$737bn
© Festo AG & Co. KG
was spent across global markets on the IoT in 2016
The cyber-physical lab Industry 4.0, the Smart Lab concept and digital twinning
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Paul Kendall INDUSTRY SECTOR MANAGER, FESTO LIFETECH
Paul leads a strategic team focused on the life sciences market for Festo and is responsible for market strategy and business development within GB
he Smart Lab, and whether it is a real thing or not, is something which is currently a topic of great debate. This article looks at what’s really driving our opportunity to change and the digitalisation trend that lies at the centre of Industry 4.0. Most of the things we touch are affected by digitalisation and that’s really expressed in many different ways and has a great many different components to it. From Big Data through to mobile computing and the Internet of Things where we have connected devices at the unit task level, cloud computing and the semantic web, augmented and virtual reality. Artificial intelligence (AI), is also hugely important in the lab automation and science industries.
R E A D O N L I N E AT: U K S PA . O R G . U K / B R E A K T H R O U G H
COMPONENTS FOR USABILITY
The user interface and technological usability is progressing all the time and really starting to show its benefits. These components push out to the business-toconsumer environment as we see it every day on our smart phones. We are also seeing these benefits and opportunities in the business-to-business environment, enabling interaction with suppliers, inventory management and all sorts of things. It’s the combined set of these components that drives the collective term that is ‘Industry 4.0’. While this a very well-established term throughout Europe, many still argue over its value and need further evidence to support it. Can you touch it? What does it mean? What are the opportunities and benefits? These are ongoing questions and debates that have yet to be concluded.
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