Guest article by Sven Blankenberg Industry 4.0 Without Cloud Computing

Worldwide economy is at the threshold to the fourth industrial revolution. Driven by the Internet, real and virtual world are merging to create the Internet of Things (IoT). Topics like Industry 4.0 are omnipresent when you talk to experts in that area. Focus of attention then are networking opportunities of sensors and actuators by means of field bus systems or the networking of machines via standard protocols. Cloud services almost appear to be taken for granted in this context for data exchange or storage. But is this the only way how information can be communicated between the devices? This is the question we want to answer here in this article.

At this point, let’s clarify again what the future program Industry 4.0 is about and what it means with regard to challenges and opportunities. If we talk about Industry 4.0, the optimisation of production and distribution processes with respect to more flexibility and efficiency is meant. That does not sound new, but digitisation now plays the essential role for the fourth industrial revolution. A variety of technologies are used, from semiconductor products like sensors and microcontrollers, to things like autonomous robots and simulators, big data and analytics, and, of course, cloud computing. Design documentation, engineering drawings and descriptions for production processes need to be available during every step of the production. Manufacturing processes will be documented at every stage. Consequently it is necessary that data will be stored. Here cloud computing often comes into play.

Alternative Technologies Enable Industry 4.0

There are certainly many advantages that speak for could computing but also certain well-known reservations, such as data protection. For quite some other reasons other technologies could also be an alternative, such as near field communication (NFC). This wireless proximity technology is used already in many areas. Many of us have most likely been confronted already with mobile payment, next-generation ticketing schemes or car sharing services that use NFC. But also in industrial settings it can be used to store and process data and information about manufacturing processes. In the following, we will explain how that works.