Industry 4.0 Literature Review: Technologies, Challenges, and Benefits

This literature review examines Industry 4.0, detailing its evolution from previous industrial revolutions and its core components, including IoT, cyber-physical systems, and smart factories. It explores the shift towards decentralized production, the role of smart products, and the integration of technologies to enhance manufacturing processes. The review highlights the benefits of Industry 4.0, such as increased productivity, mass customization, and improved customer service, while also addressing challenges like high implementation costs, security concerns, and the need for skilled employees. The author compares Industry 4.0 with Industry 3.0, emphasizing the increased data collection and integration of technologies in the current revolution. The review concludes that Industry 4.0 is a significant advancement, offering substantial benefits to the business sector and potentially triggering further innovations. The paper references multiple sources to support the claims and provide a comprehensive overview of the topic.

LITERATURE REVIEW 1
LITERATURE REVIEW
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LITERATURE REVIEW 2
Literature Review
The three industrial revolutions in the past were triggered by technological innovations
in which the initial industrial revolution was characterized by the introduction of automated
production amenities in the 18th century. Then came the second revolution with the division of
labor and electrification. The third generation was characterized by information technology and
more electronics to improve the automation of the production process, for example, the
introduction of PLCs. Industry 4.0 is the convergence of industrial production, information and
communication technologies to fasten production (Rüßmann et al, 2015). This idea strengthens
the competitiveness of the German industry. I think the industry 4.0 helps in improving the
industrial process involved in manufacturing, engineering, material usage and other supply chain
managements (Gentner, 2016). I think there will be a pattern shift from a centralized to a
decentralized production process because of continuous communication between people,
machines and the resources.
There are smart products that often know their production history the current and the end
state so they can perform their production processes on their own by instructing different
machines to perform a stated manufacturing process and after that order, the conveyor belts to
conduct transportation to a certain destination or next production stage (Wang et al., 2016). This
communication between different machines and devices is a technique to be added in the
industry 4.0. This can be done by writing a program to a machine on what task to perform and
how they should perform it. I think robots and sensors can be incorporated in this as they play an
important role. Industry 4.0 is termed as an integral part of the High-Tech strategy for Germany
in 2020.

LITERATURE REVIEW 3
Industry 4.0 has three important components namely IoT, Cyber-Physical systems and
the smart factories (Wan, 2016). Internet of Things is gaining ground in the modern wireless
telecommunications. Things are the active participants in business that interact and communicate
together to exchange data and information sensed from the environment. Smart factory is a
solution for manufacturing which provide flexible production process that solves problems
arising from a production facility. That solution could be related to automation involving either
the software or hardware. Smart machines will shape jobs, manufacturing processes and the
production systems. It was argued that the reason behind the introduction of an Internet of
Things into the fourth revolution was to allow various things and objects, for example, the
sensors and actuators to communicate with each other and hence cooperate with other smart
components to reach a common goal so they ca self-control their tasks (Wang et al, 2016). This
leads to the extreme amount of data which can be extracted, visualized and used for end to end
engineering (Almada-Lobo, 2016).
They will be producing high tech products. There will be mass commercialization which
aims at producing personalized mass products through flexible processes (Liao, 2017). Within a
smart factory, products can converse with their surroundings and influence Reconfigurable
Manufacturing Systems (Hozdić, 2015). Configuration rules then replace the concrete structures
and the specifications of the production processes. RMS hence enables the manufacturing
companies to familiarize varying production necessities in a cost-efficient way (Almada-Lobo,
2016). Mechanical components can be rearranged according to the mechanical interface. The
difficulty of coordination can be condensed while increasing the elasticity by breaking down the
production processes into small divisions which share data according to the step process. This
makes the employees lose sight of the exact picture and to avoid this overarching modeling of

