Photo: Edge computing is and will continue to be an integral part of industry 4.0, otherwise known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Learn more about it and its place in the fast-advancing world of manufacturing in this blog post.
We’ve talked about tactical edge servers and how they’re improving the effectiveness of UAV operations, but on a scale much larger than the military alone, edge computing is poised to bring forth massive change in the global economy by altering, upgrading, and replacing the manufacturing and production technologies implemented during the previous industrial revolution.
There’s a trendy name for this phenomenon – industry 4.0 – coined by the German government in 2011 to describe its initiatives in manufacturing digitalization. It aims to “drive digital manufacturing forward by increasing digitization and the interconnection of products, value chains, and business models. It also aims to support research, the networking of industry partners, and standardization.”
But industry 4.0 is not just a trend; it’s an entire revolution in manufacturing and production that’s here to stay.
According to B2B research company MarketsandMarkets, the global industrial internet of things (IIoT) platform market size is expected to reach $13.82 billion by 2023.
Now do I have your attention?
In this blog post, we’ll discuss industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution, edge computing, and how the two are related, or in our opinion, inseparable. Toward the end, we’ll provide use cases to demonstrate the relationship between the two and discuss some things to keep in mind as you explore rugged computing solutions for your edge-driven industry 4.0 deployments.
Graphic: Industry 4.0 has its roots in the computerization of manufacturing and production processes. It is sometimes referred to as "smart manufacturing," and you have heard of the term "smart factory," in which technological processes are highly integrated to achieve productivity goals faster and more efficiently.
Industry 4.0 is both a concept and a revolution.
Conceptually, industry 4.0 broadly refers to a variety of ongoing technological advancements and practices being implemented by businesses and organizations globally to improve the speed and efficiency of their manufacturing and production processes.
These advancements and practices include the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), big data analysis, 5G cellular technology, 3D printing, edge computing and smart sensors, among other advanced technologies, to boost production rate, cut manufacturing costs, streamline communication and responsiveness between automated machines, achieve manufacturing and productivity objectives faster by increasing the speed, efficiency, precision, and accuracy of assembly line processes and related data, and more.
Graphic: Cyber-physical systems, or systems that integrate the power of computation with physical objects and processes, such as those seen in sensor networks and automated machines, are expected to dominate the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Industry 4.0 may also refer to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is the phase of industrial advancement in which humanity currently finds itself. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a direct result of the advancements and practices mentioned earlier, with a strong emphasis on less human intervention in manufacturing and production, not for the purpose of eliminating human involvement entirely, but rather to develop a highly adept, technologically assisted workforce.
A total of nine pillars, or technological drivers, have been broadly defined as contributors to industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution. They are:
Graphic: Edge computing has its place in the middle, or at the edge, of cloud computing and the internet of things (IoT). It is essential to ensure the success of industry 4.0 going forward.
Edge computing is a distributed networking architecture focused on moving the computational power of the cloud nearer to data-generating sources to reduce latency and cut data transfer costs.
Edge computing achieves its low latency by reducing the physical distance that data must travel for processing and analysis. In a conventional cloud computing architecture, servers in a remote, centralized cloud data center process incoming data and return insights gleaned from this data to the end user. But because of their remoteness, the data traveling to them travels farther than in an edge computing architecture, an additional distance that results in greater network latency, or a delay in data transfer, which is a major problem for applications requiring real-time responses and data-driven insights.
Graphic: Edge computing complements the smart manufacturing processes of the future, ensuring that employees and management teams have quick access to the insights they need to bolster productivity.
Edge computing and industry 4.0 cross paths in what's known as "industrial edge computing." Industrial edge computing describes the incorporation of edge computing technologies, such as edge servers, into modernized, data-driven manufacturing and production environments, like those indicative of industry 4.0.
The relationship between edge computing and industry 4.0 is already being realized in the form of on-site data centers, which go by a few different names, but essentially refer to the same technology. You may have heard of them referred to as “micro data centers,” “edge data centers,” or “containerized data centers.”
These local data centers are placed near data-generating sources – think of all the different data-collecting machines and IIoT devices in a smart factory, or for our defense and aerospace readers, the different vehicle, aircraft, and soldier sensors collecting data in the field – to improve response times, and in turn, boost speed, efficiency, and supervisory decision-making.
Now, think of the benefits this brings. Your automated manufacturing and production processes benefit from quicker insights, your big data infrastructure is more reliable, and your management team has the data it needs, faster, to make decisions, faster, which increases productivity at all levels of management, including logistics, operations, maintenance, quality, and general management, not to mention on the floor itself.
Edge computing is arguably the 10th pillar of industry 4.0, or it could be considered a supplement to the cloud computing pillar, given that the two function in tandem with each other. In the next section, we’ll provide some use cases to aid in your understanding of how edge computing and industry 4.0 are a match made in smart manufacturing heaven.
Graphic: Edge computing has its place in numerous industry 4.0 use cases.
We have written two separate scenarios to showcase the positive relationship between edge computing and industry 4.0.
Photo: Securing everything you need in an edge server for your IIoT application is stressful enough. We've made it easier for you by covering the business bases below.
As businesses and organizations continue to digitize their manufacturing and production processes, the adoption of edge servers and edge data centers will continue to increase.
Partnering with server manufacturers that not only keep pace with changing technological trends, like edge computing and industry 4.0, but that also have a reputation for outstanding quality and performance is crucial.
Here are 10 questions you can ask to generate discussion and help you determine whether an edge server manufacturer is the right fit:
As always, Trenton Systems is here to answer these questions and more should you be interested in choosing the world's leading made-in-USA rugged computing solutions manufacturer for your edge server deployment.
We're here when you're ready.