The Rising Topic of the Last Decade: Industry 4.0
The industrial sector has developed rapidly since the day it started. The industrial revolutions led to the infrastructure we have today. I would like to inform you briefly about the term Industry 4.0, which is also described as the 4th Industrial Revolution, which we all have heard quite often in recent years.
It may be more appropriate to go a few centuries back to approach today’s developments in a more detailed way. As we know, the 1st industrial revolution is based on the machinery industry, which started with the invention of steam powered machines at the end of the 1800s. These years, when industrialization started for the first time, developed slower than now, but it was a groundbreaking technology for that period. The Second Industrial Revolution, on the other hand, emerged 100 years after the 1st Industrial Revolution, with the ability to start mass production. Rapid development has been observed in many areas of the industry, so it has also been called the Technological Revolution. There have been many important discoveries during the Second Industrial Revolution; very important inventions for today such as radio, advanced steel production systems and even nuclear energy have emerged in this process.
The 3rd Industrial Revolution is actually not a far period from today. The introduction of digital technology in manufacturing as well as the importance of electricity are among the factors that created the 3rd industrial revolution.
Though, we want to focus on the 4th Industrial Revolution extensively known as Industry 4.0. All the industrial revolutions in the past have developed relatively faster than the previous one, yet none have developed as fast as Industry 4.0.
What is Industry 4.0?
The foundation of Industry 4.0, which caused groundbreaking innovations especially in the production industry, was first mentioned in Germany exactly 10 years ago, in 2011; however, it was not described as Industry 4.0 at the beginning. The term, which was used for the first time in Hannover Messe, one of the most important production fairs in Europe, exactly 1 year later, has been indispensable for many sectors, especially manufacturing.
‘’But why has something called Industry 4.0 emerged?’’ You may ask.
It would be correct to say that it is actually based on the competition between the East and the West. The West has always been the leader of many industries such as manufacturing and technology. Nevertheless, for the first time in history, the East surpassed the West in production and export and achieved innovation. Of course, the West’s reaction to this rivalry that has been going on for almost centuries has not been positive. After negotiations on how to produce a more efficient, fast and low-cost production, Industry 4.0 made a rapid entry into our lives.
Industry 4.0 has certain target titles and houses many radical technologies. The main question is how can we produce more and faster at a lower cost. This term, which comes together under 3 main headings, quickly reaches its goals with many innovative technologies it contains.
What topics does Industry 4.0 cover?
Speed, flexibility and most importantly efficiency. In this process, which is based on a faster, more and more comfortable production understanding, it has been revealed that using less human power is considered more appropriate in line with the target. Of course, what is meant by human power will only be human muscle power. With all technologies and devices developed using only the mind of man, the margin of error will be reduced to almost 0.0%, so there will be no disruption in production.
Let’s talk about which technologies Industry 4.0 uses and is based on these days, where many different innovative technologies are being used separately and together and each day is much different from the previous day.
· Vertical-Horizontal Integration
· Real-time Data
· Autonomous Robots
· Big Data Analytics
· The Cloud
· Augmented Reality
· Additive Manufacturing
· Cyber Security
· Cyber-physical Systems
· IoT
So what do we produce with Industry 4.0 focus?
In fact, we produce and develop almost all of our projects with an Industry 4.0 focus. In many of our projects where we use the IoT technology, we enable the production sector to make uninterrupted and safer production, and at the same time, we work on projects and products that make our daily life easier. OPTIMUM and Machinaide are among our projects aiming at a more advanced production in the production sector.
Our products and projects that we work and develop to integrate these technologies into daily life are our IoTWare and BAAS projects. If you want to learn more about our products and projects that are developed with an industry 4.0 focus and integrated technologies for this, you can click on the projects or visit our technology magazine S.O.T.A, which we have created to share what we work on in general!
About Şebnem Köken
She is the R&D Coordinator of Erste Yazılım. She is experienced in many areas from photography, web design to software. She graduated from Bilkent University in 2002 with a B.S in Computer Engineering.
