īetween the first and second world war, a great number of discoveries and technological advancements were made, many of which driven by military investments. This second industrial revolution culminated with the rise of assembly lines for the mass-production of cars, first in 1901 at the Olds Motor Vehicle Company, and later in 1913 at the Ford Motor Company for the famous Model T, where some of the first systematic time-and-motion studies were made to improve efficiency, laying the ground for the establishment of the modern industrial engineering practice. This until the 1870s, when a new wave of innovations started spreading: mass steel production, diffused railroad networks, cross-continental telegraph lines, the first telephones, and electrification, among many others technical advancements in production processes, paved the way for a new phase of globalization and huge additional productivity gains. The first industrial revolution happened in Europe and North America, starting in 1760 and up to 1840, after which, for a few decades, the manufacturing world went on without much disruption. It’s enough to say it wasn’t just a technical matter: it shaped politics, economics, and many other facets of society in a deep and enduring way up to this day . the start of urbanization and radical changes in the labor market, which are however outside the scope of this work. Many other social effects generated from this shift, e.g. Activities that were once carried out in a distributed way within households began to be centralized in factories and saw a dramatic increase in productivity. Then came the first industrial revolution, sparked by the diffusion of the steam engine, the invention of the first mechanical tools and high-volume production processes that revolutionized many industries: from the production of textile, metal, glass, paper and chemicals, to agriculture and transport. Historically, up to around 200 years ago, the manufacturing capability of humankind has been substantially limited to craftmanship: people using manually operated tools to cut, shape, polish, weave and assemble pieces of material. In this sense, Industry 4.0 hints at a fourth major revolution in the industrial sector.īut if we’re talking about a fourth industrial revolution what were the first three about? It is inspired by the notation used in software development to indicate new versions of a product that have significant differences from the previous ones. The term Industry 4.0 was coined by the German Government in 2011 as part of a new industrial research strategy . Feel free to comment and propose ideas to improve and continue it. NOTE TO THE READER: This is a book chapter draft.
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