Penang Monthly provides a quick clarification of what the biggest buzzword of the coming year is about.
What is Industry 4.0? At a very high level, it is about the integration of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to enhance the productivity, efficiency and flexibility of production processes. It is the pursuit of “smart factory” capabilities.
More succinctly, UBS, in a whitepaper to the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2016, labels the development as a shift towards “extreme automation and connectivity”. In the foreword of the white paper, UBS acknowledges that “the global economy is on the cusp of profound changes that are comparable in magnitude to the advent of the First Industrial Revolution, the development of the assembly line production, or the invention of the microchip”.
The global financial services company proposes the growing role of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in business, government and private life. It also sees ever deeper and faster communication between and also among human and machines. This “extreme connectivity” will neutralise the obstacle of distance and time in our transactions.
