Industry 4.0 also called the Fourth Industrial Revolution is going to transform the entire world in ways we have never imagined before. It will transform the way we work, we live and we interact with each other, a mega-revolution never seen before. You might have heard this word, Industry 4.0, a lot many times and wondered what precisely it means and how it is going to affect our life. We will delve into this flourishing realm of abundant opportunities for the budding managers and technologists of tomorrow in India and across the world.
If industry 1.0 commencing in the late 18th century focused on the increase in production efficiency and scale by the introduction of Water and Steam powered machines, it led to its evolution in Industry 2.0 at the beginning of the 20th century. This phase was marked by the development of machines running on electrical energy, steamrolling the process of mass production. The next industrial revolution, Industry 3.0, was brought about by the advances in the electronics & telecommunications industry characterized by Printed Circuit Boards, Programmable Logic Controllers and other novel inventions.
The integration of this electronics hardware into the production process fueled the requirement of software systems. Besides, it emanated into the birth of various diaspora of modern management practices namely enterprise resource planning, inventory management, shipping logistics, and product flow scheduling and tracking throughout the factory. And now came the modern avatar of the fourth industrial revolution, also named as Industry 4.0, which has become the cornerstone of contemporary human mankind. Characterized by the boom in the Telecommunications and Internet the entire globe has become one cohesive family who could talk, walk and rock together with the developments never seen before.
What is this Land of Opportunities?
Industry 4.0 is going to produce a wide array of lucrative opportunities for aspiring engineers of future India in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics Process Automation, Blockchain, Natural Language Processing, Quantum Computing, Data Science, Cyber Security, 3D Printing & Design, Virtual reality and Cloud computing.
We have already heard these words Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Data Science & Cloud computing a number of times before. In this article, we will examine the golden avenues provided by the Internet of Things & Blockchain technologies. Whether you are an Electronics geek, Computer Wizard or a Mechanical magician, technology professionals from a wide array of streams can become the beneficiary of this digital revolution.
Today, we are going to focus on the landmine of opportunities created by the Internet of Technology (IoT).
How does it work?
A sweet, melodious voice of Amazon Alexa or an affable Google Home, the IoT devices have entered our homes with élan. These computing devices connect to Wi-Fi and transmit data to accomplish a particular task. These IoT devices also include Smart watches like the Apple Watch, internet-connected baby monitors, video doorbells, and even toys. The devices communicate and interact through the internet and are easily remotely monitored or controlled.
Where will it be used?
Believe it or not, but the current Coronavirus Pandemic has proved to be a blessing in disguise for this transformative industry sector. The number of companies transforming their traditional business processes through Digitization has increased manifold during this lockdown time.
As per the report by Economic Times CIO, “the IoT market in India will make at least $15 billion by 2020”. The Indian government has created a roadmap to attain this pragmatic goal to put India on the global IoT map. Currently it accounts for nearly 5% of the total global market. From the perspective of the Indian economy, the usage of IoT devices in India has achieved exponential growth from approximately 200 million units in 2016 to 2.7 billion units until March 2020.
Operations Management:
The incorporation of IoT technologies in the traditional manufacturing environment will culminate into the Smart Factories, which will be agile and autonomous in nature. These digitally-enabled smart factories will increase resource utilization to manufacture high-quality output. As such there will be a huge demand for engineering professionals working in Mechanical and allied branches.
Information Technology systems:
The advent of AI techniques through IoT devices will produce a huge amount of information. This vast information could be processed through Smart Information systems. The blend of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and IoT have created a huge reservoir of next-generation Computing and Electronics wizards.
Construction Management:
The inclusion of IoT in India will remodel the traditional housing infrastructure with Smart Homes utilizing digitized management processes for electricity, water, gas, and sewerage. This contemporary trend of smart homes with smart grids will require more number of Civil & Electrical engineers.
Business Analytics & Healthcare Management:
The wise utilization of IoT trends in India will advance the healthcare sector in a dramatic way. These technologies will enable service providers and hospitals to access real-time data. The Technology and Healthcare professionals working in Business Analytics would be the ideal fulcrum to drive this wheel of progress. This would further help in mitigating the risk of diseases and in remotely monitoring patients.
Rural & Agribusiness Management:
If there is one sector that will benefit the most from the advancement in IoT technologies is the Agribusiness sector. Gone will be the days when he has to rely on the prediction of weather upon others. IoT technologies will assist in various agribusiness activities like equipment controlling, selection and harvesting of crops, monitoring crop health with drone and imagery technology, soil nutrition level and water content monitoring in the crop fields. The indigenous Drones will catapult the farmer fraternity towards incredible growth in the 21st century. With its data-driven intelligence monitoring technology, the revenue earning capability will increase manifold through boosting Cattle fertility and automated irrigation.
So the friends, eager young minds of Future India, remember the famous saying “Sky’s the limit”. Tomorrow, it will be replaced by “Universe is the limit” for those who are ready to embrace this contemporary modern technology in Industry 4.0 with open hands.
We invite you to be a part of this grand technological revolution!
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