LITERATURE REVIEW 4
the chain can supply distributed units with reflectors to underline their actions in the production
process.
In the technology sector, I think decision process will be done by the self-optimizing and
knowledgeable manufacturing process as compared to the past where decisions were only made
by the humans (Lu, 2017). Distributed systems are only capable of manufacturing smaller batch
sizes and aid SMEs to follow the market chances (Sommer, 2015). The target to raise
collaboration productivity is lower cost per price so to cab this the ratios between the return of
production and the return of engineering should be evaluated (Sommer, 2015). This ensures that
all production activities are covered whether in direct and indirect apartments. Productivity
improvements are an example of decision-making ability. These are some of the factors that
should be considered when adopting the industry 4.0.
As the difficulty of products and the production processes rise, the Collaborative
Manufacturing and the Collaborative Development Environment became important for minor
and average enterprises. Industry 4.0 enables collaboration productivity. It is motivated by the
higher potential for growth of productivity (Schuster et al., 2015). Some research shows that the
industry 4.0 will function mostly in the lean manufacturing industries (Sanders et al., 2016).
Industry 4.0 acceptance of information technology and social media system has gradually
influenced consumer’s opinion of product improvement quality variety and the speed of
distribution. This involves establishing a factory with self-awareness, self-prediction, self-
comparison, self-maintenance and self-reconfiguration (Vogel-Heuser et al, 2016). The previous
industrial revolutions had a great impact on production processes itself and the shop-floor level.
Companies, therefore, gained higher productivity using the steam engines and eventually through
electricity in the third revolution. New technologies especially information technology and

LITERATURE REVIEW 5
innovation are implemented in the modern business hence new ways of production and ways of
doing business and other services in industrial production. This brings me down to the difference
between the industry 4.0 and the industry 3.0 as listed below.
There is a greater difference between the industry 4.0 and industry 3.0. Industry 3.0
preceded the industry 4.0. The third revolution was also termed as a digital revolution and was
set around in the 1970s. In this advanced electronics and information technology was
established. This led to the further computerization of the production process. In industry 4.0 the
amount of data collected and stored will be more as compared to industry 3.0. This is because the
production process will be fast therefore more data will be stored. The Internet of Things allows
separation of data from the important to the less important therefore helping in drawing
conclusions and support in carrying out business activities. Big data helps in analyzing data at an
advanced level. In industry 4.0, there will be the integration of all available technologies instead
of developing their technologies to come up with a more improvised manufacturing industry.
Industry 3.0 developed their technologies, for example, robots, the PLCs and SCADA but they
never connected them to IT. This is what the industry 4.0 is aiming at to improve their
productivity (Almada-Lobo, 2016).
Industry 4.0 will be so important to business because it will help create competition in the
business sector. This will force the respective personnel to offer and produce commodities of
higher quantity and quality. There will be increased self-awareness among the customers, and
many industries were hence increasing the number of sales and therefore expanding the market.
The data that will be acquired and stored will be used to enhance customer service and
responsiveness, therefore, improve customer relations and intelligence. Industry 4.0 will care to

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assess the industrial engineers avoiding much shock created by the information technology issue
(Sackey, 2016).
In industry 4.0, there is the interconnection of many different components to achieve a
certain goal that is the production of a certain end product. People are also connected to these
devices over the IoT. These devices include the machines, devices and sensors. Sensors are
devices that can detect a certain environmental quantity, for example, a light sensor. Wireless
communication technologies play a fundamental role in allowing internet access (Brettel et al,
2014). Through the IoE people and objects can share information, and this forms a basis for
collaboration to achieve a common goal after that. This collaboration enables the market to adapt
to fluctuating market demands. Modularization is a concept needed to increase the variety of the
products that the industry 4.0 will borrow. For proper modularization, the product will need to be
decoupled into very small subsystems with little interdependence. This is to attain proper
economies of scale.
Industry 4.0 is, therefore, one of the best revolutions even though it has its challenges
one of them very high income. A lot of money will be incurred in buying other devices and
machines. Also acquiring the right value or the correct devices to use is another task that has to
be put into consideration. This will cause unemployment t many people because machines will
be there to perform the tasks which people would have performed therefore creating poverty
(Bonekamp, 2015). Also, there will be more connections hence being more vulnerable therefore
a lot of care must be taken making such nodes meet. Many devices for example the PLCs should
be properly connected in the industry to avoid faulty connections (Vogel-Heuser et al, 2016).
Digitalizing using the big data files is also one of the big challenges. For example, using the data
to predict the buyer's trend and be able to feed into the system. There is also the issue of security.

