INDUSTRY 4.0 BOOM ACCELERATED DUE TO COVID 19 PANDEMIC

Covid-19 has affected almost all the countries in the world. Due to this a drastic demand of the essential healthcare equipments has been created worldwide and the global supply chain of medical kit has been experiencing a huge level of disruption. To handle such a huge demand of medical kits, digital revolution plays a major role in terms of advanced manufacturing and mass production.

Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution deals with the digitization in manufacturing industry. Advanced automation technology helps in flexible production with customization technique. This type of smart factories use Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and other digitization techniques to get the real time data if production process. In healthcare industry it helps in reducing the lead time in manufacturing with the help of 3D printing technique and provides faster delivery of products.

As Industry 4.0 involves less human intervention, so with the help of digital techniques it can help in mitigating the crisis of equipments of healthcare sector and provide faster solutions. Industry 4.0 can provide several benefits to handle this crisis due to covid-19:-

i. Digitized manufacturing help in reducing the production cost as well as inventory holding cost. Due to this the productivity can increase and there will be no shortage of medical kit in global supply chain.

ii. It helps in manufacturing the precautionary items of Covid-19 with the help of smart manufacturing process and delivers those in the market on time using optimized supply chain.

iii. Industry 4.0 also providing virtual workplace which helps in operating the business from anywhere with the use of workplace integration platform.

iv. Due to Covid-19 and the social distancing norms there is huge labour loss in the manufacturing plant. In order to maximize the production capacity in this scenario, the manufacturer has to adopt virtual reality and augmented reality. This technology will provide flexible working environment with advanced manufacturing processes.

The crisis of medical kit has created an opportunity for Industry 4.0 technologies. The smart approach towards the manufacturing with new innovation technologies could actually reduce the dependency on human labour.

i. Artificial Intelligence can help in developing robots which can perform the task of sanitization as well as few other medical test to meet the crisis of human workforce.

ii. Internet of Things (IoT) helps in collecting data using sensors and stores it in cloud server. Drone can be used in to understand the quarantine status of a particular area.

iii. Big Data deals with a large chunk of data set and helps in decision making. Big Data helps in tracking the number of Covid-19 cases worldwide and the death rate due to it. Using this we can analyze and predict the impact of the virus in a particular region.

iv. Virtual Reality is a digital technology which provides virtual workspace. Using this technology in social distancing can be maintained in workplace without losing the work efficiency. This technology helps in reducing the cost of the company and the employees can focus more on work without any destruction.

v. Cloud Computing is a digital technology which helps in the storage of huge data. In this Covid-19 scenario, cloud computing helps the online business to deal with data in an effective way to meet customers’ requirements.

vi. 3D printing is the most used Industry 4.0 technology in manufacturing of healthcare products. It helps in manufacturing the medical equipment in less time with minimal cost. Using this technology, the mass production of the essential equipments like face mask, face shield etc. for the protection of coronavirus can be done.

Symptoms of Covid-19 can be detected by Industry 4.0 technologies which will help the preliminary testing of patients. The Artificial Intelligence based surveillance can help in monitoring the patients in real time which reduces the workload of the doctors. It also increases the work efficiency of healthcare professional.

Industry 4.0 is mainly focusing on converting the traditional manufacturing process into digital manufacturing process. A survey from ‘Plex System’ (An organization which provides intelligence manufacturing platform) shows that only 24% respondent from global business has actually implemented smart manufacturing system in their organizations. As most of the companies are facing problem due to coronavirus outbreak, their main focus is how the Industry 4.0 technologies can help them in recovering the losses. So they are thinking of implementing Industry 4.0 technologies in mainly two prospective — short term plans as well as long term plans. Internet of Things (IoT) helps in minimizing the global supply chain stress. According to the statistics of ‘ACI Worldwide’ it is shown that the e-commerce companies are experiencing 74% growth in transactions in covid-19 pandemic. Post covid-19 pandemic the companies are expecting to use analytics tool in their business to make better decisions. To know the real time demand for the manufacturing sector, Industry 4.0 can apply analytics tool to understand the crisis due to Covid-19. It can be interpret that post Covid-19 there will be a crisis in human workforce. So, most of the companies are focusing in implementing automation and robotics technology in their business.

Industry 4.0 provides automated solution for various manufacturing industry by creating better operational efficiencies. The innovative method of problem solving and focus on value creation helps in risk management by standardizing production process. This technology also helps in developing agile operations model with end-to-end visibility of supply chain. The digital revolution creates an impact on crowd management, safety measurements, transportation management etc. which helpful for Covid-19 outbreak.