Industry 4.0 and the next industrial revolution

Industrial processes have known very few digital solutions over the last decades. Still, a lot of challenges have to be overcome such as logistics optimisation, supply chain management or downtime production losses.

Industry 4.0 brings together several tech innovations that play an important role in shaping the future of the whole industrial value chain.

The corporates that succeed in integrating those solutions will effectively gain a strong competitive advantage over incumbents sticking to the status quo of industry processes.

Predictive maintenance and additive manufacturing at the cornerstone of innovation

As part of a global revolution, Industry 4.0 combines multiple technologies that merge the physical (IoT, 3D printing) and the digital world (AI, Machine Learning). Startups play a key role by driving innovation forward with the latest technologies.

One of the key solutions is predictive maintenance, where monitoring tools track the performance and usage of a machine and anticipate errors or failures, thereby ensuring efficient surveillance on the production lines.

Also, additive manufacturing changes the process by which products are made by using 3D technology and additive materials. It provides tailored, stronger, and lighter parts or systems. Companies that master additive manufacturing can clearly measure its positive impact on the supply chain: from shorter delivery times to more accurate inventory management, with an added layer of flexibility in the operations.

Leveraging Industry 4.0 data-driven solutions to improve industrial processes

The growing number of connected devices, with plug-and-play integration, or fully autonomous software have drastically increased the volume of data, thus changing the industrial landscape. Industry 4.0's principal objective is to harness this data: generating, gathering, and using data as efficiently and extensively as possible. Tomorrow, decisions made in the industry will have to rely primarily on data analytics.

Corporates can count on startups to better generate data or find valuable applications for it such as optimising production and services, reducing losses, or improving efficiency. With those solutions, results are observable rapidly, and startups stay flexible to test other usages than initially proposed.

As a key player in the innovation ecosystem, Early Metrics helps identify startups with the most suitable value proposition for each corporate application.