Industry 4.0 Visions and Reality- Status in Norway

Abstract

The concept and vision of Industry 4.0 has been around for almost a decade and gain a lot of momentum and attraction globally. Central to the vision of Industry 4.0 is the concept of a “Cyber-Physical system”, linking the IT elements of an enterprise (Cyber) with the physical system (man and machine) of an enterprise. This vision is well known and promoted as crucial in radically transforming todays manufacturing industry. While there is a plethora of papers and studies of the various “cyber” aspects, the concept, visions, benefits as well as the downsides of Industry 4.0, few papers have much to say about the actual implementation. Based on a digital maturity mapping of ten front line manufacturing enterprises in Norway this paper analyses implementation at shop floor level of both cyber and physical system and their interaction. From the survey data a clear picture emerges of the development of a cyber system, as well as worker usage and benefit of the system. However, the two systems don’t interact very well, worker interaction is limited to plain old keyboard usage, instead of employing more mobile, handsfree, voice based or similar interaction methods. Currently there is no cyber-physical system, rather a burgeoning cyber system poorly linked to the physical world. If the cyber-physical system is to be realized there is a need for a rethinking and upgrading of man-machine interaction.