Smart connected digital factories: Unleashing the power of industry 4.0

Abstract

Recent initiatives such as the Industrial IoT, or Industry 4.0, as it has been dubbed, are fundamentally reshaping the industrial landscape by promoting connected manufacturing solutions that realize a “digital thread” which connects all aspects of manufacturing including all data and operations involved in the production of goods and services. This paper focuses on Industry 4.0 technologies and how they support the emergence of highly-connected, knowledge-enabled factories, referred to as Smart Manufacturing Networks. Smart Manufacturing Networks comprise an ecosystem of connected factory sites, plants, and self-regulating machines able to customize output, and allocate resources over manufacturing clouds optimally to offer a seamless transition between the physical and digital worlds of product design and production.