What Is Industry 4.0? Opportunities and Challenges

The 4.0 technology era is a new era for all of humanity, marking progress in every area. The shift of the 4.0 era connects the physical and the digital, making it easy for people to control data and ready to lead a civilized society. So what is 4.0 technology? What does the fourth industrial revolution include, and what are the opportunities and challenges of 4.0? Let's MONA Media find out in the article below!

What is 4.0?

4.0 technology has been developing in most countries around the world and is widely used across many industries. Before the 4.0 era there were the 1.0 to 3.0 technology revolutions. So what is 4.0?

4.0 is a technology revolution that applies modern technology to improve service quality, run machines and bring the greatest benefit to people in every field. Industry 4.0 is also called smart manufacturing or IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), combining real production and operations with digital technology, automation, machine learning, big data and more.

According to Klaus Schwab, chairman of the World Economic Forum, the Fourth Industrial Revolution builds on the three earlier revolutions. It combines technologies and blurs the lines between the physical, digital and biological worlds to create a leap in automation, machine learning and data.

What is the 4.0 era?

The 4.0 era is the most advanced era in human history so far. In this new era, cyberspace and technology systems are linked together to form a digital age that connects everything through the internet.

So what are the features of the 4.0 era?

• 4.0 technology breaks down traditional ways of operating and moves on to entirely new modern techniques.
• This era brings everyone new opportunities and new challenges, and changes every field.

Most importantly, 4.0 technology suits young people. The 4.0 era will help Gen Z broaden their thinking and creativity, speed up their work and get better results.

The industrial revolutions leading to 4.0

Below are the four revolutions from Industry 1.0 to Industry 4.0 that the world has been through, which will help you understand why and how the fourth industrial revolution came about.

The first industrial revolution

The first industrial revolution took place from 1700 to the early 1800s. In this period people moved from manual labor to metallurgy and began to use steam-powered engines.

In the 1.0 technology era, humanity made huge leaps compared with before and achieved results such as:

• 1733: John Kay doubled weavers' productivity by inventing the flying shuttle.
• 1765: James Hargreaves made spinning eight times more productive by inventing the spinning jenny.
• 1769: Richard Arkwright improved the spinning machine so it ran on water power instead of people and animals.
• 1784: James Watt researched and invented the first mechanization based on the steam engine.

The second industrial revolution

The second industrial revolution began in the 1870s. This was around the time of the first world war, when industrial powers such as Britain, Germany and the United States rushed to invent new engineering and technology.

The 2.0 revolution opened a new era of electrical and mechanical infrastructure and a gradual move toward automation. Large-scale production lines were born. The world gained many great inventions in cars, airplanes and telephones, along with incandescent bulbs, steam turbines and more. This progress drove strong growth in transport, electric power and steel production.

The third industrial revolution

The third industrial revolution built on 2.0 technology and began around 1950, lasting until the late 1970s. The Digital Revolution was born in this period and lifted human technology and civilization to more modern electrical, electronic and mechanical technologies.

Under the influence of the digital era, the information age grew strongly, and many machines and data storage facilities appeared. This was a major leap with the arrival of the internet, computers and microprocessors.

This progress made machines run more flexibly and sped up control and processing. The 3.0 era also set the stage for the fourth technology breakthrough, the 4.0 era. So what is the 4.0 revolution?

The fourth industrial revolution

The fourth industrial revolution (also known as Industry 4.0, Industry 4.0, the 4.0 era) is the industrial revolution that brings the Internet of Things (IoT) into every field. This revolution makes it easy for businesses and operators to access data in real time to run all operations.

Over the digital technology era technologies such as AI, big data, cloud computing and 3D technologies have grown strongly so that manufacturing, medicine, space research, aviation and other fields can drive growth and run and control work as precisely as possible.

Who is Industry 4.0 for?

To find out whether your business is right for investing in 4.0 technology, first answer whether it fits the cases listed below. If you tick most of them, don't hesitate: start choosing a suitable Industry 4.0 solution provider and assigning people to roll it out.

• Your business is in an industry with specific competitive pressure, where many competitors already know technology well.
• Your business is struggling to recruit staff for open positions.
• Your business wants more specific, clearer visibility into the supply chain process.
• You want to spot problems and fix incidents in time, before they become serious.
• Your business wants to improve work performance and raise profit for the organization.
• Your business wants everyone across all departments to have information that matches the company's operating processes.
• You want faster and more varied analysis.
• Your business needs 4.0 technology to go digital and understand information easily.
• Your business wants to improve customer experience and satisfaction.
• Your business wants to improve or maintain the quality of its products/services.
• You want a more integrated enterprise resource planning system. Not just inventory and planning, but also finance, customers, production processes, supply chain management and more.
• Your business wants an overall and flexible view of production and business operations, tailored to each user in the organization.
• You want information updated quickly in real time so you can make timely, suitable and more effective decisions.

