How IoT will drive the fourth industrial revolution
The ongoing digital transformation of manufacturing is having such a dramatic impact that it’s been dubbed the ‘fourth industrial revolution’.
This revolution has just begun, but it is already changing how businesses operate. In the fourth industrial revolution, big data, analytics and digital technology will play a number of roles, from improving energy usage to making manufacturing safer.
Steven Martin, chief digital officer of GE Power at GE, said, “I think this is a thousand-day journey, relatively speaking, and we’re at day number three. We are very, very, very early on. We’ve barely scratched the surface in terms of what can be done.”
While the term ‘fourth industrial revolution’ has been tossed around for a few years, there are various definitions. In Germany, it’s often referred to as Industrie 4.0, or Industry 4.0 worldwide.
Coming on the heels of the third industrial revolution, which is also called the digital revolution, the fourth industrial revolution adds new ways for technology and connected devices to be used in business and society. Some of the emerging fields in the fourth industrial revolution include IoT, robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), nanotechnology, quantum computing and biotechnology.
Gillan Taddune, CEO of Banyan Water, said, “IoT technology is the fourth industrial revolution. For the previous two and a half centuries, technological advancements like steam-powered manufacturing and nuclear and electrical energy production have relied on the massive consumption of water. With IoT advancements, we now have the ability to save water and other essential resources instead of haphazardly consuming them. As the global population continues to grow, as food demand increases, as infrastructure ages and as climate change worsens, IoT technology as a method of resource optimization and conservation may very well be the thing that saves us all.”
Michael Kanellos, spokesperson and analyst for OSIsoft, said, “It’s about using data as a driving force. The first wave involved mechanization and steam power — we were going beyond what you could do with human or animal labor. The second wave involved mass production. The third: robots and mechanization.” “The difference between the third and fourth can be elusive. Think of the third generation as basic robotics. Machines were developed to weld precisely — the first robots went in in 1962 — and SCADA systems and other computers were used to control and monitor processes. In the fourth wave, we’re adding layers of efficiency and intelligence on top of what’s being done. In the fourth wave, a welding robot will be able to effectively tell you, or another robot, that it’s having problems and get fixed,” Kanellos said.
Tom Schiller, CEO and founder of FacilityConneX, said he sees the fourth industrial revolution as, “a new era in which technological advancement and incorporation of IoT/IIoT, cloud technology and increased collection, processing and use of data is becoming more prevalent for a number of industries — particularly within the industrial sector. For the first time, we are able to communicate with and understand these technologies and the data they’re providing.”
It is imperative for companies to adopt new technologies in the fourth industrial revolution in order to survive, according to Chuck Byers, CTO of OpenFog Consortium.
“Almost every aspect of business will be profoundly changed by digitization and the IoT. Efficiency will increase, quality will improve, innovation will accelerate, costs will drop. Companies late to adopt fourth industrial revolution, digital enterprise or IoT techniques will be left in the dust by competitors that got it a bit sooner,” Byers said.
Kanellos said, “IoT is really about two technology worlds — OT and IT — colliding. In most industrial companies, they have existed as separate, semi-autonomous departments.
