Industry Revolution and its Impact on Operations Management

This article discusses the impact of Industry Revolution on Operations Management. It covers Industry 1.0 to Industry 4.0, Cyber Security System, Internet of Things, Robotic Advancement and AI, Cloud on 3D Printing, Customization, and Productivity and Quality. The article also highlights the challenges and issues faced by the industry and the benefits of using AI and robots in the manufacturing process.

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Industry Revolution
Student Details
[Email address]

Industry Revolution 1
Revolution of Industry
It was in practice since long that the manufacture of food, goods and cloth was introduced
by hand. But in 19th century, changes were discovered in the manufacturing process and
revolution took place.
Introduction of Industry 1.0 – Industry 4.0
In late 1800s, machines based on water and stem were used in order to help the workers.
When the capabilities of the production raised up, business started growing from personal
cottage owners to managers of the organization taking care of employees and managing
customers as well.
In 20th century, the major source of power was electricity because it was easy to use instead of
water which helped business to run machines under the industry revolution 2.0. Machines were
portable having their own source of power. The efficiency and effectiveness in the
manufacturing process increased which included productivity, labor divisions and mass
production (Crandall, 2017). In the last few decades of 20th century i.e. Industry 3.0, electronic
devices were introduced such as transistor, integrated circuit chips which made the automation in
the machines and replaced the management operators. Several planning tools were established
that helped many countries to reduce the cost of labor and formalize the supply chain
management. Industry 4.0 is commonly used term which denotes developmental process that is
involved while manufacturing any goods or services. This is also commonly known as fourth
Industrial revolution. It was first introduced in the year 2011 named as “Industrie 4.0” where
many representatives were involved. This industry revolution is taken in order to improve the
competition in the manufacturing industry in Germany. The government of Germany has given
rise to this strategy to be implemented in 2010 (Gandhi, 2015).

Industry Revolution 2
The key Characteristics of this revolution is mentioned below.
 This revolution will basically aim at focusing on the designing principles and
knowing the pros and cons of the approach. The initiative is taken by the
government of Germany to enhance traditional industry by involving product
engineering, internet services and cyber physical terms into it. Cyber physical
system is defined as a tool which is used to add computer and mechanical
technologies together known as mechatronics.
 It also aims at focusing on the technologies which are used in production process
such as web designing and artificial intelligence. Apart from Germany, this
revolution is named as Industrial internet in other countries (Marr, 2016).
For an example, this revolution has taken initiatives to identify how Google Car actually
works. Google Car is a driverless cars which was introduced in 2004 in Mars and is still in use.
Similarly, Mars Rover is also a device which is autonomous in nature and control centers
usually manages it. Rovers cannot easily be piloted with the help of normal remote controlling

Industry Revolution 3
system because it takes a lot of time to transfer a signal from Earth to Mars. These two
innovations are working successfully in Mars (Martin, 2017).
Cyber Security System
The concept of cyber system generally uses artificial intelligence along with sensors that
helps to drive the entire system. It aims at enhancing the productivity of the production chain and
knowing its work flow. The objects involved in this system is majorly the part of the production
process. This is also commonly named as “Smart Factory” which is made of the combination of
logistics, manmade machines and interaction between machines and machines. It also aims at
representing the 3D techniques in the industries which enhances the process. One of the major
advantage of this system is that it reduces the chances of damages and unusual accidents that
take place in the production department because it helps to detect the problems and risk involved
in it on the right time. The concept of cyber system is similar to self-healing systems which is
widely used in IT sector. The industry revolution is introduced to manage the production process
on the Meta level and products on the instance level (Hudson, 2014).
For an example, the production process involves the creation of 3D replicator and the
products for it are 3D replicators.
Internet of things
Internet of things is the second technology innate in the revolution. The significant logic
involved is that all the devices can easily be interconnected with each other via internet. The
interconnected devices can communicate with each other (Hinks, 2015).
Operation management
This revolution has aimed also aimed at providing the technical assistance to the industry
in the operation management by making the complex decisions into simpler forms and reducing
the unnecessary risks. Moreover, it has provided transparency in the production process with 3D
effects and aiming at reducing accidents and mishappenings. The managers in the industry are
able to take more decentralized decisions which help them to increase the productivity with more
effectiveness and efficiency.

