Applying Industry 4.0 & Integrated Technology to Heat Treatment
by: Aymeric Goldsteinas, Product Development Manager, Ipsen USA
demand for integrated, automated systems, has given birth to technological advancements that are drastically shaping industries around the world. At the heart of technology and industry development are the business goals driving this change: enhanced productivity, seamless manufacturing processes and improved operations.
The heat treatment industry is no exception. The incorporation of predictive maintenance systems, adoption of modular platforms, research toward automating processes and systems—all of this has begun to shape the newest generation of thermal processing systems and how they incorporate the latest technology.
Improved operations is one of the primary driving forces behind the many actions and decisions businesses make when deciding how to (or if they should) implement these initiatives. Confirming as much, the International Data Corporation (IDC) conducted a survey among business and operations professions that concluded: “The leading driver of Big Data and analytics projects is ‘product or service improvement and innovation.’”
As the adoption of projects involving Industry 4.0 and integrated technology continues to grow, it is important to understand the role the Internet of Things and Big Data play.
In 1999, Kevin Ashton, then Co-Founder and Executive of the Auto-ID Center, first coined the term ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) as a way to describe how physical objects are connected to the Internet.