Industry 4.0 It is a brave new world

Smart Devices have reached critical mass. We’re using everything from lightbulbs to outlets to thermostats and even smart speakers in our homes and now they’ve begun to spill over to the workplace too. More than 75 percent of people have at least one smart device in their home, while at least 50 percent of the factories and industries are now connected in some way.

Industrial manufacturing is taking connected, networked sensors and intelligent items and putting them to work directly in manufacturing. They are also collecting data to drive AI and Predictive analytics that will make manufacturing safer and cheaper in the long haul.

“In IIoT technology, sensors are attached to physical assets,” said Robert Schmid, Deloitte Digital IoT chief technologist. “Those sensors gather data, store it wirelessly, and use analytics and machine learning to take some kind of action.”

IIoT is being used to cause unprecedented disruption in an industry that is still, to some extent, struggling.

Long considered a lifestyle of the past, manufacturing is getting a new lease on life.

It has been down and out for quite some time and is just now starting to recuperate from vast talent shortages.

Partly this is due to the fact that most people perceive manufacturing as a low paying and high labor job, which these days, it does not have to be. IIoT is transforming the industry into something that even new graduates will want to be a part of, bringing back manufacturing as a field that younger people want to enter.

One of the greatest aspects of IIoT is how it can show us where the issues are, help us to avoid dangerous operations and operating conditions and trigger requests for service long before the machine goes down.

This lowers labor, increases productivity and dramatically improves operating conditions. If you’ve ever thought about manufacturing as a career path, there’s no better time than now.