Business technology is evolving apace. With global attention focused on ‘the next big thing’ and with organisations looking to gain maximum benefit from their investments, having an Industry 4.0 mindset and adopting a technology-led transformation have become high-priority goals across multiple industries.
In this blog from Barry Thornton, Advania Dynamics 365 Sales Consultant, discover the potential of Industry 4.0 and why a technology-led approach to production and manufacturing isn’t simply reshaping the industry, but rewriting the rules of the global economic landscape.
What is Industry 4.0?
Rooted in the four global industrial revolutions that preceded it – coal (18th century), gas (19th century), electronic and nuclear (20th century), and internet and renewable energy (21st century) – Industry 4.0 represents a new stage in the organisation and performance of the industrial value chain.
In simple terms, Industry 4.0 suggests an operation where factories and manufacturing plants are fully augmented with web connectivity, creating a system that can visualise and engage with the entire production chain. Through this connectivity and armed with automative capabilities and artificial intelligence (AI), machines can make decisions that positively impact production and business value.
Built upon the digital revolution of the 21st century which saw ground breaking advances across electronics and IT, Industry 4.0 is characterised by a merging of technologies that blur the lines between physical, digital and biological spheres of industry. Representing the current trend of infusing manufacturing and production with automation and data exchange, Industry 4.0 seeks to integrate decades-old processes with cutting-edge solutions to create an optimised fusion of modern technology and established industry.
Technology-led transformation and AI
With the world focused on the power of AI, clients regularly ask us whether their latest priority can be tied in to their AI strategy and the potential that rests within it.
The answer is a resounding yes. Artificial intelligence (AI) adds an entirely new dimension to technology-led workflows, augmenting already-familiar processes with the power and innovation of cutting-edge performance.
A crucial component of Industry 4.0 and technology-led transformation, AI enhances numerous aspects of the manufacturing and industrial processes. From predictive maintenance to optimised production processes, and from supply-chain enhancement to data analysis, AI can be infused across every part of your operations.
By leveraging the power of AI and fine-tuning your solutions to directly answer your needs, you can identify corporate and production inefficiencies, perform complex tasks with precision and speed, and meet specific customer requirements that enhance your competitiveness in the marketplace.
Industry 4.0 in action
Just as smart phones revolutionised the mobile communication industry and smart cars ushered in a new era of what we expected of vehicles, modern technology seeks to create smart factories with inter-connected, data-driven decision making capable of self-optimisation.
Organisations the world over are competing with not only treacherous economic conditions, but are also adjusting to challenging supply lines and uncertain financial futures. Many employees are still coming to terms with new ways of hybrid and remote working, and against this backdrop Industry 4.0 offers significant benefits.
Increased efficiency
By engaging AI and normalising technology-led transformation, manual errors and lost time can be eliminated to a far greater degree than at present. Predictive maintenance can detect potential equipment failures before they occur, reducing downtime and saving on largescale repair costs before they become a crippling financial burden.
Enhanced productivity
The integration of traditional manufacturing machines with Internet of Things (IoT) devices means businesses benefit from better communication and coordination, resulting in smoother production flows and fewer bottlenecks in the production chain.
Higher quality and improved customer satisfaction
Real-time monitoring of production and performance, coupled with powerful predictive maintenance, leads to an improvement in product quality and defect minimisation – with a direct correlation to increased customer satisfaction and repeat business.
Flexibility and adjustments to market changes
With the sweeping transformations and relentless evolution impacting almost every industry across the globe, the organisations conducting the most lucrative business are the ones that can ride the waves of change and seize momentum at every opportunity. With advanced robotics and highly adaptable systems, organisations working to Industry 4.0 principles can customise their workflows and respond to important market changes far more quickly than the competition.
Class-leading safety
Personnel safety underpins everything that your business can achieve. Commitment, passion and optimal productivity all hinge on a safe working environment. Advanced technologies, such as AI and augmented reality (AR), enhance workplace safety by providing better training, real-time support and reducing manual handling of hazardous processes.
The core proposition of a technology-led transformation workflow is a more agile, efficient and sustainable business which puts driving growth and enhancing competitiveness at the very centre of its operations. Achieving things in minutes that previously took days and being aware of dangers, bottlenecks and opportunities long before traditional methods would alert you to them offers a world of business-critical possibilities that simply didn’t exist until now.
What are the challenges of Industry 4.0?
Any change to well-established practices take time to bed-in; as Hofstadter’s Law states, the greater the change the longer the time taken to reach a successful outcome – and the move to employing advanced technology can be a significant change.
