Automation 4.0

Abstract

Factories have employed automation for nearly 100 years. With the launch of Industry 4.0 in 2011, operations have expanded their use of robots on an unprecedented scale. As of 2017, there were roughly 2 million industrial robots in use globally. By 2030, it's estimated that 20 million manufacturing jobs around the world could be replaced by robots. Yet, substantial hurdles remain before predicted level of automation can be realized. On the one hand, smart factories are almost exclusively multibillion-dollar enterprises. Their costs are simply too high for most manufacturers. On the other hand, intelligent machines are limited in what they can do because so many of the engineering tasks required to support them are still being done by people. Widespread use of automation requires expanding the use of artificial intelligence to manage data, create drawings, evaluate designs, and program machines.