Industry 4.0: More than a Technological Revolution

Abstract

Since its first appearance in April 2011, the term Industry 4.0 has become synonymous with the production of the future. Nearly all industrialized countries around the globe have set up research programs and industry support projects, and they encourage SMEs and government agencies to actively shape those developments and keep their industries competitive. Today, the Industry 4.0 has already arrived in factories, at least in the highly developed regions of the world. However, so far, most Industry 4.0 activities can be observed in the field of smart control systems. New technologies appear increasingly faster and find their application in production environments. TSN/SDN Ethernet will offer a complete compatible internet communication standard with real-time capabilities. Nevertheless, appropriate protocols for its application and interoperability are still a work in progress; they are called Asset Administration Shells and define a complete set of communication and service standards to easily connect any device from any supplier worldwide to a factory network. In conclusion, industrialized countries are not only suppliers of technologies to the rest of the world, they should also accept their responsibility to help less industrialized regions to find and implement their future business models in an interconnected world.