Industry 4.0 or 4th Industrial Revolution

Dr Mukul Chandra Bora

(The writer can be reached at mukul1968@gmail.com)

At the very outset and before going to the detailed discussion on the Industry 4.0 or 4th Industrial Revolution, we must first understand the chronology and scientific definition of the industrial revolution which is defined as "The changes taken place in manufacturing and transportation of man and materials and began with the changes in the process of fewer things that were made manually or by hand and then manufactured by using machines in larger-scale factories". The first Industrial Revolution was started in the year 1765 when agricultural societies became more industrialized and then followed by interstate or intercontinental railroad (due to discovery of Steam Engine, 1698), the cotton gin (the machine that quickly separates cotton fibres from their seeds), electricity and other technological inventions permanently changed the society throughout the world. The three industrial revolutions have transformed our work culture and livelihood along with the process of manufacturing, transportation as well as production of goods for our daily life. It is to be noted that these Industrial Revolutions have not only changed our living and work culture but also transformed the entire economy from agro and handicrafts based to economies of large-scale industries, mechanized manufacturing, and the system of a manufacturing hub. Before going to the Industry 4.0 let us have a look at the different Industrial Revolution taken place throughout the world.

The first Industrial Revolution has started long back in the year 1765 was the pro-industrialization period and started at the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19thcentury. During this period, people witnessed massive extraction of coal along with the Steam engine and was the main reason for the creation of a new type of energy which in turn helped the manufacturing of railroads and thus accelerating the economy.

The Second Industrial Revolution has started way back in 1870 following the first and almost a century with massive technological changes/advancements in the field of industrialisation and brought the new source of energy like electricity, gas, and oil. This revolution in turn led to the manufacturing of the internal combustion (IC) engine that reached its full potential of application for human life. The inventions of automobiles and aircraft make this the most important time of revolution throughout the world.

The third Industrial Revolution started in 1969 nearly after one century in the second part of the 20th century with the invention of another untapped energy source which is called nuclear energy that brought revolutionary changes in the frontier areas of electronics, telecommunications and computers which we are enjoying today and with the help of these inventions. We have seen a lot of new avenues like space exploration, rocket sciences and biotechnology. In the later part of this revolutions, the inventions of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and Robots have brought us to an era of high-level automation in industries throughout the world.

The fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 which is commonly used terminology has been derived from the German term 'Industrie 4.0' which refers to the intelligent networking of machines and processes for the industry with the help of information and communication technology. The first official starting of Industry 4.0 has taken place in Germany with the high-tech strategy to transform German manufacturing with the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Industry 4.0 as a revolution is happening right now and are experiencing its everyday life without knowing much of its actual magnitude of operation in manufacturing.

The starting of Industry 4.0 can be visualised by us with the use of the Internet in our daily life, and it brings the technological phenomenon called virtual reality in which we are living with during this Pandemic called COVID-19. Industry 4.0 has got three distinctions from earlier industrial revolutions in terms of velocity, scope, and systems impact. The speed of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent and when compared with previous industrial revolutions, this is evolving exponentially rather than at a linear pace and will disrupt almost every industry throughout the world. The breadth and depth of these changes herald the transformation of entire systems of production, management, and governance in the industries to a great extent. The figure below will show the process of the Industrial Revolution throughout the world.

Source: Google (Copyright@ 5th Element Group, PBC, 2019)

According to a report published by World Economic Forum (WEF) in the year 2016, it was reported that there will be 133 million new jobs that will be required for Industry 4.0 with net creation of growth of 68 more jobs in the different areas of ICT. This will be going to affect the job and skill market in the following ways:

 Skills and jobs displacement will affect every industry and geographical region, but losses can be offset by job growth in key areas.

 A clear majority of businesses believe that investing in skills, rather than hiring more short-term or virtual workers, is the key to successfully managing disruptions to the labour market for the long term.

 The new research by the World Economic Forum is the first of its kind, representing more than 13 million employees in nine industry sectors and 15 economies; it aims to guide business and policy-makers on how to equip labour forces with the skills to navigate the disruption of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

 The digital revolution is changing how we live and work.

In this present industrial revolution, the industry and business are being transformed by a new wave of digital technology and the mobile sensors can track inventory from the manufacturing floor, all the way through the shipping channel, to a retail shelf or a customer's door. The manufacturing machines send alerts about quality control, errors, supply shortages or breakdowns and simultaneous use of predictive software will automatically schedule for periodic maintenance for trucking fleets based on travel data and past repair timelines. The behavioural analytics built with Industry 4.0 will help financial institutions to spot suspicious activity in bank and credit card accounts. All the activities cited above will be enabled by various technologies viz., Mobile, Cloud computing, Data Analytics (DA), Automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, Robotics and Augmented and Virtual reality (AR/VR). These types of the intelligent and interconnected ecosystem will be the major driver for the fourth industrial revolution, and this potent combination of technologies will enhance the accuracy, efficiency, productivity and personalized customer service to business and industry in unprecedented ways besides lowering the cost of doing business. According to a study conducted by Accenture (2017) and McKinsey Global Institute, an average U.S. Company could save $85,000 per employee via the integrated deployment of said technologies and intelligent automation could save employers a staggering $15 trillion in wages by 2030 worldwide. This huge savings on employment will give rise to many questions on employment and upcoming scenario on the issue of educated youth not only for our country but for the whole world, and the pertinent question of today is the effect of Industry 4.0 on the job market. Due to this Industrial Revolution half of the activities that people are doing globally will theoretically be automated using currently demonstrated technologies and between 400 and 800 million current occupations could be displaced by 2030. It is worth mentioning that the jobs involving physical labour, data collection/processing, manufacturing, retail, and accommodations/food services will be most the most vulnerable during the shift to Industry 4.0. But when we widen our eyes, it appears far brighter and we could expect eight to nine per cent growth in the labour market by 2030 and this will be new types of occupations that have not existed before

It is reported that from 1980-2015, the introduction of the PC displaced about 3.5 million jobs in the U.S. and created new jobs to the tune of 19.2 million. Industry experts believe similar spinoff of employment growth from Industry 4.0. According to the WEF report (2018 Future of Jobs), strong employment growth is predicted not only in emerging sectors like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics and Block-Chain but also in non-tech positions such as customer service, sales, marketing, training and skills development.

The most optimistic view predicts that Industry 4.0 will bring new markets, more opportunities and considers more effects than only the effect of substituted jobs and the other effects like product demand actually might contribute to increase demand for employees on the market. But the skills that were required in 2015 will not be required by 2020 to make someone employable and the skills such as creativity, complex problem solving, critical and innovative thinking as well as social and cognitive skills will play an important role in the employability of the students. So to increase the employability of students and educated youth the need for skilling and reskilling would be of immense importance for the educational institutions to be survived in the 21st century.

This is an alarming situation for all the educationists of this state in particular and the country in general to change our behaviour towards teaching the technological subjects as per need of the technologically-driven development. If we fail to fulfil our commitment towards students' demand-driven education then it will make all of us accountable and the policy of the Government is very much clear in this regard. So this is the time for all the teaching community to work hard to understand the demand of the student community otherwise the days are not far when teachers will be worst affected by this Industrial Revolution.