Exploring Industrial Transformation 4.0 Asia Pacific 2018

Yesterday, we headed to the Singapore Expo to explore Industry 4.0 at the Industrial Transformation Asia Pacific event. With ever-advancing technology, it is vital for us to be ‘ready for tomorrow, today.’ We were there to find out what Industry 4.0 is to better serve our clients and understand how these advances will affect the future workforce.

Technology has come so far today, and it is quickly advancing to perform smarter tasks. Take our smartphones for example. Most of us have one or more smartphones, but can you believe it’s only been about 10 years since smartphones became mainstream? Yet we are already so attached to it! We use it frequently to communicate and as a productivity tool. Instead of using a conventional alarm clock to wake us up, most of us set alarms on our smartphones.
 

So, what is Industry 4.0? It is simply the current advances of automation and data exchange in the manufacturing technologies, using cyber-physical systems and Internet of Things (IoT). Let’s take a step back to the beginning, Industry 1.0. Steam and water-powered machines were developed to aid workers. Electricity then became the main source of power in Industry 2.0. We evolved into Industry 3.0 in the late 20^th century, inventing and manufacturing electronic devices. Software systems were developed to capitalize on electronic hardware. We are still using the technologies from Industry 3.0 currently. What makes Industry 4.0 different is that it connects manufacturing techniques with IoT to enable systems to share information that is analyzed and used to guide intelligent action. It uses cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), additive manufacturing, and robotics.

Industry 4.0 will have an impact on manufacturing, in areas of design, production, service, and delivery. Let's use a washing machine to illustrate this better. We can face problems with the washing machine when the temperature gets too hot or spins too fast because this will affect our clothes. They may shrink or be torn apart if the conditions for washing are not ideal. Industry 4.0 uses sensor data that will predict the outcome and will send a warning when facing problems to prevent destructive outcomes.

Besides improving our lifestyle on a domestic level, it also improves productivity in the industry. Irrigation systems are designed on software that details each part of the system. These systems are integrated and will show you current statistics real-time. If something goes wrong with the system, the integrated software allows problems to be resolved efficiently by identifying the exact cause of the problem such as sensing strong winds and rising water levels, and guiding the user with a solution.

Industry 4.0 technologies use muscle learning. Reliability will increase throughout time as more data is fed to the system. The more data that is input into the system, the higher the accuracy of the system. This decreases the amount of labour by being able to perform tasks in a shorter amount of time, making way for the creation of high-quality jobs that incorporates intelligent job functions. 

We are very excited about what Industry 4.0 have for us in the near future, are you?