Industry 4.0 and Manufacturing Ecosystem
Manufacturers face challenges on many fronts. Advanced manufacturing in the form of additive manufacturing, advanced materials, intelligence, automated machines and other technologies is opening a new era of material production. At the same time, the Internet of Things increases interconnectivity and further complicates data collection and analysis capabilities, thereby enabling a shift to the information economy. With the help of the Internet of Things, data has become another source of value in addition to items, and can be interconnected to create a more intelligent supply chain, manufacturing process, and even an end-to-end ecosystem.
With the above changes still changing the competitive landscape, manufacturers must decide how and which new technologies to invest in, and find out which technologies will benefit the company the most. In addition to accurately assessing their current strategic positioning, successful manufacturers need to define clear business goals, define their position in the
emerging technology ecosystem, and use which physical and digital technologies to make decisions about how to win (equally important).
However, knowing the blame is not easy. While the hype about advanced digital and physical technologies is overwhelming, understanding is mostly superficial. Many stakeholders are similarly unclear about what connectivity means for their companies and the wider manufacturing ecosystem.
What is certain, however, is that it is not wise to underestimate the impact of information flow on the physical aspects of advanced manufacturing. In order to take full advantage of the opportunities at both the digital and physical levels, it is critical to integrate the two – using digital information from different sources and locations to drive physical manufacturing. In other words, by integrating information technology and operational technology, a more powerful manufacturing enterprise is formed – this is the so-called Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0, also known as Smart Manufacturing or Manufacturing 4.0, is marked by a shift in connectivity from physical to digital to physical.
The insights provided in this report can help manufacturers look to the future of Industry 4.0. To this end, we explore the flow of information in smart production and connected supply chains, where connected supply chains are systems that identify and coordinate manufacturing, distribution, and after-sales processes. Then it discusses the impact of the “information value ring” on the manufacturing value chain.
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