Introducing the latest technologies may be disruptive in the existing business environment. Those who are hesitant to adopt such advancements may find it hard to survive over time. Managing these changes may always be challenging for businesses and their employees. However, for the manufacturers, the idea of a small factory with limited resources may quickly become a reality. Industry 4.0 is a reality, and the companies must prepare to redefine their approaches to handle materials and production as per their demands.
Ram Chary About Industry 4.0
Even though Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, is commonly referred to nowadays, the previous three faces of this revolution had a common goal of cutting costs and increasing efficiency. The introduction of mechanical processes characterized the first revolution, whereas the implementation of the assembly line was introduced in the second. In the third revolution that started in the 1970s, Ram Chary points out that automated programming created a difference. In the year 2017, there were interconnected and computerized systems that had been defining fundamentals of the four Industrial revolutions.
This is now creating many robust standards for the manufacturing industry in which data will be shared across the systems to gain meaningful insights. These can be further used in a lean model in the applications of connected enterprises in manufacturing. It may also be extended to the bottom line, resulting in more significant opportunities to reduce expenses and optimize operational efficiency.
The Life Cycle Of Industry 4.0
Identifying The Pain Points
Many manufacturers were looking for more optimized and efficient practices in their factory environment. Stopping production and moving to newer approaches may not be viable. They need to meet daily, weekly, and monthly targets, and each minute of disruption may cost thousands of dollars. At this first stage of identifying the pain points, it is ideal to find a partner who can do an audit and show the scope of implementation and ways to adopt technology that will provide some competitive advantages.
Gaining Confidence
Implementing new technologies may always require changes which comes with an additional learning curve for employees to understand how the company can be more productive and their jobs can be made more efficient. One of the top considerations of Industry 4.0 is for the management to focus on taking employees into confidence and making them believe in the technology.
Measuring Predictability
There are always the productivity and throughput metrics in handling materials, which have to be measured to keep the solutions on track. Analyzing and extracting the data help quantify the predictability of the technology against the throughput measurements for the KPIs to be met before the installation.
Optimization
Even though it may take time for businesses to reach this advanced stage, you need to identify the optimization needs to see whether the technology is performing well and there is room for improvement. This should be based on the insights through the data and by identifying the variance to ensure a successful journey through Industry 4.0.
Industry 4.0 is still taking shape. However, the industry experts are already working on this revolution with many following suits. For the organizations in production and manufacturing, Ram Chary cautions that it is high time to evaluate their scope and readiness to adopt Industry 4.0, which is quickly gaining pace in the post-pandemic times.
