Home / Blog / Work / 21 Luglio 2021INDUSTRY 4.0 PLANS AROUND THE WORLD
We are in the midst of a new industrial revolution. The fourth. After steam, electricity and the automation of production lines, today we can clearly recognize a series of enabling technologies that redefine the way goods and services are produced, those digital technologies that collect the data and connect all the points through which production is developed.
A production that is constantly monitored can therefore be optimized to its maximum potential. All this has a lot to do with the concept of the Internet of Things, that is connecting the machines to the network, making them become “peripherals” that communicate; but in the production field it is good to distinguish the industrial version of this approach, using the acronym IIoT—Industrial Internet of Things.
Computerization is central to this vision, to the point that this fourth industrial revolution uses a notation typical of computer science “4.0,” as is used with software versions.
However, we must not reduce this epochal change to a single technological fact or the simple sum of all the technologies available to achieve the maximum possible results. It is about choosing a strategy to evolve production, a mix of vision, skills and thus of tools. Therefore, a thorough analysis is required and this is not a rapid change and the results at the country level show themselves over time.
A Recent History of Industry 4.0
The first country to propose a development plan called Industry 4.0 was Germany in 2011. The German vision immediately leveraged a renewal of the means of production, by virtue of its weight and the role of its internal industry, creating the concept of cyber-physical systems (CPS), that is the connection of computer systems to physical devices, which is precisely production machinery.
From the perspective of the connectivity typical of the fourth industrial revolution, machines are therefore not seen only as enhanced means to perform a process, but become “intelligent,” equipped with sensors essential for interfacing (via input and output) with the outside world. The possibility of self-regulation of machinery during processing was also envisaged, in terms of production capacity and (predictive) maintenance, thanks to the observation of variations in the data coming from production.
In the United States, more attention is given to the concept of manufacturing, in particular to policies that fall under the name of Manufacturing USA, a vision with some patriotic accent, that has “local” people at the center the work, but which more in general, aims to bring home many production processes that in the past have been offshored (reshoring, or rather the opposite of offshoring).
In this view, the focus is less on technologies (which are also central and of which the US is strongly endowed) and more on investment systems, tax relief, the development of research centers, companies and universities.
The third major pole of the world economy is China, which it is now an understatement to call the “factory of the world.” Compared to the 4.0 vision we are talking about, the frame of reference was defined back in 2015 and to be developed over the next ten years with the Made in China 2025 plan, an ambitious vision that plans to increase the number of robots per worker from 49 to 350.
But a difference of this model compared to those of Europe and the US is the “top-down” intervention practiced by the Chinese government, which decisively intervenes in orienting the action of private individuals, centrally outlining the country’s production direction.
Italy Cannot Miss a Step
Italy has an important history with regard to industry, but with one anomaly: the companies are mostly small-medium enterprises (SMEs), often family-run and handed down between successive generations. This is not necessarily a problem, but is peculiar, and which led us to be the second largest manufacturer in Europe until 2019, only to be overtaken by France, and making the prospect of a renewal even more urgent.
The governments of recent years have in fact managed to create policies moving in this direction, launching a National Industry 4.0 Plan for the period 2017-2020, which outlines strategies and investments. There are two main lines of action that concern innovative investments (in machinery and technologies) and skills. The decisive role of enabling infrastructures, namely the widespread diffusion of fiber optics and 5G, is added to these.
The recent initiatives promoted in the pre-Covid phase are part of the path called Transition 4.0, but the policies are rapidly changing in light of the current crisis and the role of the Government’s driving force in the economy. Today an Industry 4.0 Plus plan is being developed that will benefit from the resources of the Recovery Fund.
Milan, A City That Continues to Innovate
Milan is the reference city when it comes to innovation in our country, as a vision and of strategies, but also as a center of excellence. But it is no longer a city of industries, at least not within the administrative boundaries of the municipality (the Metropolitan City area deserves a different discourse). However, it has remained a city of artisans, although this is less apparent in the image usually associated with the city.
The reference project in Milan is Manifattura Milano, an interesting declination of the 4.0 theme in the local context in light of its peculiarities. The explicit reference is to artisans and their shops, but also to small businesses, where the care of production is closer to customization than to standardized production. However, everything is characterized by an element of technology and innovation.
Also thanks to this policy, existing activities and the birth of new ones have been supported (such as YATTA! itself, even before Manifattura Milano was formalized) in a flourishing of ideas and projects that have helped to revive Milan in recent years.
The Municipality of Milan, in collaboration with Assolombarda, has collected data on the evolution of the “4.0” concept from companies in the Lombardy region. A comparison between 2015 and 2017 data shows that the percentage of companies that integrate production and technological innovation has doubled. In addition, there is a six-point percentage increase among companies with the intention of innovating their business. Today, however, the scenario could change profoundly given the health emergency.
cover image credit: Smithsonian Institute (Accession number: 1968-135-55)
Originale: Luca Rossi / Traduzione: Peter Briggs