Industry 4.0 has transformed traditional factories into smart factories by implementing the interoperability of highly digitised systems in the logical systems of industrial processes. This represents a major opportunity for the world of engineering and telecommunications, which is breaking new ground.
Factories will have to choose between upgrading or falling behind, just as happened with the market and big data. According to a study by Deloitte and MAPI, 86% of manufacturers believe that the ability of plants to adapt to new technologies will largely determine their competitiveness. The fourth industrial revolution is already here. Smart factories are the future and this is good news for all engineers.
Smart factories are telematically optimised factories. They consist of digital ecosystems with multiple interconnected devices that bring the Internet of Things to industrial plants. Thus, machine learning and big data techniques can be applied in an environment based on logical systems.
Control and automation through AI and data are therefore key as regards turning traditional factories into smart factories. The data collected and the analytical and predictive algorithms make it possible to:
The main characteristics of smart factories are security, flexibillity, efficiency, data-driven decision making, automation and decentralisation (thanks to distributed systems, the cloud and machine learning). This is where several interrelated fields come into play, making Industry 4.0 a revolution:
With the advent of smart factories, manufacturing plants are no longer simply a branch of industrial engineering. As you may have gathered from the previous section, AI engineers are one of the most in-demand skill profiles: from predictive algorithms for production and resources to the programming of smart robots based on deep learning techniques.
Following on the heels of artificial intelligence engineering, data science graduates (mining, statistics and analytics) are another of the most sought-after candidates, complementing the former in the implementation of machine learning.
The world of networks and telecommunications is also in luck. The entire framework needed in order to implement the Internet of Things in factories requires R&D&I work and research. Together with cloud architecture, it is one of the most important areas as regards smart factories. Recent years have seen the continual development of new technologies and standards for storage and communications, such as HTTP/3 and Serverless.
There is no doubt that smart factories and the fourth industrial revolution represent a great opportunity for engineers. Teleworking, the continuous growth of technology and the digital adaptation of more and more fields and markets mean that more and more opportunities are on the way. Take your career in a new direction and don't miss out! Take the plunge with BETWEEN!