The evolution of Industry 4.0: Revolutionazing manufacturing processes

Industry 4.0 is a concept that provokes the interest of every modern manufacturer putting it among the most important elements of their everyday agenda. Everyone is talking about Industry 4.0 and how digital technology is changing people’s lives, but what is the real meaning behind this term? Keep reading to find out.

Industry 4.0, or also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is characterized by the use of communication and information technologies in industry. It builds on the developments of Industry 1.0 (mechanisation), Industry 2.0 (production) and Industry 3.0 (automation), and represents an integral part of manufacturing, having the power to create numerous competitive advantages, opportunities for growth and advances in factory environments. 

There’s no doubt that Industry 4.0 is a game-changer and has the necessary potential to change entirely the way people work and make it more efficient. The digitalization of the manufacturing environment transforms the way how goods are created and delivered and allows more flexibility. For example, this includes machines that are able to foresee failures in a production chain and start the maintenance process which is required on their own, or autonomous logistics which respond to unexpected changes in manufacturing process.

Though the Fourth Industrial Revolution brings added value for manufacturing enterprises, many of them face difficulties in the full-scale adoption of Industry 4.0 since often their knowledge on business fundamentals and the implementation stages of this process is limited. 

Reflecting on this, one of the European Commission’s priorities for the period 2019-2024 is «A Europe fit for the digital age“, meaning that the Commission is taking a number of steps to facilitate the implementation of the EU’s digital strategy in order to transform the way of work for people and businesses, making this Europe’s «Digital Decade».

One of project DTAM’s goals is to leverage Industry 4.0 technologies such as Big Data and Machine Learning to aid workers and students in their Advanced manufacturing career.  Stay tuned to learn more about that in the coming months.

Sarenet was born in 1995 as an Internet Service Provider specialized in corporate solutions. Since then we have come a long way incorporating many innovations, just like the Internet sector. Today we are one of the main voice and data operators specialized in companies in Spain.

We live surrounded by a multitude of interconnected everyday devices, and the Internet of Things (IoT) is already a reality in many sectors. From Sarenet we propose a managed and securized IoT infrastructure for communications and hosting oriented to the industrial SME.

After more than 25 years offering internet solutions to the business market, we have expanded our offer based on free software with a managed and secure IoT infrastructure for communications and accommodation aimed at industrial SMEs. Also, thanks to our experience as a Virtual Mobile Operator, we develop customized projects based on mobility. Within the range of competences that IoT covers, we highlight the following areas of action:

Communications for Industry

• Connection of industrial buses (Modbus, Profibus, etc.) to Ethernet networks.
• Equipment for industrial environment: Data loggers, IoT Gateways, Switches, Routers, Firewalls.
• Radio communications (LoRaWAN, Sigfox,…) for low consumption sensors.
• Data solutions based on cell phones with fixed IP and dedicated APN.
• IPv6 addressing throughout the network.
• Universal and multi operator SIM cards integrated in Sarenet network.

Data Storage and Big Data

• Minimum latency thanks to our Data Centers in Bizkaia, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.
• Software and Databases for the treatment of large volumes of data.
• Real-time visualization systems (Dashboard).
• Data analysis, based on Free Software, oriented to predictive maintenance, failure reduction and energy saving.

Security

Our experience managing Virtual Private Networks allows us to offer a secure connection and high availability to critical facilities for the customer.

• Perimeter defense against DoS attacks.
• Backup lines.
• Specific firewalls.
• Public-private Networks segmentation.
• Network isolated from third party applications.

In DTAM, our main object as IoT Hub Provider , is to help the education sector and provide the best service, so as to arriving to the best experience among all, as technologies partner for projects oriented to IoT , who will need a digital infrastructure.

Sarenet provides communication and storage infrastructure to develop IoT projects easier, incorporates software deployment with Kubernetes to facilitate any digital industry project integration within the cloud. The compromise for a digital education is highly important in this new transformation era which has just arrived and will change de world.

Sarenet shares IoT HUB services for DTAM will aid the students to develop a digital career with better knowledge.