How will you Prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

Kyu-Bum Lee, CIO, Handok

Kyu-Bum Lee, CIO, Handok

In many fields, it is said that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will come like a tsunami, but it is not easy to understand the concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is because most engineers focus on individual technologies and fail to see the big picture of the whole integration. In this article, I will deal with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, not from the academic viewpoint, but from the practical point of view. I draw the whole picture as a framework; apply it to a business case that can be intuitively understood, and share the implication.

What are the keywords of the Fourth Industrial Revolution? I think GE's digital twin and the Cyber Physical System, most intuitively tell the Fourth Industrial Revolution. So what are the related technologies? The technologies such as IoT, LBS, Smart devices, Cloud, AI, and additive manufacturing (3D printer) are being used to help understand the Fourth Industrial Revolution. However, the understanding is unclear because we only think about the characteristics of each technology rather than trying to see the whole combination. Here, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is defined as the offline and online integration initiated by the above-mentioned technologies.

Let's draw the whole picture by combining these technical concepts. In fact, understanding the whole as the next framework and observing how each technology works in it helps to understand this trend.

I. Digitalization (To digital)

1. Sense

2. Describe & Replicate the real world

3. Store big data

4. Simulate, Analyze & Optimize the situation

II. Realization (To analog)

5. Reply to the subject

The characteristics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is described as hyper-connected and hyper-intelligent, appear conceptually as follows in reality. The real world is simulated as much as possible in the virtual cloud space. In this virtual environment, the events are simulated by the hyper intelligence, which refers to AI, so that the optimal idea can be derived and reflected in the reality. When the proposal is reflected, the environment is again described and this process is repeated.

If you look at each technology with these concepts, you can have a perspective on how you should look at it in your industry. Considerations for each technology are as follows.

1. Sensor (Sense, describe, and replicate)

Sensor-related technologies such as IoT, LBS, Smart devices, diagnostic equipment, wearable technologies are ultimately important to describe the subject's data and environmental data to the cyber system. It is practically impossible to replicate, so practically it is important to determine what indicators are to be sensed and processed in the field of each industry. For the sake of intuitive understanding, I will look at navigation as the nearest example. In order to know the status of the subject, it is at this stage that the LBS acquires the GPS position information and the movement information, and based on this information, it creates a digital twin by combining such as traffic and road maintenance.

It is digital transformation that can make business successful in the era of the fourth industrial revolution

2. Cloud (Store Big Data)

Big data collected by the sensor is stored for analysis, which is managed in the cloud with large data that could not be processed before. As the Cloud has a good infrastructure, such as repositories and analytics tools, Big Data is becoming closer and closer. The accumulation of enough data is critical for simulation, machine learning, analysis and prediction to work properly. As hyper scale cloud infrastructure costs less and less, we can focus on data rather than infrastructure itself.

3. Artificial Intelligence (Simulate, Analyze & Optimize)

We were able to confirm the strength of AI and deep learning by seeing Alpha Go’s win against Se-Dol Lee and its learning breaking bricks in a short time. In the continued case of navigation, understanding the external environment and the current position and movement of the car allows various simulations to reach the destination to be repeated until the arrival time. The car can be driven by a continuously optimized solution in response to the reality. With simulation, deep learning, analysis, and optimization algorithms, we can try many virtual solutions that we could not have done before. I believe that each company's unique competitive advantage and competitiveness will ultimately be in how to algorithmize the know-how to create an optimized solution based on the above-mentioned data. In the end, this technological step is the most important differentiating point for producing the products needed for the market through digitization of manufacturing and services.

4.Smart Devices for O2O, VR, AR, Additive Manufacturing (Reply & Realize)

Finally, it is a question of how to reflect the simulated results in reality. If the contents described above are areas that digitize reality, it is necessary to realize the optimal plan by reflecting it back to reality. Smart devices that make the 24/7 Online state break down the online and offline boundaries and make it closer to O2O. VR and AR, which can suggest people to experience in the best, will help humans to better evaluate and utilize AI's proposal. When the optimal design comes out, it becomes easy to have individual factories that can create it in reality. The area of realization of these outputs is also a technology group that should not be forgotten in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In the PwC report, Frank Burkitt discusses the business of technologies, combining technology and services, and business of multi-combinations, which refer to enablers, engagers, and enhancer. But from the technical point of view, the framework of digitalization and realization by simulating and optimizing it, expresses phenomena better.

Precision Medicine Case

The precision medicine can be analyzed with the framework as follows.

Gene sequencing, Personal Medical history, and Life style sensing (IoT) can replicate a person in the cyber system. Gene sequencing shows innate health, and others are used to describe it most closely to the current state. The collected data is stored in a cloud solution in a safe and economical way. Referring to the data of the population, AI simulates the life of the virtual human being replicated, based on the collected data. By these simulations, the solution suggests an optimized lifestyle for a healthy life. The suggested lifestyle in a healthcare system realizes a healthy life through it.

Preparation in Individual Industries

We have to think more about how we can find a competitive advantage in our own industry in this whole framework. We must make efforts to create an optimal plan that meets the needs by algorithmizing factors that are competitive advantage in the current industry. Once these clear goals are set, it is possible to clarify what external and internal data are needed. Based on such digitalization of a firm, it is a digital transformation that can make a successful business in the Fourth Industrial Revolution by producing the optimal production or service order and delivering it in the best condition.