From "Crossing the Chasm" to talk about bridging the gap of Industry 4.0

【51CTO.com Quick Translation】 Geoffrey Moore's seminal book Crossing the Chasm (1991) describes the transition of technology adoption from early stage to mainstream and is widely regarded as "the bible for bringing cutting-edge products to the larger market". This book provides a perfect framework to examine the Industry 4.0 era we are about to face. For early adopters who are not familiar with this technology, they may be interested because the technology is novel or because they can see the practical benefits.

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Some 30 years after the book was published, it is becoming increasingly clear that Industry 4.0 will “cross the chasm” for the following reasons:

Factor 1: The emergence of 5G

It’s important to note that 5G is more than just an extra G over 4G. Factory automation has historically been enabled by fixed cable connections. The big step in the right direction for automation was 4G connectivity, but its fundamental bandwidth and latency issues prevented it from being a viable solution.

As Verizon’s Srini Kalapala said in an interview, “Previous generations focused on a single vector of this technology — either delivering more data at a higher quality voice or delivering voice across the country. But when you look at 5G, we’re not thinking about delivering a single vector, we’re thinking about delivering across multiple vectors. It’s high throughput, lower latency, better security, and higher reliability — all of these dimensions deliver service demand in minutes. Now, to do that requires us to rethink the way we build networks and make real changes in the process.”

Kalapala went on to discuss how 5G millimeter wave technology “will allow us to deliver gigabytes of bandwidth to a single user.” Imagine a billion bytes of data (roughly 10 times more than is available today), wirelessly transmitted to a single device with ultra-low latency, securely and reliably. Applying these ideas to factories, 5G will be a game changer, enabling robots to not only unplug themselves, but to operate autonomously. This will allow the creation of a smart factory with a level of flexibility that was previously only possible in science fiction.

Factor 2: The impact of Covid-19 is inevitable

Covid-19 has acted as a technology accelerator. Our mid-2020 Covid-19 Industry Impact Survey found that Covid-19 put 70% of 5G projects in the US and 98% in China on fast track. Our broader industry surveys in the US and China found that 39% and 43% of industries, respectively, were in “Covid-19 survival mode,” while 35% and 33% reported that Covid-19 was causing them to transform.

We then compared investments between the different factions. For example, using 100 as the index for "survival mode," we found the following ratios of companies focusing on investment transformation in these areas: accelerating 5G development (179), container-based development (173), digital transformation initiatives (159), artificial intelligence (134), cloud-native application development (133), and IoT development (122). To be honest, everyone went into "survival mode" last year. Not only that, but future survival and prosperity will require even more investment.

Factor 3: The future requires “crossing the chasm”

The global Industry 4.0 market is expected to reach $260.71 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 16.3% between 2019 and 2026. Expectations are high for those manufacturing industries that have invested in adopting new technologies. In a second post-Covid-19 survey on “5G and Industry 4.0,” U.S. and European manufacturers noted that adopting new technologies has increased their customer satisfaction, internal confidence, competitive advantage, and profit margins by 50% or more. To realize these gains, 50% of respondents expect to adopt 5G this year, and 81% expect to leverage these technologies within three years: big data analytics, artificial intelligence, autonomous collaborative robots, machine equipment diagnostics, cloud computing/cloud native applications, cloud-end PaaS, industrial automation, machine learning, digital twins, edge computing.

Factor 4: The power of the intelligent edge

Gartner predicts that by 2023, more than 50% of enterprises will create and process data at the edge. Industry 4.0 and 5G are key drivers of this shift. The shift is driven by proximity to process source data, which avoids backhaul costs, but the key is that the true value of data is often from the moment it is created, computed or sensed. For example, 5G and edge computing can help a manufacturing plant that produces heat-sensitive materials to wirelessly monitor the entire production line as needed to ensure optimal production, and issue alerts and respond promptly in the event of a failure to avoid costly repairs.

The intelligent edge is the connection point between Industry 4.0 and 5G, achieving the goals of Industry 4.0 through 5G connection and edge processing.

Factor 5: Expectations of the new generation

The final factor has to do with the transformation of our technology workforce. According to Pew Research in 2016, millennials have become the largest generation in the workforce. Most millennials don’t remember a time without mobile phones or the internet. Think about how common it is for them to complete a transaction in minutes on their phone that once took days or months to complete via email, phone or door-to-door visits. As this new generation and the people of the future increasingly demand convenience and personalization in their personal lives, they will also expect it at work.

Moore's book aims to propose a model whereby companies or entities drive the market adoption of new products or technologies. Crossing the true "chasm" of Industry 4.0 will be driven by the emergence of the intelligent edge, which is a convergence of multiple products and technologies. As the concept of the intelligent edge and its actual infrastructure become established, it will grow and spread exponentially, and now is the best time to build edge intelligence systems.

Original title: Crossing The Chasm For Industry 4.0, author: Paul Miller

[Translated by 51CTO. Please indicate the original translator and source as 51CTO.com when reprinting on partner sites]