By: Leon Viljoen

Industrial companies that invest in digital technologies are not only achieving significantly higher uptime, speed andyield, but also laying the groundwork for the application of advanced technologies, contends Leon Viljoen

At its core, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0, is driven by the coming together of physical and digital technologies. By gathering and analysing data from machines and robots, we are able to obtain insights into the health and performance of industrial installations, allowing us to optimise their operation to increase uptime, speed and yield. A small number of innovative companies are taking these innovations a step further and using them to develop new, higher-value business models.

With recent advances in artificial intelligence, we are now able to envisage autonomous operations where machines and even entire facilities can run themselves. Further, breakthroughs in biotechnology, nanotechnology and quantum computing are allowing us to manipulate the world on ever smaller scales, even at subatomic levels, and to introduce technologies into our bodies that may ultimately transform us.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution builds on previous revolutions that began in the eighteenth century with the invention of the steam engine. The Second Industrial Revolution used electricity to facilitate mass production, while the Third Industrial Revolution used electronics and information technology to automate production.

The main differences between previous revolutions and the fourth is the pace of change – breakthroughs are occurring at a rate unprecedented in history – and the scale of disruption; today, every industry is being transformed at an accelerating speed.

In a recent survey to measure business and government readiness for Industry 4.0, professional services firm Deloitte polled 1 600 C-level executives in 19 countries. On the whole, participants were positive about the likely effects of Industry 4.0 – 87% of executives believe it will lead to greater equality and stability, and three-quarters say business will have much more influence than governments and other entities in shaping this future. However, only 14% of respondents are confident that their organisations are ready to fully harness the changes associated with this technological revolution, and only a quarter say they have the workforce composition and skill sets needed for the future.

The Deloitte study showed that organisations that are using Industry 4.0 technologies are mostly doing so to make their operations more efficient and cost-effective, rather than pursuing new business models that can potentially deliver much greater value and help to prepare for the future. In part, this approach reflects the difficulty of making a business case to invest in advanced digital technologies. However, in an environment where technology is having a transformative effect on industry after industry, companies that do not start preparing now for the Fourth Industrial Revolution not only risk falling behind, but also passing up the opportunity to influence the future.

At its most basic level, Industry 4.0 rests on unstructured data – mountains of it. The proliferation of low-cost sensors and successive falls in the price of computer processing power mean that data can now be easily and cheaply gathered from virtually any device – from household appliances to the largest industrial machines. My company, ABB, has some 70-million connected devices, along with 70 000 industrial control systems installed worldwide. In itself, the data collected is of little value. The value lies in the intelligence derived from it by applying decades of industrial expertise obtained from the company's installed base.

In the Fourth Industrial Revolution, productivity and performance depend increasingly on intelligence. If one knows in advance when a machine or a robot is going to break down, one can intervene pre-emptively to avert a disruption in the supply chain, saving huge amounts of money and keeping customers happy.

Industrial companies that invest in digital technologies are not only achieving significantly higher uptime, speed and yield, but also laying the groundwork for the application of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence. Being digitally enabled – which means having your machines, robots and systems feeding data to the cloud – is an entry ticket into the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In the years ahead, essential infrastructure like the power grid and the water supply system, as well as industry and transport networks, will increasingly be controlled and operated by autonomous systems. On the one hand, this will bring tremendous benefits in terms of avoiding outages and shortages and freeing up humans from dull, dangerous and degrading work. On the other, the workforce and society as a whole will have to adapt to a new industrial landscape, where people work alongside robots and machines. Education and training will have to change fundamentally.

For businesses in Africa, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a tremendous opportunity to raise their competitiveness globally and to play a more important, decisive role in shaping the future of this country. For government, it offers innovative solutions to pressing infrastructure challenges and new possibilities for tackling societal issues related to education and employment.

Some have expressed the fear that technology – and automation, in particular – is going to take away jobs and deprive people of employment. All previous industrial revolutions created many more jobs than were ever lost, chiefly through the creation of new industries and business models. There is no reason to think the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be different, especially when one considers that the countries that have most readily adopted automation and robotics – notably China, Germany, Japan and South Korea – stand out for the competitiveness of their industries and their low levels of unemployment.

The year 2018 is highly symbolic for South Africa and could mark a turning point in its growth and evolution as a nation. The country is united behind our new President, there is a new mood of optimism throughout society and, in July, we will celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela, the father of our Rainbow Nation. To echo what President Cyril Ramaphosa when he delivered his State of the Nation address, let us all work together, in honour of Mandela, to build a new, better South Africa for all.

* Viljoen is the MD for Southern Africa at power and automation technologies company ABB