How was the fourth industrial revolution initiated and being diffused?

   Although there have been some of ups and downs, at least in the Korean society, the 4th Industrial Revolution has been widely known to the public since 2016. After the World Economic Forum 2016 (also known as the Davos Forum) and the Professor Klaus Schwab (who has led the 40th World Economic Forum) and the theme of the World Economic Forum in 2016 were the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Since then, the Fourth Industrial Revolution has been registered as one of the familiar terms to everybody.   

Graph : The 4th Industrial Revolution Term Use in Google from 2011 to today    

The Fourth Industrial Revolution raises various issues in all areas such as in politics, economy, society, technology, industry, and education. Industry 4.0 is the term that led to the fourth industrial revolution. It is a German project name, but it is also compatible with terms referring to the fourth industrial revolution. To be precise, however, Industry 4.0 is a national project started in Germany. It is prepared for the purpose of leading the new industrial revolution that would come to the future - the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. Industry 4.0 pursues the so-called 'the open innovation strategy'. It means not only promoting in Germany alone, but also encouraging other countries and all the other global companies to actively participate. Preparations for this were much longer than what has been known to outside of Germany. It was officially released and announced in 2011 at Hannover, but its beginning dates back a long time ago. The first discussion was made in June 2006 at Smart Factory KL in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Besides this, DFKI - an organization called the Institute of Artificial Intelligence, started and lead all the discussion with an initiative for smart factory. Now it has been developed into an organization that has sponsorships and participation by more than 50 companies and institutes around the world, but initially it was supported by only 7 companies and research institutes. They named the term of Industry 4.0. The German government has included Industry 4.0 in a national innovation project called High Tech Strategy 2020, which began in 2006. It was 2011. Let's look at the situation in Germany around 2011. The global market has already become a global market. It means more diverse customer demand get increased. Buyers have also been increasingly demanding 'the personalized products'. As competition intensifies in the marketplace, the product life cycle has been shortened. The manufacturing cost pressure also went higher. The pursuit of emerging industrial nations such as Korea and China, were also a burden to them. (Germany was the world's No. 1 exporter to China in 2009). There was also changes at the inside in Germany. The fast aging speed rate and population was progressing as a number 2 in the world behind Japan’s rate, and the mass retirement of postwar generations was proceeding. The shortage of the skilled workforce has been increased and skillful workers to replace the retired have begun to run out of. Energy saving and environmentally friendly energy use has been also a major social requirement. However Germany had its own strength. They had a great number of hidden champions. There were more than 1,300 hidden champions. In addition to ICT technology, the rapid development of new materials such as carbon fiber, and Internet of things and 3D printing technology have also been benefited to Germany. The strong leadership of the government also made a good role. It is one of those things that maintains consistent policy and support by Merkel's leadership who has been the Prime Minister in Germany more than 10 years. Merkel used to take the leadership in propagating of the Industry 4.0 when she invites the major national leaders around the world at Hanover Messe every April. 

 

Active involvement and acceptance by large companies were also important success factors. Siemens, SAP, Bosch, and Phoenix Contact etc has contributed a lot for this movement. It is clear that Industry 4.0 did not suddenly start in one morning. All nations now pay attention to the trend of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. There are various agendas participating in each country. These are projects of various names with a name similar to Industry 4.0.    #KR #Industry4.0 #The 4th Industrial Revolution #WEF #Germany