“The Industry 4.0 requires digital talent ready to work”

The Industry 4.0 is considered the most important technology change of the last decades, with a great potential to make possible the reindustrialization. It is a huge opportunity to manage to retain and amplify the industrial competitiveness in Europe.

Joan Guasch is the director of the Public Programs for the Innovation of Eurecat, and Director of the Industry 4.0 Congress, which took place during the exhibition Advanced Factories held in Barcelona.

In this interview, he explains us the challenges and the potential of this new paradigm of production.

What are the main characteristics of Industry 4.0?

Widely speaking we use the concept of Industry 4.0 to define the new industrial paradigm based on the use and approach of new technologies in the industry.

Innovations related to digital concepts such as the Internet of Things, Big Data, Cloud Computing, digital manufacturing, and cybersecurity coexist with technologies whose goal is to make the productive industry more efficient through advanced production, robotics, automation, recycling and advanced materials.

Meanwhile, new models of management are generated basing on the production under demand, business models, and personalization. It addresses a huge opportunity to manage to retain and amplify the industrial competitiveness in Europe.

What advanced technologies will be used in the global industrial sector to make its future better?

There will be an increasing number of robots and of additive production technologies in industrial plants. Also, there will be generated new business with relations to intelligent utilization of information collected in factories. In short, it will be the application of artificial intelligence in an industrial environment.

This means the rise in the number of automatism and of sensors of all types in factories. The management of all this information will be the key for a company´s competitiveness.

Will the improvement in efficiency be one of the mainstays of the new industry?

Industries will implement systems of energetic cogeneration, renewable energies and elements that will contribute to gain a more energetically efficient and environment-friendly industry.

For what we are seeing during Advanced Factories, virtual reality is also highly presented in Industry 4.0. What´s it´s potential?

Not only will it be a design tool and assistance to the product development, but also it will be in the management of daily production, support to workers, prediction and preventive maintenance of equipment.

What would you say to those people who still show reluctance with the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution?

Same as the fact that it´s almost inconceivable that people stop using mobile phone in our daily life, shortly we will see that it will be unthinkable that within an industrial plant, there´s no use of automatic systems, the Internet of Things, or Big Data.

After all, I´m optimistic regarding to its implementation, considering that the industry has always known how to adapt itself to technological innovations that have happened along the time.

On this sense, where is the industrial fabrication in Spain heading in short/medium term?

It could be because I´ve been long dealing with industries of different sectors, measures and origins, I dare say that I´m optimistic. The capacity of the national industry to hybridize technologies, adapt itself to changes and to be at service of its clients has been showed since a long time ago.

Flexibility, reliability, reconfiguration, efficiency and autonomy are basic requirements for the development of new industrial technologies.

Advanced industries have to be prepared for such production and for continuous and rapid changes that happen.

If there´s one thing I think that should produce the most profound change, that will be in the area of human management. The Industry 4.0 requires numbers of talents and technological innovations. The learning along with the professional life requires a change of model. We have also talked about this during the three-day congress.

As Mr. Guasch commented, talents are one the most important elements for the Industry 4.0, and that´s precisely why Barcelona Technology School is dedicated to preparing the next generation of digital talents through various Master programs: Master in Big Data Solutions, a project highly focused on Big Data and data analytics co-organized with Eurecat (Technologic Centre of Catalonia), Master in Digital Solutions Development for the next generation of  developers and entrepreneurs, and Master in Digital Transformation Leadership, with unique insights of the digital ecosystem transformation.

All these programs allow students to gain a professional experience and hands-on practice in the digital industry and to shape the digital future.