One of the key trends driving Industry 4.0 is the concept of the digital enterprise, which integrates physical and digital realms to optimise the entire lifecycle of machinery and manufacturing processes.
“Industry 4.0 is all about connectivity, traceability, and data. With data becoming the big talking point,” says Jason Walker, VP, general manufacturing at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. “Being able to collect and manage data better across the entire value chain of your business will ultimately result in unlocking opportunities to optimise the way the business – and even individual processes – run.”
Hexagon’s Nexus digital engagement platform helps to collect and share data across workstreams, departments, and organisations. It can be used to engage point solutions, or the ‘digital thread’, from managing design through to production and quality inspection.
According to Walker, not only does this allow better supply chain management and traceability, but it also gives better visibility of the production process allowing issues to be mitigated earlier resulting in less waste and rework.
Siemens is promoting the adoption of a comprehensive digital twin – a virtual representation of a physical asset or process – which allows manufacturers to simulate product performance and optimise production before implementation, reducing downtime and increasing efficiency, and monitoring performance as the product is in use.
“We are trying to look at the entire needs of an organisation and create a comprehensive digital twin from start to finish,” explains Rahul Garg, VP of industrial machinery, Siemens Digital Industries Software. “From the digital design of a machine for a customer, including its expected performance for evaluation to get a sense of what the machine will actually deliver.”
Garg adds that a further element of the Siemens digital twin stretches to the production process, where businesses can be sure of the necessary number of staff to carry out production of the component/product. It can also be used to determine when the necessary parts will arrive from the suppliers.
“As part of the simulation of the entire plant, we can even simulate how the humans will interact in that plant, scale virtual humans to match worker populations and test human-centred designs for multiple factors, including injury risk, user comfort, reachability, line of sight, energy expenditure, and fatigue limits,” Garg says.
Incorporating digital threads – continuous real-time data streams across operations – further enhances transparency and decision-making capabilities. This interconnected approach is crucial for IT/OT (Information Technology/Operational Technology) convergence, enabling real-time data exchange between systems.
CONNECTED MANUFACTURING
IoT and IIoT solutions are at the heart of Industry 4.0, connecting machines, sensors, and systems.
Hexagon’s Nexus Connected Worker suite further enhances automation by integrating real-time data with shopfloor operations. This SaaS platform connects workers to digital insights, improving efficiency and decision-making. For example, manufacturers using Nexus have reported “more than a 20% increase” in productivity.
“One of the biggest challenges is the skills gap and not having enough skilled operators in the workforce to be able to ramp up or supplement the incumbent skilled operators that are potentially going to leave in the next few years,” Walker explains.
“With the Connected Worker solution, we are freeing those skilled operators up to focus on value adding activities, thereby reducing the need for more skills and increasing the workforce.
“Obviously, we will need new skills and new operators coming into the industry. One way to ramp those new skilled operators up quickly is to augment them with digital technologies.
“The core premise behind the Connected Worker solution is to provide data to those new operators to help them upskill quicker and give them the relevant information that they need in a timely manner, through a digital interface.”
AI AND MACHINE LEARNING
AI and machine learning are transforming production lines by enabling predictive maintenance, quality assurance, and real-time process optimisation. Orange Business has introduced Live Intelligence, a suite of GenAI-powered solutions that harness vast data streams to enhance business decision-making.
Sam Waes, head of smart industries, Europe at Orange Business, says that the use of AI is growing in a lot of businesses and industries on a general level, but manufacturing is slower to adopt it.
“There is still a lot of experience and knowledge in the workers which means that there are certain processes that are far from automated because there’s no recorded data,” he says. “I am a strong believer that it can be done, but first you need a deep understanding of how the production processes work, and you need all the data, but a lot of machines are over 20 years old and do not have sensors installed in them. AI specialists will say it can be done but the people on the factory floor have all the knowledge in their heads, which you cannot retrieve.
“Over the last two years more factories are seeing AI automation efficiency gains are possible because of the use of AI at home. But it is a matter of having small-scale first implementation to gain their confidence and grow from there. By getting the factory engineers involved in the process everybody learns.”
Another area Waes says has become used more and could speed the adoption of multiple Industry 4.0 technologies, is 5G. He says the biggest use cases are in harbours, automotive production and steel production plants where these networks support low-latency, real-time communication, monitoring, predictive maintenance, and automated operations, increasing productivity across large sites where Wi-Fi would not be strong enough or too expensive to be implemented.
ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION
The use of robotics is accelerating, with collaborative robots (cobots) playing a significant role in automating tasks while maintaining human oversight.
Universal Robots develops cobots that integrate into production lines, handling tasks such as assembly, welding, and packaging. These robots improve productivity, enhance safety, and reduce repetitive strain injuries for workers.
In October 2024 Universal Robots launched an AI Accelerator software package (in collaboration with Nvidia) for its robotic solutions. It is said to offer endless possibilities to improve production processes.
“AI is beginning to be adopted amongst our customers, and we wanted to scale that,” says Anders Billesø Beck, VP technology, Universal Robots.
One of the OEMs in the UK that use Universal Robots technology is Ocado which uses cobots for picking products in its retail fulfilment and distribution centres, impossible without the use of AI.
Beck also says AI is not always front and centre in robotic offerings and there are many small enhancements to processes that can be made using AI which all add up. “We have a welding partner that uses AI to fine tweak how fast the welding system feeds the wire versus how fast the robot moves,” Beck explains. “I think we will start seeing many different embodiments of AI.”
Adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies is enabling more agile, efficient, and sustainable operations. Companies embracing digitalisation, IoT, AI, and automation are well positioned to navigate supply chain disruptions, labour shortages, and regulatory evolution.
