Fourth Industrial Revolution

Uploaded on 2023-09-12 in TECHNOLOGY--Developments, NEWS-News Analysis, FREE TO VIEW

The world is changing faster than ever with the 4th Industrial Revolution. New technologies are creating new industries, changing existing ones and transforming the way things are made. A more agile approach to regulation is needed, one that supports innovation while protecting citizens and the environment.

If previous industrial revolutions were driven by steam or oil or communication, then the latest Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is driven by data.

Constellations of smart, connected devices, faster wireless Internet, "big data" and Artificial Intelligence are transforming the global economy right now. Devices communicating with each other - autonomously sharing data in real-time, will account for a quarter of all Internet traffic by 2025.

In the First Industrial Revolution, Thomas Savery’s pump paved the way for industrial use of steam power.

In the second, Michael Faraday’s electro-magnetic rotary devices formed the basis for practical electricity use.

The third, saw the emergence of computers and digital technology, leading to the increasing automation of manufacturing and the disruption of industries including banking, energy, and communications, culminating in the creation of the world wide web and the Internet.

Technological breakthroughs in areas from Artificial Intelligence to biotechnologies are now heralding a Fourth Industrial Revolution, with the power to reshape almost every sector in every country.

Industry 4.0, also called the Fourth Industrial Revolution or 4IR, is the next phase in the digitisation of the manufacturing sector, driven by disruptive trends including the rise of data and connectivity, analytics, human-machine interaction, and improvements in robotics. Industry 4.0, is set to change society like never before, it builds on foundations laid by the first 3 Industrial Revolutions.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution conceptualises rapid change to technology, industries, and societal patterns and processes in the 21st century due to increasing interconnectivity and smart automation. This term was popularised in 2015 by Klaus Schwab (founder of the World Economic Forum) and has since been used in numerous economic, political, and scientific articles in reference to the current era of emerging high technology.

Schwab asserts that the changes seen are more than just improvements to efficiency but express a significant shift in industrial capitalism.

On 10 October 2016, the Forum announced the opening of its Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in San Francisco. This was also the subject and title of Schwab's 2016 book. Schwab includes in this fourth era technologies that combine hardware, software, and biology and emphasises advances in communication and connectivity.

Schwab expects this era to be marked by breakthroughs in emerging technologies in fields such as robotics, AI, quantum computing, biotechnology and the Internet of Things as well as other changes.

First Industrial Revolution

The First Industrial Revolution was marked by a transition from hand production methods to machines through the use of steam power and waterpower. The implementation of new technologies took a long time, so the period which this refers to was between 1760 and 1820, or 1840 in Europe and the United States.

Its effects had consequences on textile manufacturing, which was the first to adopt such changes, as well as iron industry, agriculture, and mining although it also had societal effects with an ever-stronger middle class.

Second Industrial Revolution

The Second Industrial Revolution, also known as the Technological Revolution, is the period between 1871 and 1914 that resulted from installations of extensive railroad and telegraph networks, which allowed for faster transfer of people and ideas, as well as electricity.

Increasing electrification allowed factories to develop the modern production line. It was a period of great economic growth, with an increase in productivity, which also caused a surge in unemployment since many factory workers were replaced by machines.

Third Industrial Revolution

The Third Industrial Revolution, also known as the Digital Revolution, occurred in the late 20th century, after the end of the two world wars, resulting from a slowdown of industrialisation and technological advancement compared to previous periods.

The production of the Z1 computer, which used binary floating-point number and Boolean Logic, a decade later, was the beginning of more advanced digital developments. The next significant development in communication technologies was the supercomputer, with extensive use of computer and communication technologies in the production process; machinery began to abrogate the need for human power.

Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and technological innovation are significantly affecting businesses across sectors with machines taking centre stage.

The implementation of innovative technology and platforms like the ones mentioned above are enabling organisations to do more with less, which affects the labour markets and workforce. In this case, machines have come to, in many ways, replace specific business processes and, in doing so, staff, professionals, and employees.

In essence, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the trend towards automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies and processes which include cyber physical systems (CPS), IoT, industrial Internet of Things, cloud computing, cognitive computing and artificial intelligence. While machines cannot replace deep human expertise, but they tend to be more efficient than humans in performing repetitive functions, and the combination of machine learning and computational power allows machines to carry out highly complicated tasks.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has been defined as technological developments in cyber-physical systems.

This includes such technologies as high-capacity connectivity; new human-machine interaction modes such as touch interfaces and virtual reality systems; and improvements in transferring digital instructions to the physical world including robotics and 3D printing (additive manufacturing); the Internet of Things (IoT).

Also "big data" and cloud computing; artificial intelligence-based systems; improvements to and uptake of Off-Grid / Stand-Alone Renewable Energy Systems: solar, wind, wave, hydroelectric and the electric batteries (lithium-ion renewable energy storage systems (ESS) and EV).

The Fourth Industrial Revolution & The Age Of Imagination

The Fourth Industrial Revolution creates opportunities for sustainability and, more importantly, these advances are inherently more sustainable than current business practices. Some people think productive operations are hard to square with environmental responsibility, but sustainable lighthouses challenge that notion: 4IR transformations facilitate a viable kind of eco-efficiency that intrinsically meshes sustainability with competitive excellence.

Eco-efficiency includes three dimensions of digital technology:

Enabling data-informed actions in production and the broader end-to-end value chain.

Realising improvements across performance indicators, such as cost, agility, convenience, and quality.

Driving sustainability gains by limiting consumption, resource waste, and emissions

While the case for 4IR technologies has been clear for some time, adoption is ramping up as companies better understand their own processes and how these innovative resources can drive their business forward. No matter where this revolution leads us, one thing is clear: the customer is at the centre of everything.

Businesses capable of providing immersive, frictionless buying experiences and putting customers in the driving seat will come out on top.

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