The Next Industrial Revolution Nears

If you read Production Machining magazine on a regular basis, you have run across the term Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) or Industry 4.0. In case you haven’t paid attention to what these terms mean, I’m here to give you a quick rundown and links to articles that will help you understand what’s involved for your shop. Having an understanding is important because from what I’m hearing and reading, this emerging technology gives rise to what is predicted to be the next Industrial Revolution.

The IoT is the intelligent connectivity of smart devices by which objects can sense one another and communicate, thus changing how, where and by whom decisions about our physical world are made, according to “7 Things to Know about the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0” by Mark Albert, editor-in-chief, Modern Machine Shop. Manufacturing companies are currently implementing this “intelligent connectivity of smart devices” in their factories and on the shop floor.

Industry 4.0, on the other hand, is the term adopted by a coalition of universities, companies, labor unions and government bodies in Germany. Bernard Heuchemer, the V.P. for motion control at Seimens in Germany, notes that the aim of Industry 4.0 is to “actively drive the reshaping of industry, as it combines aspects of the physical, virtual, IT and cybersystem worlds to help create a new working environment of integrated productivity between worker and machine.”

However, we use the term in a broad sense, referring to these sweeping changes all over the world.

Read about seven points that provide an introduction and background to Industry 4.0 and the Industrial Internet of Things for metalworking companies and machine shops here. 

Also, get Chris Koepfer, PM’s editor-in-chief’s view on the new technology here.

And for a CAM developer’s perspective on how CAM software, the cloud and the Internet of Things are converging to change the way our industry is doing business, click here.