One of the significant problems in making any change is the articulation of the need to change, and the outcomes that are expected as a result.
Overcome those two, and change is suddenly easier, albeit still really hard.
The first hurdle is the articulation.
In order to communicate and have complex ideas generally understood, you do not use technical, academic jargon backed by data, you use stories and metaphors in a way that connects with the audience.
Communicating industry 4.0 is such a complex challenge.
What is it, how will it affect me, why should I be interested?
Answering these questions is a core foundation of gaining acceptance, followed by action that becomes automatic as it gets buried in the auto-response system.
Remember the last time you put your hand onto a hot stove.
Before you felt anything, you had reacted by pulling your hand away, a totally unconscious, instantaneous, action then, it started to hurt like hell.
Think about the processes involved in this.
First: the ‘data’ that indicated the stove was hot was collected by the nerves in your fingers and hand.
Second: the ‘data’ is sent for processing to your brain, the CPU between your ears. This processing concludes your hand is in danger of being burnt.
Third: That conclusion is sent to the muscles that control where your hand is, with firm instructions to remove it immediately.
Fourth: Your hand is pulled back out of danger.
Fifth: It starts to hurt like hell, and the memory of that hurt is stored deep in your personal CPU for future reference should your hand stray again.
The astonishing thing is that the first four happen without thought, instantaneously, and the fifth is a long term ‘frame’ through which you unconsciously ‘feel’ the hurt and approach the stove warily. It is a neural network that collaborates, communicates, drives action, and learns.
Industry, or more specifically, Factory 4.0 is, similarly, a set of tools that collects, analyses and acts on data without direction, and learns from the experience, adding to the auto-response ‘memory bank’ and adjusted based on the ‘learning’ that occurs as data on outcomes is collected. The system becomes more Automatic than Artificial.
Header cartoon credit: Tom Gauld in ‘New Scientist’ magazine.
