VISIBILITY BLOG

Industry 4.0: How to Implement Industry 4.0

By: Katie Foley

In our second post in our Industry 4.0 series, we will address how your manufacturing company can implement industry 4.0.

Here are the steps your company should consider taking in order to work towards Industry 4.0:

1. Adopt Industry 3.0 thinking. Many organizations aren’t ready to implement Industry 4.0 yet, but that doesn’t mean they can’t take steps towards it. Adopting Industry 3.0 principles is a great place to start. Here are some of the principles behind Industry 3.0 thinking to consider when moving towards Industry 4.0:
   1. Asset Visibility – Minimize/eliminate time searching for tools.
   2. Process Visibility – Where is my product in the process?
   3. Error Proofing – Help people with “variable” processes and prevent mistakes from happening in the first place.
   4. Reactive Controls – Error proofing that can react automatically.
2. Define the capabilities that are needed. Identify the aspects of Industry 4.0 that are most important to your organization and start with those.
3. Map out an Industry 4.0 strategy. Once you define your target level of maturity, define the detailed implementation steps to achieve that target.
4. Start small. Pick a pain point, solve it, and show the organization how you can resolve it. Once you have one success, move onto the next pain point.
5. Create an ecosystem. To fully achieve Industry 4.0, your organization must create a manufacturing ecosystem where the physical communicates with the digital and vice versa.

Click here to check out first post on Industry 4.0 – a look at what Industry 4.0 means, the principles behind it, and where it came from.

Think Visibility's ERP solution can help you achieve your Industry 4.0 goals? Visit our ERP solution homepage here.