The Internet of Things (IoT) in the age of Industry 4.0. Zephre & BlogUTest
The concept and actuality of the Internet of Things (IoT) is not restricted to consumer applications; it’s having a big effect on industry too as the IoIT. Market research firm Frost & Sullivan finds that the IoIT will have a massive positive effect on manufacturing industries worldwide. By James Hunt:
The future of manufacturing, says Frost & Sullivan, ‘is defined by the Industry 4.0 paradigm, which will be singularly determined by the design, development and implementation of the IoT’.
This in turn, the organisation believes, will give rise to a new market called the Internet of Industrial Things (sometimes referred to as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). This includes varying market participants, from traditional industrial automation to commercial vendors from the ICT space, which – says Frost & Sullivan – ‘hold a strong leverage on digital technologies’. There will, of course, be effects on the electrical sectors, especially in manufacturing but with knock-on impacts further along the line.
The company poses the question: ‘What will be the roadmap of this ongoing transformation? How will suppliers from diverse market environments, collaborate, co-opt and compete in the future of manufacturing?’
This topic will be a key theme during Frost & Sullivan’s GIL 2015: Germany, to be held at the Frankfurt Jumeirah Hotel on 17 November 2015 to discuss new business models, supplier ecosystems and technological advancements across various industrial sectors.
The IoIT and Industry 4.0
The IoIT, defined by Accenture as ‘a universe of intelligent industrial products, processes and services that communicate with each other and with people over a global network’, is one fascinating result of the digital revolution that is changing the way we live and work in many industry sectors. However, getting the most from it demands a ‘Big Data’ approach, and this – in turn – demands the use of analytics because of the often vast datasets involved.
Industry 4.0 (or the fourth industrial revolution) is a collective term embracing a number of contemporary automation, data exchange and manufacturing technologies. It facilitates the vision and execution of a modular ‘smart factory’ in which cyber-physical systems monitor physical processes, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralised decisions. Over the IoT, cyber-physical systems communicate and cooperate with each other and with humans in real time, and via the Internet of Services (Wikipedia).
The impact of the Industry 4.0 paradigm and the development of the IoIT will be one of the key focus areas during GIL 2015, which will – among other things – discuss new business models, supplier ecosystems and technological advancements across industries.
A global renaissance
Commented Practice Director for Industrial Automation and Process Control, Muthukumar Viswanathan: “Frost & Sullivan believes that in the journey towards realising Industry 4.0, the idea of the IoIT will form the technological basis for a global manufacturing renaissance.
“New applications, solutions and services founded on IoIT redefine, reinvent and recreate the manufacturing setup that we see today. According to our research, the new IoIT supplier ecosystem could reach EUR 420 billion by 2020,” he concluded.
For more information on GIL 2015, email Julia Nikishkina at julia.nikishkina@frost.com
