Industry 4.0 is a German initiative dating to 2011 (Industrie 4.0 there). At its core, it is about protecting Germany as a manufacturing nation into the future, but has gone both pan-EU and global.
At MACH, a number of exhibitors were specifically tagging their technology as fitting within the Industry 4.0 world. In the UK, industry-academia bridge organisations, in particular the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), are investigating it. And Machinery has written about the topic on a few occasions previously.
Talk of Industry 4.0 is all around, but it is hardly visible in the UK. That is not to say that elements of it are not present; they are, because the scalability of the concept means that just about any piece of IT or equipment having connectivity can be slotted into the initiative’s framework. But it’s a little confusing looking at it on a piecemeal basis, so we believe that our feature on page 22, bolstered by the extended online version, brings some clarity.
Looking at the big picture driving Industry 4.0 helps underline why continued interest in the topic is vital. According to international consultancy Roland Berger, emerging countries have doubled their global share of worldwide manufacturing to 40% in the last two decades; Western Europe has lost over 10% of manufacturing value added, from 36% to 25%, in the same period.
Industry is a core element of the value chain, it says. To maintain high quality services in an area, an innovative and creative manufacturing industry is critical. Manufacturing and services are intertwined – 40% of jobs in the European manufacturing sector are service related and, on average, services make up about a quarter of all inputs bought by EU industry. The trend towards de-industrialisation in some of the continent’s countries puts Europe at risk of losing high value activities, the consultancy offers.
That is why Industry 4.0 is an important subject, and it is why it is also described as the fourth industrial revolution. It is not just for the big OEMs, although its application in smaller enterprises will necessarily follow the larger leaders. No, there are projects ongoing in Europe of relevance to the smaller enterprise, as we reveal. So Machinery will, on your behalf, stay interested in what for many at the moment may seem a somewhat remote topic.