LITERATURE REVIEW 7
The big files are prone to hacking, so security threat is one of the bigger issues (Prause, 2015).
Employees should not be allowed to connect personal devices as hackers will get a way through
for hacking. An attacker may also attack a system by either destroying it or blocking it by
changing the authentication details. Another challenge is that there will be the change in the
management of different industries. The employer will also be in a position to recruit new
members with different talents, for example, those who will be responsible for making the
connections. Also, he or she will have the job of redirecting employees about where an action is
required in the industry or constantly reminding them whenever they lose track. The employees
should also be taught the importance of keeping their passwords confidential, which is not
sharing them with other people who are prone to stealing big industry data.
Therefore, industry 4.0 is the best revolution as compared the last three revolutions. It
will assist in making work easier because the machines will perform several tasks. Although it
has many challenges, it is of great significance to the business sector because the core of every
industrial revolution is to increase the productivity and IT strategy. The market sales will
increase and also the self-awareness of the market will be high because of increased customers.
According to my opinion, the introduction of industry 4.0 will be a great significance to the
industrial sector, and this will trigger more innovations, therefore, more revolutions after that.

LITERATURE REVIEW 8
Reference List
Almada-Lobo, F., 2016. The Industry 4.0 revolution and the future of manufacturing execution
systems (MES). Journal of Innovation Management, 3(4), pp.16-21.
Brettel, M., Friederichsen, N., Keller, M. and Rosenberg, M., 2014. How virtualization,
decentralization and network building change the manufacturing landscape: An Industry
4.0 Perspective. International Journal of Mechanical, Industrial Science, and
Engineering, 8(1), pp.37-44.
Wan, J., Tang, S., Shu, Z., Li, D., Wang, S., Imran, M. and Vasilakos, A.V., 2016. Software-
defined industrial internet of things in the context of industry 4.0. IEEE Sensors
Journal, 16(20), pp.7373-7380.
Ivanov, D., Dolgui, A., Sokolov, B., Werner, F. and Ivanova, M., 2016. A dynamic model and an
algorithm for short-term supply chain scheduling in the smart factory industry
4.0. International Journal of Production Research, 54(2), pp.386-402.
Sommer, L., 2015. Industrial revolution-industry 4.0: Are German manufacturing SMEs the first
victims of this revolution?. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 8(5),
p.1512.
Sanders, A., Elangeswaran, C. and Wulfsberg, J., 2016. Industry 4.0 implies lean manufacturing:
research activities in industry 4.0 function as enablers for lean manufacturing. Journal of
Industrial Engineering and Management, 9(3), pp.811-833.
Lu, Y., 2017. Industry 4.0: a survey on technologies, applications and open research
issues. Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 6, pp.1-10.

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Liao, Y., Deschamps, F., Loures, E.D.F.R. and Ramos, L.F.P., 2017. Past, present, and future of
Industry 4.0-a systematic literature review and research agenda proposal. International
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Prause, G., 2015. SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODELS AND STRUCTURES FOR
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Bonekamp, L. and Sure, M., 2015. Consequences of Industry 4.0 on human labor and work
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Vogel-Heuser, B., Rösch, S., Fischer, J., Simon, T., Ulewicz, S. and Folmer, J., 2016. Fault
handling in plc-based industry 4.0 automated production systems as a basis for restart and
self-configuration and its evaluation. Journal of Software Engineering and
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Hozdić, E., 2015. Smart factory for industry 4.0: A review. International Journal of Modern
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Schuster, K., Plumanns, L., Groß, K., Vossen, R., Richert, A. and Jeschke, S., 2015. Preparing
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