of the value chain: It’s reducing the resources required and accessing the value of every function of the product lifecycle. It leads to the optimization of flows, the reduction of stocks, the production of better products and the increase in customer satisfaction.

One of the first steps in this digital transformation of the industry is often the interconnection between current means. It is necessary to put the binder in a global system which wants to be effective. This interconnection requires the use of a connected platform that will correlate: the initial needs of the customer (versatile) with the final means of production (flexible) production plants will have to switch to a concept of smart product: configurable products in perpetual evolution.