The First Industrial Revolution witnessed the mechanization of manual labor, greatly enhancing productivity. Mechanized factories and plants began to proliferate, accelerating the migration of populations from rural to urban areas.
During the Second Industrial Revolution, production achieved electrification, and conveyor belts began to be used for mass production.
Characterized by automation, improvements in logic controllers and their programming, and the creation of industrial robots, the Third Industrial Revolution occurred.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (or Industry 4.0) is underway. In addition to enhancing productivity, it also emphasizes flexibility and quality. Part of this stage of industrial revolution is the integration of technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics. Essentially, Industry 4.0 is the trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies and processes, involving heterogeneous systems and handling vast amounts of data. Sensors at various stages of the production process collect information, providing comprehensive data for production analysis and decision-making. By introducing self-optimization, self-adjustment, and self-diagnosis methods, necessary automation technologies are improved. Artificial intelligence and machine learning enable intelligent systems to respond to various external factors, adjusting their operating modes to current conditions.
The construction of information systems has various types of hierarchical structures. The most common is built in the form of a pyramid, where process control systems are at the bottom and BPM or OLAP are at the top.
With the development of Industry 4.0 technologies, the quality assurance policies of modern enterprises are shifting from seeking, eliminating, and identifying defects due to technical reasons to predicting the occurrence of defects and proactively devising preventive measures. Certainly, preventing defects from occurring is far more effective than subsequently seeking and fixing them.
Industry 4.0 establishes one of the most important trends in the global manufacturing industry – shortening time to market for products.
If previously it took years to develop a new product, now even in the field of special equipment, no one waits. If you don’t introduce new products to the market quickly, your competitors will surpass you.