Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions for Industry 4.0

Abstract

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is the fourth industrial revolution sweeping through the world of manufacturing. This revolution integrates the current trend of intelligent automation with internet of things (IoT), big data, and artificial intelligence to bring about extraordinary technological innovation, economic growth, and tremendous progress to organizations of all shapes and sizes, on a magnitude beyond the current imagination. The disruptive technologies introduced by I4.0 represent a leap forward from more traditional automation to next generation industrial production based on fully web-based cyber-physical systems (CPS)s. To full understand the I4.0 concept and implementation, this chapter makes an in-depth analysis on the issues and controversies of I4.0, recent technological advancement, management and organizational concerns in terms of opportunities and threats, capital investment and skillsets, cybersecurity threat, ethics consideration, current challenges facing organizations and industry in terms of geopolitical domination, economic and social disenfranchisement, job destruction and job creation, the roles of multinational corporations, lack of technologies capabilities, lack of skillset, and skill mismatches. This chapter also makes suggestions for solutions and recommendations in terms of the role of government and incentives and grants; assessment tools; collaboration; the development of local companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); upskilling, reskilling, and lifelong learning; education; universities and students; skilled graduates; and future research and directions.