By Martijn Spekkink
If I told you we’re in the midst of a massive transformation in the way we design products and services, you might not believe me. Yet it’s very much true. We call this revolutionary wave Smart Industry or Industry 4.0. These terms may sound familiar to you, but what do they mean exactly? Allow me to explain.
What is Industry 4.0 (and Why Do We Call It Smart Industry)?
Industry 4.0, as the name suggests, is in fact the fourth industrial revolution. It is not a new term: people were already talking about it as early as 2011.
Industry 4.0 follows the arrival of the steam engine (industry 1.0), the arrival of electricity (2.0) and the arrival of the computer (you can feel it coming: 3.0). Industry 4.0 builds on this final industry and improves the use of computers with the arrival of smart technology, powered by machine learning and other things.
At Nekst IT, we have referred to Industry 4.0 as Smart Industry for a while now. Why? Because it answers a lot of questions directly. We always need to explain Industry 4.0 to our customers; but when we mention Smart Industry, everyone immediately knows what we’re talking about. Because who doesn’t have a smartphone, smart thermostat, smart watch, smart lamps or smart assistant these days? The association with the Internet of Things (IoT) is quickly made when we talk about Smart Industry instead of Industry 4.0, so why not just say it how we mean it?
Challenges in the Smart Industry
Naturally, just like any industrial revolution, Smart Industry also has its challenges. Let’s take a factory as an example. In an ideal world, this factory is ‘smart’ during the fourth industrial revolution. By using real time data, the factory can for example produce less when demand is low and automatically produce more when demand is high.
That’s great of course. However, there is one thing we have to keep in mind: the software that analyzes the data and then tells the machines to either upscale or downscale, must also be able to communicate with the rest of the supply chain. Think of the computer of the employee who keeps an eye out on everything or the retailer who will sell the product.
A lot can potentially go wrong within the Smart Industry supply chain. And that’s where Nekst IT’s Smart Industry Test Squad comes in.
The Smart Industry Test What?
The Smart Industry Test Squad of Nekst IT is a team of five men (coincidentally no women yet, but we are still looking for colleagues!) that is involved in testing software within the Smart Industry. To put it bluntly, we ensure that your software works within the entire supply chain of your company.
So, do you have a company, product or service within the Smart Industry and do you want to be sure that everything works (together) seamlessly and securely? Then our team can help you. We’ll come to work for you on a project basis and test everything extensively. This means that we put your system or service to the test.
We take into account different scenarios: quiet times, but also busy times. Is your system resistant to it? Is a server going down when there’s a certain amount of data? Is everything cyber-secure? Does everything meet the latest legal requirements? Do the different hardware components speak the same ‘language’ with the software? In short: can you go to sleep with peace of mind at all times?
How we do that testing exactly differs from project to project. At Nekst IT we have both the in-house consultants and the technicians to quickly come up with solutions if we run into a problem during testing.
In the meantime, we will of course keep an eye out on the latest developments for you. Because although we are still in the middle of Industry 4.0, it is inevitable that Industry 5.0 will follow. We do not yet know when, how and which elements will be important by then. But you will hear it as soon as we know.
Curious about what we can do for your organization in the Smart Industry? Send me an email: mspekkink@nekst-it.com. I’d love to hear from you!
