Smart manufacturing and the IoT driving the next industrial revolution

The manufacturing sector is being fundamentally reshaped by the unstoppable progress of the 4th Industrial Revolution (or Industry 4.0), driven by the development and adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. Just as the invention of the steam engine resulted in massive changes in the early 17th Century and the advent of the Internet rocked the world in the second half of the 20th century, today’s technological innovations are forcing decision makers to reimagine how products are designed and produced. IoT technologies have the potential to improve ROI and drive business productivity across sectors, streamlining processes and ironing out inefficiencies in quality control, asset tracking and management. In manufacturing, IoT applications can monitor and control machines and equipment in real time to optimise plant performance and enable predictive maintenance.