Industry Revolution 4
The revolution plays a major role in the industry process because it has provided help and
support in the overall production of the products with multitude of reasons. Likewise, it has
aimed at enabling sustainable prosperity, putting human efforts into the center of production and
increasing challenges for the manufacturers.
The basic design principles followed by this revolution are Interoperability,
Virtualization, Decentralization, Real time Capacity, Modularity and Service Orientation.
How operations management has been affected by the revolution
Nevertheless, there are lots of difficulties to be faced to achieve this revolution. The major
problem involves security and the capability to manage the quantity of the data.
 Security of the system is one of the significant factor that must be taken into highest
priority. It has majorly two aspects involved i.e. the reliability of the embedded
software and protection from hacking.
For an instance, one can imagine the main reason behind the failure of the driverless
cars which is running at the speed of 130km/hr. The reason behind the attack is the
lack of operation management. It becomes very difficult for the operation management
to tackle huge number of bulky data. Using new technologies and several innovative
cycle to control the large volume is hard. But the problem can easily be solved by the
proper implementation of the revolution (Scalabre, 2018).
 Other issues examined under this revolution include the standardization of protocols
i.e. rules and regulations and interfaces. There are millions of protocols that must be
considered and followed to perform all the operations. Minor mistakes may lead to
serious accidents (IScoop, 2016).
 Another basic problem for this industry revolution is the problem of employment. The
question such as Will this revolution generate jobs? Obviously not because it will destroy
the number of jobs in near future because technology create innovations and reduces the
number of jobs (Lasi, Fettke, Kemper, Feld & Hoffmann, 2014).

Industry Revolution 5
As a result, the community has been affected a lot due to the issues and challenges involved
in the revolution. There is no solution that has been emerged but it is very necessary to address
those issues.
Robotic Advancement and AI
The Robotic advancement in the manufacturing industry plays a major role in the current
trend. It aims at focusing on the robots who perform on the industry basis and they believe in
automation. The use of Robots in industry is increasing at pace and has aimed at losses in jobs
and employment. Artificial intelligence is also used widely which enables to perform the
operation and activities of industry in simpler form. Today industry are involved in automation
where they use industrial robots who minimize the manual work and also mimic the intension of
actual workers. Robots in the industry are working faster and the work done are 100% reliable
too (Lorencik & Sincak, 2013). They perform work beyond the expectation of the human such as
microscopically precise assembly. Robots are programmed and they are instructed to do all the
task as per the guidelines of the industry. Likewise, AI has also aimed at cutting the manual cost
of the industry by developing AI algorithms and solving the complex decisions. They also help
to showcase the sensory capabilities of the emerging trend and predicting the needs and demand
of the market (Faggella, 2015).
With the use of Artificial Intelligence, the industry started working smarter and planning
every activities in a wider aspect. The industry today are more developed and they can easily
schedule the customer’s patterns and then produce the goods as per the demand. The use of AI
has also helped industry to avoid the unnecessary production that leads to the losses and involved
of costs (Robotics, 2018).
There have been drastic changes in the industry in last few years. The Increasing number
of hybrid and electric cars has helped industry to use AI and robots in a wider aspect. Hybrid
cars and electric cars are in trend in recent years. According to the research conducted in United
States, it has been found that the sale for these cars has raised 45% in 2017 as compared to the
demand in 2016. The trend of these cars will be followed because they aim at manufacturing
cheaper batteries and more robust charging infrastructure which helps to cut the cost of electric

Industry Revolution 6
cars. They basically aim at focusing on the power and drive train systems which include clutch,
rear axle, propeller shaft yoke and propeller shaft. The taxes charged by government on these
cars are comparable lower than those involved in diesel cars.
For example, Volvo is expected to emit 30% less CO2 and save the fuel of 5-10% by
adopting a hybrid long haul truck. The company has also planned to update its drive train which
will decide the best time to use diesel cars and electric cars.
Likewise, Tesla has built its image by selling 28000 of S model and Chevy has sold
25800 of its hybrid volts. However, Toyota’s Prius Prime is known as the third highest selling
electric hybrid company in 2017.
Cloud on 3D Printing
3D Printing operating system is one of the world’s first operating system available for 3D
printers. The manufacturer in the industry today uses this technique in order to manage the
platform by fixing the necessary changes available in 3D designs to 3D printers by tracking data
and analyzing it using analytical tools (Smith & Anderson, 2014). With the help of 3D printer, an
industry can easily search and find out the 3D designs and upload them with 100$ security as
well. It also helps to store the designs and also male new designs using several applications.
Several applications are used while designing such as cloud slicer and magic fix. It also helps to
keep a track of all the activities and conduct auditing of those activities to assure that they are
performing well or not. Moreover, 3D printers can easily be connected with 3D printersOS
within one click. It do not involve any specific complications which must be addressed properly
(3D printersOS, 2018).
In terms of manufacturing industry, the implications of 3D printing is used in massive
form. It helps to reduce the lead time that is invested in unnecessary computation. It also aims at
reducing the cost such as material costs, labor cost and transportation cost (Davidson, 2015).
The supply chain management and logistics department has also been benefited by the
revolution. The supply chain management has been shrunk because of the cost cutting and
Research and Development cycle are also involved in collaboration that helps to design networks
by interconnecting with each other.