And in general, Industry 4.0 is now used in many fields, such as education, smart homes, smart cars, IIoT, retail systems, online services, healthcare, economics, finance and more.

* In education specifically:

Using modern 4.0 technologies such as AI in teaching, game-based learning, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and more in your teaching methods to create fun and effective learning experiences.

The arrival of quality education software helps optimize every management task at training organizations today. One digital education solution that many education providers rate highly is MONA LMS – this is an center management app developed by MONA Software (a company with over 8+ years of experience in product development). Using MONA LMS software helps your organization: Save time, effort and money in running an education business. A system that integrates all the needed features: finance management, enrollment management, effective management of student and class information, and more. Absolute data security on the system. Multi-platform integration: web, web app and mobile app. And countless other useful features, whose value you only see when you try the product. Already more than 180+ education providers have chosen to use MONA LMS software. What about you? CONTACT US Contact MONA by Hotline: 1900 636 648 or by email: info@themona.global for detailed advice on the right package!

Opportunities of applying 4.0 technology in a business

What is Industry 4.0? It's fair to say that the 4.0 revolution opens a completely new era for both people and machines. Product life cycles, supply chains, sales, warehouse programming and more all need the Industry 4.0 model.

Increasing competitiveness

Digital technology will help businesses improve how machines operate, optimize the human resources function, and compile and analyze databases in the best possible way. Thanks to 4.0 technology, businesses get more professional workflows to compete fairly with others in the same field.

In the digital era, with Industry 4.0 moving as fast as it does today, any business that doesn't adopt modern 4.0 technology will be left behind.

Attract and keep young workers

Young workers are gradually replacing earlier generations. Businesses that adopt more Industry 4.0 will attract young candidates to apply. Modern 4.0 industry will keep new workers and help the business grow more sustainably.

Sync data and boost cooperation between departments

Managing data the traditional way makes it hard to sync, data gets lost, and work across departments stays disconnected. With 4.0 technology solutions, data is updated, stored and run in real time.

Departments no longer struggle to connect data and have more ways to communicate and assign permissions to control the system more logically and systematically.

Solve hidden problems

Applying the Internet of Things (IoT), big data and cloud computing in the fourth industrial revolution has helped businesses handle large volumes of data, run tests and analyze hidden risks to solve every problem quickly.

Lower costs, higher productivity

When 4.0 technology is part of the production process and supply chain, from the production line to delivering products to market, it helps cut a lot of general labor costs, drive business growth and get goods to users faster.

-> See also: Benefits of applying technology in education

So what is the challenge of the 4.0 era? What difficulties will businesses face in the early period of bringing the fourth industrial revolution into their operating systems?

Challenges for businesses in the 4.0 era

Businesses need to weigh the challenges they will face when bringing the Industry 4.0 mechanism into their management and operating systems. For example:

Infrastructure and capability

A business needs operating infrastructure compatible with Industry 4.0. Machines must connect to remote control, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data and more. In addition, the business needs some highly skilled workers who understand and can run modern machinery.

Huge investment cost

The cost of investing in production and operating systems suited to 4.0 technology is quite large. So a business needs to plan every detail and pick the modern technology solution that best fits its budget. It also needs measures to protect company and customer information.

FAQ

What are the 3 main pillars of 4.0 technology?

The main pillars of the Industry 4.0 revolution include:

• Artificial intelligence (AI) is an entity used to replace human intelligence and calculation. AI is pre-programmed to help people carry out control tasks, supervise work and carry out commands in real time that people have set up for it. AI today is used for automatic chat and automated machines and is also being developed in medicine, space science, manufacturing machinery and more.
• Internet of Things (IoT) is used to connect different spaces, creating a flat world that runs continuously and connects quickly through data transmission. The distance in work and human interaction is shortened completely, no longer affected by space, geography or time as before.
• Big data technology is a system for storing information, transmitting data, researching markets and analyzing information with high accuracy. Almost every industry and field in the 4.0 era needs big data.

Is my business data safe?

Most quality Industry 4.0 platforms guarantee information security. With MONA LMS you can rest easy, because we always put this first when developing our product.

In particular, MONA LMS software has modern security technology and ways to handle cyberattacks in time.

Information about what is 4.0 technology, and the opportunities the Industry 4.0 revolution brings to businesses, has been shared in detail by MONA in the article above. We hope it gives you useful information so you can find timely solutions to grow your business to the best results.

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