Digitisation Changes Manufacturing Paradigm In India

Industry 4.0, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the digital factory are terms being pitched around lately.

- Bhargav TS

It would be interesting to look at their origin and see how the concepts they represent are changing the manufacturing paradigm in India. Originating in Germany, Industry 4.0 was planned as a coordinated initiative of the IT world, universities and various manufacturing associations, designed to reshape industry. Now being adopted globally, Industry 4.0, seeks to combine the physical, virtual, IT and cyber systems, to create a new environment in the workplace. The 4.0 part of the name refers to the fourth industrial revolution, the predecessors being mechanisation, mass production and computerisation, which led to the modern concepts of IT and automation.

Industry 4.0 is less about the future and more about a vibrant collaboration among IT, machine builders, industrial automation integrators and motion control suppliers. This last group is especially important because their products function at the heart of the machines, simultaneously effecting motion, then gathering and transmitting the relevant data to the appropriate control link in the company’s infrastructure. With the recent, rapid expansion of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) capability, much more functionality can be built into a product today and this means the manufacturing community must be even more flexible and responsive, not merely reactive, than ever before.