Today's consumer goods industry is vastly different from the "Henry Ford" era, a time when all consumers were offered the same car model in the same color. Today, consumers dictate the rules of purchase: they are fully connected, well-informed, and, above all, extremely demanding. Therefore, the industry is reinventing itself through product personalization. This phenomenon is what we call the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which aims to bring intelligence, efficiency, increased productivity, innovation, and autonomy to processes by connecting all sensors, machines, and manufacturing systems with corporate management systems. The concept of Industry 4.0 emerged in 2011, and just as the steam engine, electricity, and computers did in their time, this time digitalization was the driving force behind a continuous cycle of innovation that transformed both the world of production and the IT landscape.
The notion of production development powered by new technologies—Cloud Computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence—points to the creation of fully integrated value chains, in which processes, material supply, and distribution are optimized. The idea is that the resulting efficiency will make production more profitable and provide companies with flexibility and competitiveness.
An inherent effect of these technologically integrated value chains is that an enormous volume of data is generated every second, requiring real-time processing. In this landscape, data quality is as important as the products themselves, posing a historic challenge for industry and information technology. Without flexible and scalable IT infrastructures, meeting the challenges of Industry 4.0 is inconceivable.
For new technologies to fulfill their promise of transforming industry, a robust network infrastructure capable of supporting their operation is essential.
A Key Bet:
For years, industrial environments were considered hostile, and new technology was only introduced once its safety and ability to meet the specific needs of that environment were proven. Fortunately, technologies have advanced at a rapid pace and seek to optimize the production chain with interoperability, decentralization, real-time information availability, modularization, digitization of products and processes, and cloud computing.
A network failure causes inconvenience to the average user, ranging from interrupted video calls or paused streaming movies to losing an online game, but in an industrial environment, it can have a catastrophic impact on productivity.
That's why fiber optic communication networks are ideally positioned to be the backbone of Industry 4.0, as they are the physical medium that offers the greatest benefits: data travels via light pulses, making the network much faster. Furthermore, they do not generate electromagnetic noise, and although they are very thin, flexible, and lightweight cables that take up much less space than copper cable, fiber optic networks are robust and secure.
The commitment to optical infrastructure is especially visible in Ethernet networks, where the trend of bringing fiber not only to production areas but also "to the desktop" has become widespread. This has led industry giants to double their investments in fiber.
This trend can only increase as the world moves forward, and the deployment of 5G networks will cause an explosion in the number of connected devices and the number of antennas needed for the mobile network. The Japanese communications network infrastructure company Furukawa Electric offers solutions specifically designed to withstand the critical conditions of an industrial environment.
The connectors, boxes, adapters, optical patch cords, and pre-terminated cables—ready to install—of the Furukawa IoT for Industry System solution have an IP67 protection rating, certifying resistance to dust ingress, water jets, and even temporary immersion. In recent years, Latin America has seen a surge in investment in fiber optic fixed-line connections, particularly for homes. The industry stands to gain significantly by driving broadband infrastructure growth, which ultimately benefits it.
Article provided by Furukawa Electric
