How Industry 4.0 Will Affect the Life of Engineers

A term that was birthed out of a German drive for innovation has now come to exemplify the pinnacle of the modern industry. Since the 1840s, manufacturing and engineering has faced a rapid growth of capability. We have gained machine production, eventually shifting to computerized manufacturing and design. Ever since the rapid innovation period that was the industrial revolution, the manufacturing industry has been getting more data. Temperatures, rates of production, plant capabilities – these data points are now easily accessible. The manufacturing industry has always innovated alongside the availability to capture information. In the modern age, our manufacturing has gotten so complex that there is simply too much data; there’s too much to handle. That’s where Industry 4.0 comes into play. You likely recognize the term or even utilize many of its components, but understanding the radical shift that is taking place in how manufacturing is managed, has the potential to make or break you as a great engineer. This new age of industry brings cyber-physical systems to the forefront of innovation.