In the early 18th century, exactly in 1712, the invention of the steam engine led to the birth of the first industrial revolution in the world. People were not fully aware of what this impulse could cause at that time. The process starts with the commissioning of water and steam-powered mechanical production facilities; The Second Industrial Revolution with electricity and division of labor in the 19th Century, the Third Industrial Revolution with the autonomization of information technologies and products in the 20th century, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution we were in with production based on cyber-physical systems in the 21st century. What’s next? Industry 5.0…
If we take a brief look at the progress we have made so far, from Industry 1.0 to Industry 4.0:
- Implementation of Mechanical Production Facilities (18th Century)
The invention of the 1712 steam engine
- Transition to Electricity and Business Division Based Mass Production
(19th Century) 1840 Telegraph and 1880 Telephone Inventions
1920 Taylorism (Scientific management)
- Automation of Production Processes (20th Century)
1971 First microcomputer (Altair 8800)
1976 Apple I (S. Jobs and S. Wozniak)
- Autonomous Machines and Virtual Environments (21st Century)
1988 AutoIDLab. (MYTH)
2000 Internet of Things
2010 Cellular Transport System
2020 Autonomous Interaction and Virtualization
While industry and technology progress together, developments are moving faster than we expected. Today, the change of industrial revolutions is no longer taking place in a huge and gradual process like 100. Every day we leave behind us, we are one step closer to the future. This movement continues every day within itself, somewhere in the society…
Let’s take a look at Industry 4.0, which is our main topic. It contains 3 basic building blocks in terms of industry structure.
- Internet of Things
- Internet of Services
- Cyber-Physical Systems
Industry 4.0 is the sum of these technologies and the value chain. The aim is to monitor physical transactions with cyber-physical systems, create a virtual copy of the physical world and make decentralized decisions within the scope of modular smart factories. Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems will be able to communicate with each other and with people in real-time and work in cooperation. With the Internet of services, both internal and cross-organizational services will be provided and evaluated by the users of the value chain.
It is based on six principles in terms of operability. These are:
1) Interoperability: It involves the ability of cyber-physical systems (e.g. workpiece carriers, assembly stations, and products) to communicate with each other of people and smart factories over the Internet of Things and Services.
2) Virtualization: This structure is a virtual copy of smart factories. The system consists of connecting sensor data with virtual facility and simulation models.
3) Autonomous Management: Cyber-physical systems can make their own decisions within smart factories.
4) Real-Time Capability: It is the ability to collect and analyze data. This structure ensures rapid understanding.
5) Service Orientation: Cyber-physical systems, people, and smart factory services are provided over the Internet of services.
6) Modularity: Provides a flexible adaptation system to smart factories for the changing requirements of individual modules.
The applicability of the system is demonstrated in a small smart factory in Kaiserslautern, Germany, established with the contribution of the German Artificial Intelligence Research Center (DFKI), 20 industrial and research partners, including Siemens.
“It uses soap bottles to show how products and manufacturing machines can communicate with each other. There are radio frequency identification (RFID) labels on the empty soap bottles and these labels enable the machines to recognize the color of the bottles. Thanks to this system, the information transmitted by radio signals of a product is stored in a digital environment from the beginning of production. In this way, it emerges as a cyber-physical system. “
Industry 4.0 offers us an environment-friendly and resource-saving production with high efficiency. Reduction of costs, the flexibility of production, and in fact the birth of new service and business models as a result of all these. The adaptation of machines to our lives and the self-awareness of systems and components play a major role in facilitating the detection of possible damages and increasing efficiency.
Today, when it comes to Industry 4.0, there are some myths that scare people’s eyes. For example, automation will replace people. The first question marks that came to mind were between robots and employment contexts. But what we forgot is that robots or virtual intelligence have actually been in our lives for years, and they provide solutions to many areas that strain our muscle strength and take our time. For example, imagine a banker trying to do what each ATM does in a minute. Its efficiency and productivity would decrease considerably, the workload would increase considerably, and perhaps this situation would be reflected in working hours. Or let’s consider a “forklift”. Assuming we do not live in Ancient Egypt, it seems impossible for us to handle the function of that device with our muscle power. In fact, the point that people should focus on is that we should not think about our muscle strength, but our brain, our decision-making mechanism, and our social adaptation. We are not ignored in the production area, job descriptions and professions of the production area are changing. Today, instead of thinking about the employment problem, we should work on Human 4.0, Public 4.0, and Society 4.0.
