What is industry 4.0 and iot and how important are they to the world?
Nov 25, 2019It’s not a cliche to say that technology is taking over the world.
We hear words like “Industry 4.0” and “IoT “ and it’s like hearing something very familiar.
As kids, we used to see these science fiction movies that talked about devices controlling the world.
We also loved those TV shows talking about the future and machines that have minds of their own, but we thought this was pure fiction.
Well let me tell you, it would’ve been good money to bet on it becoming a reality.
The world has changed drastically, it may be a positive change, it may be a negative change, but in the end, this change has occurred.
People now are always in search of the next big thing that will blow everyone’s minds and what will make humanity work less and make life easier.
This illustrates the extent to which man is connected to modern technology in his daily life.
What is the world hidden from us so far? I don’t know, but I’d say plenty.
What is IoT technology?
A piece of news like this in “Market Watch” would show us where the world is now:
“Internet of Things Market valued approximately USD “171” billion in “2017” is anticipated to grow with a healthy growth rate of more than “23.4%” over the forecast period “2017-2025”.
The global Internet of Things (IoT) market is driven by growth of Wireless Networking technologies, rising adoption of cloud platform, and increasing demand for connected devices.
Moreover, other factors such as increasing internet and smart phone penetration across the world, increasing demand for smart electronics are fueling growth in the market.”
First, let’s get to know in simple words what exactly is this field with the huge growth in the market.
IoT is an abbreviation for the internet of things.
The Internet of Things is an upper-level theory of the Internet.
It means that all things in our lives have the ability to connect to the Internet or to each other to send and receive data to perform specific functions through the network.
The Internet of Things is simply the world in which we are currently living.
The notion of a network of smart devices was first presented at Carnegie Mellon University.
And surprisingly this goes back to the early 1980s.
IoT was first introduced with a modified Coke vending machine.
This machine was made to be able to report if its newly loaded drinks were cold or not.
And now going through the end of 2019 we find ourselves using a number of IoT devices on a daily basis.
These devices have the ability to easily connect to the Internet, such as watches, televisions, accessories, glasses and a lot more.
What does “things” in the Internet of Things mean?
Anything that a processor and an Internet connection can stick to is something in the IoT world.
The range of the internet of things technology is very broad in day to day life.
We now have Smart and wearable devices, smoke detectors and fire alarms.
IoT technology can know if the stock of manufacturing materials is near completion and take the standard actions for it.
It automatically arranges people’s daily appointments.
Not only that but now thanks to IoT we can also monitor living beings.
Various important industries are very suitable for merging with IoT: such as Telecommunications, Healthcare, and Retail.
Some IoT applications.
let’s take a look at the most important IoT applications to just realize how large this is.
Smart homes
Wاhen we describe the house as a smart home it means that most of the services provided at home can be controlled via a phone app, or smartly via central controls.
“Smart Home clearly stands out, ranking as highest Internet of Things application on all measured channels.
More than “60,000” people currently search for the term “Smart Home” each month.
The IoT Analytics company database for Smart Home includes “256” companies and startups.”
Smart farming
Many cattle farms around the world began to connect the bodies of cows to the Internet to monitor their health status and fertility and the proportion of some hormones in their bodies.
Of course, this indicates the best time for milking, which contributes to making accurate decisions to improve the production process.
Connected Health
No doubt that the future of the medical industry is for connected health care system and smart medical devices.
For instance, we have smartwatches that measure body functions and give alerts when something sudden happens.
There are also devices placed on the back to indicate a bad sitting position that is harmful.
Naturally, this is not limited, we still have a lot more of astonishing applications of connected health care systems and smart medical devices.
Unfortunately, this still hasn’t spread among individuals yet even though it’s very important to the well-being of people in general and not just for companies.
What is (IIoT)?
The industrial internet of things (IIoT) is the use of smart sensors to improve industrial processes.
It refers to the numerous industrial devices and machines that are filled with sensors.
These sensors are connected to wireless networks and are able to gather and share data.
The industrial internet of things gives a level of digital intelligence to these devices and allows them to be monitored and tracked, and share data.
