The evolution of the factory floor across 200 plus years of industrial revolutions is a reflection of broader socio-industrial transformations that have altered society. From the birth of mechanization in Industry 1.0 (the first industrial revolution) to the era of universal mass production in Industry 3.0 has wrought fundamental changes to the ways products are manufactured.

At the threshold of Industry 4.0, which is bringing the next wave of transformation in manufacturing, it is timely to compare today's factory floor with those of previous epochs. This shines a light on the ways that advances in the technological milieu, data connectivity and automation are aggressively reshaping the landscape of manufacturing.

Industry 1.0: Steam and water, simple actions

Industry 1.0, beginning in the late 18th Century, signaled the transition from craft-scale production to centralized and de-skilled processes. The widespread use of water power dramatically increased productivity, greatly boosted by the introduction of the steam engine by James Watt et.al. The first signs of this were particularly notable in the textile industry, the first truly mechanized and mass production sector. This era saw the centralization of production into heavily invested factories for the first time, triggering social upheaval as concentrated workforces operated machinery to produce cheaper goods at a much faster rate than craft production could match.

On the factory floor of the Industry 1.0, the emphasis was on the use of relatively simple machines (by today's standards) powered by steam or water to perform broken-out and simplified step-tasks.

Workers were heavily involved in operating and maintaining these machines, each with specific tasks like carding, spinning or weaving thread into fabric. While production became more greatly more concentrated and cost-effective, factories were dirty, unsafe and labor-intensive, with long hours and harsh — commonly fatal — working conditions.

One standout in this early industrial innovation was the loom control system developed by Joseph Marie Jacquard — the Jacquard loom. This used punch cards to drive warp patterns that allowed rapid production of complex fabrics like brocade, damask and matelassé, with limited human intervention. This automation wasn’t beaten for productivity and reliability until well over a century later.

Industry 2.0: Electrification, assembly lines

Industry 2.0, commencing in the late 19th Century, brought dramatic technological advancements and increasing socio-political disruption and societal change. It coincided with and was in some ways due to the widespread use of electricity. The wider technological changes that electrification was a reflection of were deep rooted and complex.

Electrification revolutionized factory operations by making power more accessible and controllable, allowing for the introduction of new machines and systems that were faster and more reliable than those powered by steam. Gone were the overhead power shafts and forests of belt drives. Gone with them were many of the worst hazards of the factory floor of Industry 1.0, replaced with new dangers.

Central to the industrial (and social) revolutions of this era was the assembly line, pioneered by Henry Ford and others in the early 20th century. The assembly line allowed for increased complexity of product, without the need for increased skill in the line-personnel. The mass production of increasingly complex and refined goods, particularly in the automotive and toys industries was achieved by workers performing simple, repetitive tasks in longer and more complex sequences. This significantly increased operational cost-efficiency. The factory floor became more organized and specialized, with workers assigned to specific stations to perform their tasks. This in turn drove societal changes that were equally profound.

In the factory environment of the Industry 2.0, machines and humans worked together in a more structured way, though humans were still largely responsible for initiation and control of the majority of tasks — with responsibility but little to no skill requirement.

As factories became more centralized, capitalized, productive and operationally efficient, people became effectively mindless cogs in the machine, servicing monotonous, repetitive tasks with no space for creativity, decision-making or joy in the experience.

A few islanded efforts at human-centered optimization changed the fringes of the Industry 3.0 environment. Volvo at their Uddevalla and Gothenburg plants developed parallel, small team assembly of complete cars, briefly achieving some significant quality and social benefits.

Industry 3.0: Automation and digitalization, miniature complexity

Industry 3.0, also referred to as the digital revolution, began in the mid-20th Century with the rise of electronics, early computers and incipient automation. Factory floors became increasingly equipped with automated machines, which could perform tasks without the constant control-intervention of human workers. Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and other computer-based systems enabled machines to adhere to pre-programmed instructions, allowing for greater precision and consistency in production processes.

With the advent of automation, many mundane and repetitive tasks that were previously done by people were assigned to machines. This shift reduced the need for low-skilled manual labor and improved product quality/repeatability, as automated systems were less prone to minor-variance error. The increasing use of computers allowed for more efficient planning, monitoring and control of factory operations, typically resulting in higher productivity and lower wastage.

Factories operated through use of relatively isolated systems, with little or no automated connectivity — management processes and organization remaining human tasks.

The concept of just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing, which imposed increasing high level planning and order to minimize waste, banish stock and work-in-progress bottlenecks and improve operational efficiency, began to take hold. However, this was still limited by the rigidity of limited data-connectivity automation systems.

