In the nautical disaster movie, “The Perfect Storm,” three weather fronts converge off the coast of New England to create one of the fiercest storms in U.S. history. A similar convergence is occurring in the manufacturing world today. It’s called Industry 4.0 and it promises to transform the way that engineers design and build products over the next two decades.
Industry 4.0, a term that refers to the fourth industrial revolution, represents a paradigm shift from centralized to decentralized manufacturing. And, it has the potential to change the traditional role of assembly lines.