The Benefits of Industry 4.0 for Manufacturers

Interoperability allows manufacturing businesses, their systems and their machinery to share data and information quickly and accurately. This supports more informed decision-making that can result in greater production efficiency and heightened operational reliability.

Decentralisation is the ability to design independent sub-processes with cyber-physical elements and make decisions autonomously. It is an exercise that simplifies the entire production process providing manufacturing leaders with greater oversight of the entire production chain. 

Real-time data processing and analytics refers to the abilities of machinery and computers to continuously and automatically gather, process and analyse data to provide real-time insights so that processes can be effectively monitored, controlled, and optimised.

Virtualisation is the process of producing "virtual" replicas of physical processes and models, creating a digital "copy" of a single production process or an entire warehouse by gathering sensor data from physical equipment and processes. A virtual replica enables manufacturing leaders to understand potential production blockages, manage operation expansion or reduce machine downtime. 

Service orientation transfers additional value through new or enhanced services. It enables the data from manufacturing processes, cyber-physical systems, and humans to be made available to other processes and systems. This can lead to new, more efficient, and productive types of services being created. 

Modular systems are naturally scalable, offering the benefit of being able to react to industry, customer demand, or organisation requirements without resulting in replacement or loss of initial investment.