We humans have never resided in a time that has been this fast and transformative. The development of technologies like smart robots, artificial intelligence, 3D Printing, and blockchains, along with other trends, have led to the fourth industrial revolution, which is popularly known as Industry 4.0.

Industry 4.0 is the name provided to the growing blend of traditional industrial platforms and their practices with advanced technology. It is the phase that’s heavily centered on automation, interconnectivity, real-time data, and, as mentioned before, machine learning.

The fourth industrial revolution is not only about investing in a bunch of new technologies; instead, it’s more about revolutionizing how your organization has been operating. You might be thinking, why are we referring to this digitalization as Industry 4.0, right? So let’s get into the basics, i.e., what’s the industrial revolution and its digital transformation.

All That You Need to Know About the Industrial Revolution

Before we get into the depth of Industrial 4.0, tech evolution, or big data, it’s important to understand what, why, and how of Industry 4.0. There are four major revolutions in the industry that we have experienced till now.

During the first revolution, we saw Britain move from farming to factory production by optimizing manual labor with the use of steam engines, water, and other tools. Around the 1850s, a new revolution, i.e., Industry 2.0, came into view with the steel introduction, sprout of mass production, and early electrification of factories along with mass production. By the 1950s, the third industrial revolution started to emerge, as the manufacturers moved towards incorporating more electronics into the factories.

Now, we have moved toward a new industry that is full of digitalization that we are referring to as Industry 4.0. This industry is entirely based on the vision to enable automated decision-making processes, monitoring assets, and equally real-time connected networks and processes. It’s a connected environment of people, services, processes, services, systems, Big Data, and IoT enabled assets of the industry.

These tech evolutions, along with Big Data, have enabled Industry 4.0 to grow to a whole new extent. But wait! What is Big Data and how is it enhancing this industry along with other tech evolutions? Besides, how are they changing our lives? Let me help you with all the questions that might be popping continuously in your mind.

Big Data leading to Tech Evolution in Industry 4.0

Big data refers to the large volume of data – be it structured or unstructured – that overpower businesses on a day-to-day basis. It is a collection of data from both traditional and digital sources of your organization. In today’s world, data is collected everywhere from sensors to systems to mobile devices.

Over recent years, Big Data is being used for the analysis of large data sets that in return made the invention of intelligent devices possible. With the help of big data in Industry 4.0, it has become possible for machines to make their own decisions without humans’ involvement. A growing number of industrialists have begun using Big Data to uncover more opportunities to improve the efficiency of their production. One of the most familiar examples for Big data applications is digital twin simulation that helps in gaining insights that have the potential for unbeatable gain and reliability. It can be said that Industry 4.0 is empowering manufacturers with new and advanced technologies for making the entire production process automated.

Smart Use Cases of Big Data in Industry 4.0

The bulk of information that is produced by the Internet of things (IoT) is being collected and translated into unique actionable ideas with the help of Big Data. It helps companies to operate in the manners we are about to share with you below:

  • Removing Bottlenecks: With Big Data one can easily identify the variables that can positively or negatively affect the performance at no extra cost.
  • Enhancing Processes In Warehouse: Having sensors along with portable devices in the warehouse, it has become easier for companies to locate human errors while improving work efficiency. It also helps in maintaining quality controls and providing optimal production.
  • Maintenance Predictions: Before any of your machinery operations can breakdown, data fed sensors detect the possible failures by identifying the pattern of breakdown.
  • Prediction of future demands: Collecting data from internal and external analysis i.e. customer preferences and trends or external events, helps in getting more accuracy in the predictions of any demands that can come in the future, which helps in optimizing an organization’s portfolio of products.
  • Security Intelligence: Operating an IT department generates a large amount of log data. Companies are using Big Data to analyze any information that helps in detecting and preventing cyber-attacks to avoid any security problems.
  • IoT: One of the key components of Industry 4.0 is IoT. Combining both IoT and Big Data leverages the analysis of data to achieve possible insights. Moreover, with Big Data, the number in which analytics can be implemented in IoT seems endless.

Take Away

Overall, we can say that Sensors and Machine networks are not new in the industry but the thing that will change with the fourth industrial revolution is how they interact. The big shift of taking advantage of connectivity and data is on its path to change our lives for the better. Looking forward to the future, we see a world that will cover systems of systems.

Soon enough, we will be seeing equipment and devices getting more advanced, there will be a drastic change in the job profiles when it comes to the combination of IoT, ML, AI, and of course Big Data in Industry 4.0.