Industry 4.0 is a hot topic, but this term – which is more frequently used as a buzzword than to convey any specific topic – is hard to unpack. Usually it is used to convey a somewhat vague and undefined concept of the future of industry, with factories equipped with cutting-edge technology, but all of this is rather unspecific and fails to tell us what exactly industry 4.0 will look like, what it means for manufacturers, and how it will come to be.
Understanding Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is a German idea, with its origins among the future-thinking German engineers who want to see industry advance in line with technology. At its most basic level, Industry 4.0 means going beyond the automation of work as we’ve seen over the last couple of centuries and moving towards the computerisation of work and manufacturing.
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