Industry Revolution 7
Customization
The goods are personalized and manufactured according to the requirements and
demands. They are produced on the basis of batch size of one which helps to fulfil the demand of
the customers on the highest priority. It also helps to conduct business meeting in a more formal
way. The demand of the customer for any specific products are made to exacting specifications
(Wright, 2017).
Productivity and Quality
The production line in a manufacturing company has also played a significant role in
today’s era. Maintaining the quality driving with the price is very difficult which is made easy
with the help of AI and industrial robots. Today robots have made the work easy and introduced
goods with high quality. The production line is minimized by avoiding all the additional efforts
that are done by humans.
Thus it can be concluded that the use of AI in the industry has provided a great assistance
in terms of production, cost, advancement, quality, time and many more. Today, industry are
producing more goods and they are fulfilling the demands of the customers beyond the
expectation. The robots used in the industry has simplified all the complexity and difficulties that
one faces while manufacturing goods and services (Tirgul & Naik, 2016).

Industry Revolution 8
References
3D printersOS. (2018). How-It-Works. Viewed on 26th February, 2018. Available on:
https://www.3dprinteros.com/how-it-works/
Crandall, R. (2017). Industry 1.0 to 4.0: the Evolution of Smart Factories. Viewed on 22nd
February, 2018. Available on: http://www.apics.org/apics-for-individuals/apics-
magazine-home/magazine-detail-page/2017/09/20/industry-1.0-to-4.0-the-evolution-of-
smart-factories
Davidson, G. (2015). 3-D Printing and the Cloud: A Natural Fit for Manufacturers. Viewed on
26th February, 2018. Available on: www.industryweek.com/emerging-technologies/3-d-
printing-and-cloud-natural-fit-manufacturers
Faggella, D. (2015). Global Competition Rises for AI Industrial Robotics. Viewed on 26th
February, 2018. Available on: https://www.techemergence.com/global-competition-rises-
ai-industrial-robotics/
Gandhi, G. (2015). Industry 4.0 – fourth industrial revolution. Viewed on 22nd February, 2018.
Available on: https://blogs.sap.com/2015/06/30/industry-40-fourth-industrial-revolution/
Hinks, J. (2015). 5 things you should know about Industry 4.0. Viewed on 22nd February, 2018.
Available on: https://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/future-tech/5-things-you-
should-know-about-industry-4-0-1289534
Hudson, P. (2014). The industrial revolution. Bloomsbury Publishing.
IScoop. (2016). Industry 4.0: the fourth industrial revolution – guide to Industrie 4.0. Viewed on
22nd February, 2018. Available on: https://www.i-scoop.eu/industry-4-0/
Lasi, H., Fettke, P., Kemper, H. G., Feld, T., & Hoffmann, M. (2014). Industry 4.0. Business &
Information Systems Engineering, 6(4), 239-242.
Lorencik, D., & Sincak, P. (2013). Cloud Robotics: Current trends and possible use as a service.
In Applied Machine Intelligence and Informatics (SAMI), 2013 IEEE 11th International
Symposium on (pp. 85-88). IEEE.

Industry Revolution 9
Marr, B. (2016). What Everyone Must Know About Industry 4.0. Viewed on 22nd February,
2018. Available on: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/06/20/what-
everyone-must-know-about-industry-4-0/#2b0f4c2e795f
Martin. (2017). Industry 4.0. Viewed on 22nd February, 2018. Available on:
https://www.cleverism.com/industry-4-0/
Robotics. (2018). Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Your Industrial Robotics
Application. Viewed on 26th February, 2018. Available on: https://www.robotics.org/blog-
article.cfm/Artificial-Intelligence-and-Machine-Learning-in-Your-Industrial-Robotics-
Application/83
Scalabre, O. (2018). Embracing Industry 4.0—and Rediscovering Growth. Viewed on 22nd
February, 2018. Available on:
https://www.bcg.com/en-in/capabilities/operations/embracing-industry-4.0-
rediscovering-growth.aspx
Smith, A., & Anderson, J. (2014). AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs. Pew Research Center, 6.
Tirgul, C. S., & Naik, M. R. (2016). Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. International Journal
of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology, 5(6), 1787-1793.
Wright, I. (2017). Bringing Artificial Intelligence to Manufacturing. Viewed on 26th February,
2018. Available on:
https://www.engineering.com/AdvancedManufacturing/ArticleID/15670/Bringing-
Artificial-Intelligence-to-Manufacturing.aspx