Since IIoT addresses different parts of the need for machine-to-machine communication among connected devices, that makes it faces some challenges.
Because when there’s a wide range of different formats and technologies, there is a wide range of errors.
Open Text gave us a glimpse of how significant IIoT is:
“The industrial IoT platform becomes the foundation upon which the successful implementation of IoT projects are based.
Without an effective platform, any large-scale industrial IoT deployment will fail to achieve its full value.
The best industrial IoT platforms deliver a wide range of benefits including Reduce costs, Improve operations, Improve production, Monetize IoT data, and Improve IoT security.”
What is industry 4.0?
“Industry 4.0 is the fourth industrial revolution, though there is disagreement over how to define the revolutions.
The first industrial revolution took place at the end of the “18”th century and was marked by mechanization made possible by steam and water power.
The second industrial revolution, which occurred at the start of the “20”th century, was aided by electricity and marked by mass production, assembly lines, and divisions of labor.
The third, around the start of the “1970s”, came through the use of computers to further automate machines and production processes.”
Industry 4.0 produces the so-called “smart factory”.
In it, physical electronic systems are used to monitor industrial processes, create a virtual version of the physical world and make decentralized decisions.
Depending on the Internet of Things, physical electronic systems communicate among themselves and with humans in real-time online services.
Industry 4.0 is a new revolution in the world of technology.
It connects countless elements of industrial systems to Internet communication technologies.
Industry 4.0 and related technologies are creating new values in all key market segments.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has the potential to have a positive impact globally on a social, economic and political level.
However, it may face many challenges and uncertainties in the foreseeable future.
These challenges require governments to know the level of challenge they are facing and be ready for it.
The difference between industrial IoT, industry 4.0 and IoT.
Three important terminologies connected in the minds of people: industrial IoT, industry 4.0 and IoT.
Sometimes they are thought to be one thing, but this is not true.
However, they are extremely related to each other.
No more simple way to put than how “Sea level” did in explaining the difference:
“While both IoT and IIoT operate at a business level, Industry 4.0 remains a primarily government and academic-based movement, with minimal private business involvement.
All three of these entities are focusing on ways to make systems faster and — perhaps more importantly — secure.”
The importance of industry 4.0 and IoT.
“Almost two-thirds of companies believe the IoT is important to their current business, and over 90% believe the IoT will be important to the future of their business.
Of all emerging technologies, executives believe the IoT will be the most important, ranking it above others such as artificial intelligence or robotics.
More than half of respondents—51%—say their company has significant IoT programs in operation or that these programs are a major contributor to their business.
The other 49% remain in the early stages of IoT planning or are operating pilot programs.”
The whole world now is overseeing to improve and discover this technology more and more every single day.
Impressive where the world is headed really.
As for the importance of Industry 4.0, Digitalist Magazine is making it about 5 benefits, of course, this is not exclusively.
“1. It eases current challenges for manufacturers.
2. Thanks to sensors and connectivity, products will be enriched by services (such as predictive maintenance) or even transformed into services.
3. It puts the consumer in the center of all activities.
4. It even puts humans into the center of production.
5. It will enable sustainable prosperity.”
The Industry 4.0 vision provides recommendations for companies to become more flexible and responsive to business trends which what the market needs.
With these technologies, efficiency will improve and we’ll find solutions challenges still holding back progress.
Workers will be assigned where help is needed which will make work more organized and it will save time and energy being wasted.
The conclusion
The human mind is a very special place that has no end.
Some people are afraid of these rapid technological movements, but I’d beg to differ.
We were born special, with a creation that makes us the best creatures so we need to use it in our benefit.
Of course, to every case, there is an extreme and I don’t like having to go there.
But we need to make good use of human minds and to make our lives easier.
One of the ways to improve our future is to use the internet of things.
Unlike the previous two eras, the Internet of Things is not a product or system that a company will produce and sell to millions of consumers.
You won’t find a company that controls this market the way we see nowadays.
The Internet of Things is a new concept of how we live and run our business using the Internet.
We have a golden opportunity and if we are smart enough will reach the moon with it.