Industry 4.0 could be for you if you like:

Information and communication technologies (ICT) are impacting on manufacturing and production processes to the extent that their effects are likened to a “fourth industrial revolution”; hence the term “Industry 4.0”. Others use terms such as “smart production”. The business case for introducing ICT is most immediately clear with large scale, complex manufacturing, where significant gains can result from early adoption.

For the Production Systems Technician, implementing Industry 4.0 requires contextual awareness, including the business case as it affects their responsibilities. In the short term at least, the Technician may lack sufficient knowledge, skills and attributes to be able to grasp an assignment as a whole, since their initial and continuing training may have been in production technologies, or ICT.

The role of the Production Systems Technician is to understand the business case for enhancement, and to design and implement technical responses accordingly. Virtually and really assembled and commissioned hardware provide the basis for programming, and the design and implementation of cyber security measures. Responding to the business need, smart maintenance may be a universal enhancement. Optimization may be more business specific and take several paths, especially in relation to the role of hardware, connectivity, the location of data points, and the purposes and types of information and intelligence.

A flexible and open approach, combined with strong technical expertise, alertness to risk and security needs, and a recognition of the endless possibilities for optimization, are the hallmark of the outstanding and successful Production Systems Technician.