Industry 4.0 includes a highly layered production system. Although there is a revolution created by 9 different technologies such as AR — VR and autonomous robots, they are headed by cyber-physical systems, namely the Industrial Internet of Things, which we call IoT. Another myth is that the more data collected with IoT, the better. However, it will be the most appropriate step for businesses to determine which steps in their processes will provide speed and efficiency and reduce their costs, and to generate data from the devices in that process and analyze it. Generating and analyzing data from each device will slow down the transaction processes and increase their costs.
Finally, Industry 4.0 brought our lives:
- Big data
- Smart Cities
- Blockchain / Bitcoin
- Artificial Intelligence
- Renewable Energy
- FinTech
- E-Commerce
- Robotic
- 3D Print
- Virtual/Augmented Reality
- Cybersecurity
- Digital Twin
- Edge Computing
- Cloud Computing
- Shared Economies
- IoT
- Nanotechnology
- Biotechnology / Genetic and Agricultural Innovations
- Desalination and advanced waste management
So far Society 5.0
So, while we are still concerned with the effects and transformation of Industry 4.0 today, where did Industry 5.0 come from? 5.0 bases its foundations on society, not industry. Its real name is mentioned as Community 5.0. If we are to say what is this Society 5.0; Its philosophy is based on the notion that societies perceive technology not as a threat but as an aid. In January 2016, the Japanese government first used this term in the Science, Technology, and Innovation Council. The Japanese government declared Society 5.0 as the “super-smart society” in cyberspace and physical space. It is not surprising that this kind of innovation comes from Japan, the bright child of Asia, the rising giant of technology. The global recognition of the concept took place at CeBIT, one of the world’s largest technology fairs, by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, so the whole world acknowledged that this concept is an evolution from a hunter society to a smart society.
“The study, prepared by the Federation of Japanese Economic Organizations, aims to explain the economy and sociology reform that is expected to develop with the philosophy of Society 5.0. The study in question divides the process from the birth of the first human to today into sections, and in the process from the birth to the present, societies are hunter society (Society 1.0), Agricultural Society (Society 2.0), Industrial Society (Society 3.0), Information Society (Society 4.0), and Intelligent Society ( Society 5.0) divides it into five.”
Community 5.0, which is people-oriented, aims at a society where high technology and innovation are used to balance the economy and solve social problems. Society 5.0 offers guidance to adapt to the era of digital transformation and the fourth industrial revolution, both individually and societally. The issues that this transformation, which requires artificial intelligence, machine, and human to work together, is trying to solve are summarized as follows:
- Developing solutions against the aging world population
- Making the virtual world and the real world work together
- Benefiting from the Internet of Things by considering the interests of the society
- Creating solutions for environmental pollution and natural disasters
Some barriers are stuck while focusing on these issues, such as the obstacles in the legal system, scientific gaps in the digitalization of objects, lack of qualified personnel, socio-political prejudices, social resistance. Society 5.0 aims to transform the big data collected with the IoT into a new type of intelligence by artificial intelligence and reach every corner of society. In this way, it will facilitate different areas of our lives. In other words, it says that with its progress and development, products and services will be delivered to the demanders in the amount and time they need, and this will bring a more comfortable and sustainable lifestyle.
As we move rapidly to both Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0, security and adaptation are the main issues that we should pay attention to in this process. Providing cybersecurity is a very important and indispensable issue for transforming into a society that solves problems using technology and data. Besides, individuals who make up Society 5.0 are expected to adapt to this transformation and develop their knowledge and skills for digitalization to benefit from the advantages offered by this transformation.
PS: I currently reading Technology vs Humanity by Gerd Leonhard. I think that people facing Society 5.0 will quench their curiosity and concerns. I recommend reading for prejudices and more.
Bâlâ Çomu
Yeditepe University, Public Administration
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