{"id":6522,"date":"2020-03-15T08:15:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-15T00:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.precicon.com.sg\/?p=6522"},"modified":"2025-11-28T08:38:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T00:38:53","slug":"what-is-industry-4-0-and-how-it-began-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glutenfreepleasure.com\/__proxy_domain\/www.precicon.com.sg\/industry-4-0\/what-is-industry-4-0-and-how-it-began-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Industry 4.0 And How It Began (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What is Industry 4.0? Walk onto the assembly floor of the VinFast car assembly plant in Hai Phong, Vietnam, and immediately, you notice that this is not a traditional manufacturing operation. The general atmosphere is one of quiet, coordinated motion. Yes, you hear the whine of power tools, but mainly, you notice the orderly stacks of parts and the coordinated movement of humans and machines \u2014 1,200 Swiss-made robots from renowned manufacturer\u2026<\/p>\n

Many of the sights and sounds you experience are the results of manufacturing inventions, processes, and ideas developed during the past 270 years. The history of manufacturing technology is filled with useful knowledge and social incentives. These drivers led to changes in technology and practices in three industrial revolutions. Now, companies and governments consider the requirements and potential outcomes of a fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0.<\/p>\n

Retracing connections between past ideas, incentives, and production capabilities is a useful way to assess business and social challenges we are likely to face in Industry 4.0. So, our modus operandi will be to consider the big ideas, useful knowledge, and incentives of each industrial revolution. Then, we\u2019ll see which practices and capabilities emerged from the changes made.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Industrial Revolution was another of those extraordinary jumps forward in the story of civilization.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephen Gardiner<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Industry 1.0: Power & Productivity<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When we say, \u201cthe Industrial Revolution,\u201d what do we mean? There are many definitions, which go something like this one: \u201cThe era of economic and social changes, which began with the mechanisation of agriculture and manufacturing, at about 1760 in England and later in other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given our society\u2019s focus on technological progress, it might be helpful to change the importance a bit. By moving our attention from the period to the role of change, our description of Industry 1.0 becomes: \u201cThe era from 1760 to 1830, represented by steam-powered, factory-based production, in which profound economic and social change became the normal condition.\u201d<\/p>\n

School Books encourage us to think about the Industrial Revolution, a single-stage event that changed society in one go, but this is not so.<\/p>\n

Measuring Time by Technological Change<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Historians of technology now recognise not one but three past industrial revolutions. These society-changing surges of technological development (revolutions) are separated by lulls in innovations (evolutions). In evolutionary periods, technological developments are improved little by little and absorbed into standard manufacturing methods.<\/p>\n

Where are we today? \u2014 Using this model of time and change, modern industrial progress spans 270 years of social, economic, and technological change. Not all historians agree where we are along the industrial revolution timeline. Most consider that in 2020, which we\u2019re edging into the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) or Industry 4.0.<\/p>\n

Some societies still run their manufacturing businesses with technologies, methods, and ideas typical of Industry 1.0 through 3.0. However, in later chapters, playing technological catch up is an important part of achieving the full value potential that Industry 4.0 offers.<\/p>\n

Progress as technological surpass each surge in manufacturing development is enabled and expanded by innovations of earlier stages. Our walk through the VinFast plant provides glimpses of artefacts from previous revolutions as well as current times: machined car parts (Industry 1.0), assembly lines and electrical power (Industry 2.0), and electronic production controls and robots (Industry 3.0).<\/p>\n

Centralising, Mechanising, & Powering Work<\/strong><\/h4>\n

In 1760s Great Britain, manufacturing innovators became aware of the business opportunities enabled by two factors of production: a denser-than-water power source and the then-new notion of factory production.<\/p>\n

There was no single \u201caha!\u201d moment in this development. Inventors and investors gradually realised that businesses could fill the growing demand for manufactured goods. To reap the financial benefits, they had to do three things:<\/p>\n

Gather all production resources at one centralised location, the factory, rather than in scattered places at workers\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n