Peter Cochrane: Why Industry 4.0 is essential

Humanity faces a growing existential challenge that will take an immense technological effort to overcome, argues Peter Cochrane

Unlike many technology programs, Industry 4.0 is progressing quietly with none of the noise and ballyhoo associated with the likes of, say, 5G communications.

However, the importance of Industry 4.0 is inversely proportional to the hype, and our future really does depend on this transformation being successful as it is a vital step in the direction of realising sustainable societies.

For sure, our feeble attempts at recycling and green energy so far are just a drop in the ocean and an insignificant step change in the grand scheme of things. Recycling bins, solar panels and electric vehicles have a great feel good factor, but that's where it stops: most of them cost more than they save!

The big and necessary gains demanded by the planet can only be realised by the transformation of industries and supply chains based on the creation of the new and novel. Merely polishing our existing technologies, processes and production facilities will not save us from the growing string of dire warnings issued by the Club of Rome and others since 1972.

Despite understanding the ultimate cost of climate change and the denuding of planet earth of it's raw materials at an alarming rate, many individuals and nations choose to turn a blind eye to focus on personal wealth or the immediate national interest.

At the core of these complex problems a prime solution focus occurs at the cusp of nano-technology, biotech, artificial intelligence and robotics

At the same time, the human population continues to grow and we now consume more than 1.5 planets worth of renewables every year. Food and water shortages invoked by climate change continue to promote wars and population migration. We can only expect it to get worse if we do not find a solution.

We have to stop producing more and more for the few and start supplying sufficient for the many

At the core of these complex problems a prime solution focus occurs at the cusp of nano-technology, biotech, artificial intelligence and robotics. It is here that we will see the creation of new materials and processes that far exceed the performance of natural materials, and the amplification of limited human thinking, imagination and creativity.

Most important is the ability to both recover materials for re-use while investing minimal energy for their manipulation and forming. The pulling of turbine blades from a single crystal, 3D and 4D printing of plastics, ceramics, and metals to create manifolds and other complex forms are increasingly common examples.

We are close to being able to produce flexible mobile and wearable devices in a similar way we deal with sheet paper and plastic: A battery layer, a screen layer [and] a transducer layer

However, in the R&D labs engineers and scientists are striving to realise programmable materials using plastic and biological alternatives that can self repair, change colour, store energy and demonstrate a programmable shape on demand.

The key here is unprecedented strength to weight ratios and performance with minimal processing cost and maximal material recovery, but there are potentially even bigger gains in the logistic chain. It is not uncommon for components to traverse the planet several times, from producer to assembly shops, and then the final system integrator. The electronics, vehicle, domestic and office white and brown goods industries definitely sit firmly in this bracket.

Now, if we were to move the material printing and programming families close to, or onto, the customer site, we would only have to ship materials in solid, powder and fluid form and thus drastically reduce the number of trucks, ships, planes and trains required.

Indeed, we are close to being able to produce flexible mobile and wearable devices in a similar way we deal with sheet paper and plastic: A battery layer, a screen layer, a transducer layer with hanging electronics bonding the whole, almost like the reinforcing in concrete.

When we augment all this with the idea of vertical farms in cities and towns, with food grown at the point of need, the dispersement of energy storage and supply, along with localised water sources and storage, we will be far closer to real, as opposed to politically correct, ‘eco-theatre' sustainability.

And how comfortably it all sits with the internet, IoT, blockchain, the so-called ‘gig economy', publishing, ecommerce and social networks as part of a new dispersed economy.

Peter Cochrane OBE is an ex-CTO of BT who now works as a consultant focusing on solving problems and improving the world through the application of technology