Technologies of Industry 4.0 and Opportunities They Create for Product Innovation

The technologies that enable products and services for Industry 4.0 create many new products and services for industrial, professional, and consumer markets. These are growing rapidly across multiple markets. With all this rapid change, it is a challenge for developers to “keep up” so that their products and services are current when entering the market. This article intends to overview the elementary concepts for the practical reader, scoping out some of the potential product and service areas enabled by these technologies. The key takeaway is that the technical concepts behind Industry 4.0 apply to the industrial markets as well as many others, including consumer, medical, and areas outside of industry solutions.