Every day, more and more companies are joining the Fourth Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0. This new era in industry has given way to Smart Factories, which operate hand in hand with Artificial Intelligence in search of maximum efficiency and profitability.
Since the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, production has been one of the main drivers of 21st century society. However, this has a major impact on the environment. In fact, this rate of production is one of the main causes of global environmental pollution.
Therefore, sustainability is one of the greatest challenges that society, together with large companies, must begin to face. Climate change and pollution are aspects that have awakened the sensitivity of society in recent years and require an immediate and effective solution.
Industry 4.0 and sustainable development
We understand sustainability as the effort to minimize negative impacts on environmental, social and economic relations. To this end, the focus is on climate change, pollution and care for the environment, making responsible use of natural resources.
If we start from the premise that Industry 4.0 is the one that combines intelligent machines in a sophisticated and interconnected production process, we can find the link between Industry 4.0 and sustainable development.
This is why Industry 4.0 will have the duty to have a positive impact on the environment, conserving energy, resources and reducing carbon emissions.
In the following, we will discuss how an industrial business can be developed without sacrificing environmental care.
Intelligent and sustainable construction
Industry 4.0 applications not only affect the production system, but encompass every aspect of a company, including its infrastructure.
Architecture is also transforming and reinventing itself to improve the daily lives of people and employees. The application of AI to this type of infrastructure is resulting in the birth of self-sufficient and sustainable buildings and large factories that have the ability to optimize a large part of their assets.
For example, when building a smart factory, a smart heating and cooling system can be installed that can be regulated in real time. All kinds of sensors can also be installed to monitor and regulate the temperature of any room, reducing energy costs and being more sustainable.
With an integrated operations platform, these types of parameters can be controlled at a glance, reducing gas emissions and achieving sustainability goals. For example, with this technology, data from external systems such as databases, SCADAs or ERPs can be unified to enable global management of production, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, etc.
Los desafíos de la Industria 4.0 en sostenibilidad
In a political and social context that values sustainability and environmental preservation, Industry 4.0 must adapt to this new paradigm, responding to the demands of the present.
In this case, many companies do not know where to start to address a digitization process that ensures sustainability and responsible production. In this case, for many businesses, bringing together the challenge of digital transformation and sustainability is a challenge. However, there is no single answer that solves this dilemma, as each business will have to adopt a tailored and customized digitization process, without forgetting sustainability as a non-negotiable objective.
Related to the previous section, one of the most important challenges for Industry 4.0 is to combat the effects of climate change, without abandoning high-performance production. To meet this objective, it will be essential to develop fully efficient and optimized production. Fortunately, AI and advanced analytics applied to industry have been born to achieve this goal.
In this case, the industrial sector, as the main consumer of energy, seeks to achieve energy efficiency and, through data collection and visualization, energy waste can be avoided and production with intelligent savings can be achieved.
Moving towards smart and sustainable manufacturing
Actually, the Smart Factory concept is already executing activities from an energy efficiency and sustainability perspective. Optimizing production, reducing waste, seeking maximum efficiency… are objectives that are directly related to the preservation of the environment. This is why, without any doubt, Industry 4.0 has become the great reference for the factories of the future.
Converting an industrial business into a smart business will have a direct impact on:
- Energy consumption. By increasing control of assets with IoT technology, consumption can be better tracked, leading to smarter and more responsible management of resources.
- Waste management. Industry 4.0 encourages the connection between different parts of the process, including circular waste management, aiming for zero waste.
- Reduction of rework, thanks to the use of predictive maintenance techniques and error prevention.
- Leakage forecasting, through optimal monitoring of assets and production processes, centralizing and organizing all types of data.
Achieve a smart and sustainable business with Nexus Integra
Nexus Integra is the integrated operations platform that enables industries to address their digital transformation, turning data into knowledge with total efficiency.
This integrated operations platform adapts to any type of industry, thanks to its technological network of expert partners in different sectors. It manages the complete water cycle, monitors energy production and controls all types of infrastructures to achieve the desired sustainability objectives on an intelligent platform.
Do you want to approach a digitalization process in your company from a sustainable and efficient perspective? Request a free study and our team of specialists will contact you and advise you personally on how to implement Nexus Integra in your industrial business.
