Industry 4.0 In Prototype Manufacturing

The 4th transformation in the industry or more famously termed as Industry 4.0, is growing by the day and brought upon us by the eagerly increasing capacity of its data and all-expending mechanization. This industry is advanced IT-based which covers absolutely any sort of business thus its focus is on manufacturing. 

9 Achievements of the fourth industrial revolution

Enormous data and analytics:

In manufacturing, there is a working of collection of a huge amount of data to store and process. The solution for big data opens the opportunities to save costs and improve manufacturing by advanced means.

Robots: 

In making, the aid of robots is an absolute way to grow up manufacturing as related to the speed of work and precession. 

Simulation:

Using advanced technologies, in simulation, in which you can simply put and check out every aspect of the underlying product virtually.

Horizontal and vertical system integration

In Industry 4.0, enormous Data-powered networks are fully coordinated with undertaking systems across the complete chain of supply(horizontal) of organization and undertaking framework units(vertical). So, it boosts overall production.

Industrial internet of thing(IoT)

The Internet of Things allows the interconnection of various gadgets within a network, the also provides advanced means like shipment tracking, real-time routing of data aggregation and examination, and route predictions.

                                                                        IMAGE SOURCE: Pixabay

  industry internet

Cybersecurity 

This industry comprises smart, flexible, and cyber-physical networks. 

Cloud computing

As cloud storage is cost-efficient, faster, and unlimited in space, it helps to solve a major issue.

Additive manufacturing

 In additive manufacturing technologies environmentally friendly 3D models can also be built. Other materials can also be manufactured with 3D printers to save expenses and give a clear overview of that product. What’s more, Since the 3D printing is easily used to help engineers in complex design, it also is an essential way when it comes to rapid prototypes.

3d printing

Augmented reality (AR)

Augmented reality transforms real estate and manufacture. Full-blown 3D objects attract clients and investors. 

The Benefits of Industry 4.0 Adaptation in Manufacturing

To overcome overshooting challenges of traditional manufacturing,  Industry 4.0 has revolutionized the change in traditional manufacturing which is based upon three different technological aspects that lead to the current evolution: Connectivity, Flexible automation, and Usage of intelligence. Thereby Industry 4.0 combines both information technology and operational technology and results in the foundation of the cyber-physical environment which has forced traditional manufacturing evolution.  Some significant benefits are shared as:

High Efficient

Industry 4.0 allows you to gather real-time information across the whole supply chain. The collective data from suppliers thereby can help You to analyze the production process thus you can improve the operational designs with the help of all the instant feedbacks you would be getting. In this way,  industry 4.0 improves the efficiency and productivity of entire manufacturing processes.  

Fast Time to Market

Industry 4.0 could sped up time to market by

  • By reducing the overall downtime of machines
  • It has encouraged the manufacturers to be adaptable towards deemed market demands by speeding up their order delivery in a limited time. 

More revenue

The advanced industrial revolution is beneficial for those who are prepared to convert and adjust it. For now, in the German IT Sector, those who are working based on advanced technologies are getting 30€ billion more revenue each year than others.

Lower cost

For industry 4.0, your maintenance will be 20-50% faster, your equipment boost uptime will be increased by 10-20%, and it decreases maintenance expenses inevitably by 5-10%. 

Virtual simulation software allows complete and absolute testing of products. 

How Prototype Manufacturing  Involved  in industry 4.0. 

cnc machining

The adaptation of IoT-enabled systems are very crucial for manufacturing bodies since such systems are referred directly towards Industry 4.0. Generally, for the prototype manufacturing process, if we look deeply, IoT has a huge role to play as most microprocessors in prototype manufacturing units are connected via wireless cyber-physical systems. It allows the devices and the machines to communicate and exchange the process data with minimum human input to ensure preciseness in the prototype manufacturing process. Besides, based on the core of industry 4.0, automation and intelligence, the traditional salesman-center method is shifting.

Right now some prototype manufacturers provide the direct instant quotation system which helps customers to grow their businesses in a much effective and efficient way. Prototype industry is more inclined to the e-commerce model. Is it a good trend? Take one of the prototype manufacturer RapidDirect’s instant quotation system as example, simple three steps to get the quotes in prototype cnc machining, upload the CAD file, determine the processing requirements (materials, surface finish, quantity, etc), then a quote is shown. From this process, it minimizes the human factors to get a transparent result, no more doubt that is an absolutely good shift. 

As we all know, each industry evolution brings huge changes in production mode, so how to adapt industry evolution and make progress is very important.  When we combine prototype manufacturing with some other technical aspects of industry 4.0 such as big data or block-chain it can help us in revolutionizing the production process and boosting competitiveness.

Fabrizio VanMarcino
 

Fabrizio Van Marciano is a self-taught web designer, front-end web developer, and content creator. He is the founder of FVM.