According to Klaus Schwab, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a technological revolution that’s “blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.” Also known as 4IR, this Fourth Industrial Revolution is well underway, and i…
According to Klaus Schwab, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a technological revolution that’s “blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.” Also known as 4IR, this Fourth Industrial Revolution is well underway, and its effects are being felt across every major industry.
Keep reading as we define the Fourth Industrial Revolution, explore 4IR technologies, and discuss how the Fourth Industrial Revolution has impacted manufacturing through a variety of use cases. It’s time to adapt or die because manufacturing is changing. Are you?
What Is 4IR (The Fourth Industrial Revolution)?
The term was coined in 2016 by Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, at the organization’s annual meeting. Later, Schwab wrote a blog on the subject as well as a highly influential book – The Fourth Industrial Revolution – which describes “a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another.”
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Today, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is taken to mean the transformation of the manufacturing industry by burgeoning technologies like artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, augmented/virtual reality, and the IoT (internet of things.) It also refers to advances in connectivity that give rise to “smart factories” – fully connected networks that merge the physical and digital realms (more like ecosystems than linear value chains.)
Industry 4.0According to Klaus Schwab, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is leading to a “supply-side miracle.” There’ll be long-term gains in efficiency and productivity, lower transportation and communication costs, more efficient logistics and supply chains, all of which will drive economic growth.
Others within the World Economic Forum warn of the dark side of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – mass unemployment, cyber warfare, and an infinite number of other tangible and intangible threats that we can’t even conceptualize yet.
