Smart manufacturing has been defined as the fully-integrated, collaborative manufacturing systems that respond in real time to meet changing demands and conditions in the factory, in the supply network, and in customer needs. Smart industry is a synonym for Industry 4.0 or industrial transformation in the fourth industrial revolution within which smart manufacturing de facto fits.
Industry, the manufacturing business, manufacturing companies and even manufacturing processes are in full transformation.
This is mainly due to increasing automation, digital transformation, the bridging of digital and physical environments (as enabled by IoT or the Internet of Things), evolving industrial and manufacturing technologies, the intensive usage of data/analytics, industry and manufacturing challenges, human, economic and societal evolutions and demands and the integration of information technology and operational technology (IT and OT).
New plant and machine concepts enable industry to increase flexibility to the point where individual mass production becomes possible. One prerequisite for this is that plant and machine builders integrate and digitalize their entire value chain. This creates a digital twin of the machine, its production, and the performance of production and the real machine in operation. Learn more about the digital twin in machine building and plant engineering.