Industry 4.0: The smart factory, digital transformation

Industry 4.0 represents the incipient phase of industrial development and factory floor transformation. It is characterized by the integration of data-rich and connected technologies through the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), data-ocean analytics and increasingly empowered and adaptive robotics. This is beginning to deliver smart factories, in which machines, systems — and humans — are interconnected and cooperative in ways that allow for agile and real-time decision-making, adaptive modes of operation with devolved control, and dynamic optimization based on rapid analysis of real-world events.

A key feature of Industry 4.0 is the ability of machines and devices to enrich the data space in which they operate, through IoT networking and edge computing based adaptive responses to conditions. This creates seamless data exchange and coordination across the entire factory floor, through sensors that can monitor machine performance and detect potential issues before they lead to wastage and down-time. Analyzed in real-time by machine learning (ML) algorithms, supervised by distributed and empowered AI, factories and individual equipment predict maintenance needs, optimize production schedules, and improve both quality and productivity.

Smart factories in Industry 4.0 can operate autonomously to a large extent, requiring human oversight/intervention less frequently and at increasingly high levels of action. AI-driven systems can analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns and make decisions faster and more reliably than can human intervention — and increasing independence results in increasing learning from experience, driving self-tuning algorithms.

This results in increasingly flexible and responsive manufacturing processes/facilities/networks, where production can be quickly adjusted based on real and rapid assessment of demand, resource availability, or other factors.

Autonomous robots and advanced automation

While automation has been an increasingly central feature of the factory floor since the start of Industry 3.0, the onset of data/AI/ML based environments is creating increasing autonomy in robotics and automated plant. This new generation of automation/robotics is capable of performing complex tasks, unsupervised.

In the smart factory, autonomous robots/cobots work alongside people, handling tasks that require repetition in precision, or greater strength, or physical endurance. They are programmed to perform a huge range of functions, from simple assembly tasks to complex aggregate packaging of products, adapting to changes in the production environment without human input/instruction.

This is reducing the need for people on the factory floor, increasingly excluding people from repetitive or dangerous tasks. As a result, there are fewer jobs — but those jobs that remain focus on more creative, strategic and supervisory roles, such as managing production lines, analyzing data, developing/optimizing learning algorithms and perfecting workflows.

Big data and predictive analytics

In Industry 4.0, data is the key resource, optimizing factory operations. The proliferation of IoT devices and sensors on the factory floor generates massive data-oceans that are analyzed to deliver esoteric and basic insights into production processes, machine performance, and product quality.

Big data analytics equips manufacturers to make increasingly informed decisions based on real-time information and analytics. To illustrate, predictive analytics can be used to forecast demand, allowing factories to adjust production levels and plan maintenance accordingly and allowing automated supply chains to adapt the JIT materials flow in preparation.

The ability to harness and analyze data in real-time is the key differentiator of Industry 4.0. In earlier epochs, data collection and analysis were slow, low-awareness manual processes that were highly opinion/error prone and often varied in the application of historical learning.

Customization and flexibility

A defining characteristic of Industry 4.0 is a profound emphasis on adaptive flexibility. Industry 4.0 allows for the production of highly customized goods at scale, where production processes can be of unique and single variants on a product theme, with full integration and control of operational adjustments and a shift-register level of programmed precision in all parts, processes and unique outcomes.

Additive manufacture, digital twins and AI-driven design tools enable manufacturers to produce essentially unique product variants without sacrificing efficiency. A customer order for a product with specific features or dimensions can automatically be programmed, tracked and delivered, to accommodate these requirements.

This level of customization, in many ways, brings back the flexibility of individually skilled, craft production — but optimized and regularized by a consistency in skills and individual operations that typically results in high quality outcomes that can be programmed and scheduled with precision.

Sustainability and energy efficiency

Sustainability is an increasingly important consideration for manufacturers, and Industry 4.0 serves in this by driving reductions in waste and increases in energy efficiency.

IoT power sensors monitor energy consumption, identifying areas where efficiency can be improved. Analytics optimize production processes to minimize resource usage, while AI algorithms can improve environmental performance.

Human roles in Industry 4.0: A shift toward knowledge work

While the factory floor in Industry 4.0 is increasingly automated, people play a crucial role. Rather than performing manual, repetitive tasks, people in Industry 4.0 are engaged in knowledge-based activities. As automation carries out the tasks formerly performed by humans, people provide strategic oversight, problem-solving and creativity.

In earlier industrial eras, the success of a factory was largely determined by the efficiency of its machines and the productivity of its people. In Industry 4.0, success depends on the ability of humans and machines to work together in a symbiotic relationship.

Conclusion

The evolution of the factory floor from Industry 1.0 to Industry 4.0 has been marked by seismic changes and new levels of efficiency, productivity and complexity. Industry 4.0 is characterized by advanced automation, AI-driven decision-making, and real-time analytics.

Smart factories are interconnected machines, robots and humans working harmoniously. As Industry 4.0 develops, the factory floor will continue to evolve, reshaping the way we produce goods and transforming the role of people in the manufacturing process.