If you begin the process knowing both what are the challenges of Industry 4.0 as well as the solutions required to successfully embrace it, you and your people are better prepared to deal with the difficulties you might encounter throughout the process.
Of greatest concern to many organisations is the high initial cost required. Advanced technologies like AI, IoT and robotics require substantial investment, which can be challenging for smaller organisations right out of the gate. Though this may be an insurmountable problem for some, an awareness of the costs and having a solid strategy to maximise your budget can go a long way to making the onboarding of new technologies possible. Significant transformation doesn’t have to be an all-in-one, big bang approach – moving systematically through different stages of required growth is the aim.
Secondary to the financial challenges of these enhancements are the cyber risks inherent in adopting masses of new technology. With increased connectivity and large-scale data exchange comes a heightened risk of cyberattacks and an increased vulnerability to threat actors. However, cyberattack advancements bring cyber-security advancements, and organisations can employ robust security measures to protect sensitive information and critical data.
However, once this new workflow has been established across your business, there may still be daily hurdles to clear.
- Change management: Planned prior to adoption and implementation of new technology but crucial throughout your transformation, transitioning to an Industry 4.0-mindset requires significant changes in processes and company culture. A people-focused change management strategy can be the difference between a resistant workforce that rejects sweeping improvements, seeing them as inconvenient and challenging, and one which embraces effective and substantive change to future-proof your operations.
- Integration complexity: Even with a solid change management system in place, making your people feel comfortable with new systems and work confidently when relying on advanced technology can take time. Integrating across every aspect of your organisation is key in establishing a new model of working, but it can be costly and require detailed planning and execution.
- Regulatory and compliance: With new technologies comes new compliances and standards that organisations must adhere to. As guidelines evolve and laws change to reflect new requirements, organisations must ensure that they are compliant with every solution and tool that they roll out.
- Skills gap: Finding and training employees with expertise in data analytics, AI, robotics and more is crucial if you want to build on your implementation. As you come to trust new technologies, there is a direct correlation between a skilled workforce that is proficient in its tools and a business that generates greatest value from its technology investment.
Many people are cautious about making such great changes in their operations, particularly when those same processes have been successful and lucrative – often for many decades. But the future of work is markedly different from that which we have been used to until now, and time will not forgive those who stand still.
Business and industry leaders who can answer the question ‘What are the challenges?’ are better placed to successfully leverage the technology at their disposal. If you don’t, your competitors surely will.
Adapting to new technologies
Despite the challenges, there are numerous ways to answer advance a technology-led transformation and workflow for your organisation.
By working to a phased schedule, you can gradually integrate new technologies, letting your people take their time to familiarise themselves with new ways of working and changed processes. Additionally, a staged approach allows for far greater control of spend compared to an all-in, fast-paced change.
Investing in cybersecurity measures ahead of any technology adoption is also wise. Whether or not you enact a digital transformation, your business is at far greater risk than even just a few years ago, and protecting your assets and your people should be a top business priority. By making sure that your organisation is safeguarded by advanced encryption and undergoes regular security audits, you can go about your business confident that your operations are as secure as possible.
Just as importantly, by advocating for meaningful employee security training, your people can begin regular engagement with modern solutions so that – when the time comes – a technology-led transformation to a modern way of working won’t be so alien.
Crucially, many organisations forge a path towards digital transformation by partnering with industry experts who can guide them through the process, offering insights and advice. By merging your fundamental organisational knowledge with a proven service provider, you can marry together the two most important ingredients for a successful implementation.
The future of work
There are no guarantees when it comes to workplace technology. What is cutting-edge today will be obsolete in time; things that were unimaginable decades ago are commonplace now.
Yet the unstoppable march of tech evolution means that those organisations that embrace change and innovation stand the greatest chance of being industry leaders and seeing continued lucrative business. Those that ignore global tech changes do so at their peril, condemning themselves to years of catch-up – or worse.
At Advania, we understand that change can be challenging. Any time the status quo is upended it can feel as though things are spinning out of control. As the tech company with people at heart, we can act as a trusted partner to future-proof your operations and help you generate the greatest value you can for long-term success.
Our experience in delivering modern, scalable and proven technology-led solutions across many different industry sectors to support these advancements is well known.
We have implemented numerous Microsoft Dynamics 365 Solutions such as Business Central as a fully featured ERP application for Distribution and Manufacturing, Dynamics 365 Sales as a CRM solution and Dynamics 365 Field Service Automation (FSA) for the Service sector. All of these and more provide world-class AI and Copilot technology embedded as standard, helping businesses in their transition to using advanced technologies in order to assist in their growth.
It’s what our experts do best.
Get in touch with us today and discover how a technology-led transformation can unlock your organisation’s full potential.
