One of the pillars of the fourth revolution, the Industrial Internet of Things or iiot technology (Industrial Internet of Things) , changes several concepts in one of the pillars of modern society: manufacturing. The new manufacturing tools make it possible to customize products with lower or similar costs than traditional production lines, generating the creation of new products at reduced costs and spreading the creation process.
After the second industrial revolution, large corporations created production lines, aiming at large-scale generation and high profitability in the process. This process was also characterized by large factories and many employees working to produce a product.
With the advancement of technologies, the insertion of additive manufacturing and the spread of 3D printing technology, so-called printing farms and smart factories are changing these concepts and generating new ways of manufacturing products. Customization of products, decentralization of the invention and autonomous factories will be a reality.
Benefits Of IoT
Manufacturing costs will reduce to the point where products will be developed specifically for each user, mass production will have similar costs, and will soon become obsolete. The shoe manufacturer’s project, Adidas FUTURECRAFT, has a partnership with a company specializing in 3D printing for the large-scale production of tennis soles. The technique used, Stereolithography ( Stereolithography or SLA), which consists of applying a light to selectively heat a resin, hardening it, is capable of producing geometries that mold injection techniques cannot reproduce. The aim of the project is that, in the coming years, the user, with the aid of a 3D scanner, creates a projection of his foot, and the shoe is manufactured specifically for the created geometry.
Manufacturing labs are coming into the spotlight on the global stage. These spaces provide all machines and tools so that anyone can create products making the operating, machinery and operation costs negligible. In addition to providing the necessary tools, these spaces also provide computer aided design (CAD) services.
The industrial internet of things and the creation of smart factories will start autonomous product production, minimizing assembly problems, recall risks and optimizing the design of industrial plants. With new sensors, machine learning tools and inspection drones, smart factories will correct themselves in real time. Productivity and efficiency reports for each machine and process will be displayed according to instant production.