(33o) Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0 Technologies’ Applications in Four Industries

This paper describes four operations that were significantly transformed via selected Industry 4.0 technologies in order to automate the processes, thereby enhancing the efficiency, and accuracy of the operations as well as the overall quality of the products. The four vastly different operations included the manufacturing of marimba, continuous process of cheese production, pharmaceutical tablet production, and production and recycling of PET bottles. The authors researched and evaluated four selected operations and explored ways to transform those operations into “lights-out-manufacturing” with little or no human intervention.

The objective was to enhance the efficiency and reduce waste by making the operations completely or in certain cases, as much as possible, automated, using I-4.0 technologies. Technologies that were considered included: artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), blockchain, augmented reality (AR), digital twins, virtual reality (VR), robotics, additive manufacturing, and industrial internet of things (IIOT). Moreover, upstream and downstream operations were considered with particular attention to industrial symbiosis possibilities as well as ethical and environmental concerns.

Industry 4.0 is characterized by technologies that connect the physical and digital space. It could be construed as an evolution of Industry 3.0 which brought about the digital revolution. These technologies will significantly speed up the rate of change and will drastically alter the way companies will produce, market, and distribute goods and services and develop life-long relationships with their customers [Ghorashi, et.al].

The overarching purpose in this study was to explore the implementation of I-4.0 technologies that connect the physical world and digital spaces and allow machines to communicate with humans and with one another to accomplish tasks that were not previously possible.

Industry 4.0 technologies have the potential to completely change how industries operate, making them both safer and more efficient. Implementation of these technologies could lead to “lights out” facilities, where no human intervention would be necessary to run

a process. Citing sources that proves the practicality of the

suggested changes, the authors present ways to almost fully automate four completely different industrial operations, thereby illustrating the applications of new techniques through a broad spectrum of industrial processes.