South African industry must adapt 4th Industrial Revolution to local needs

South African industry needs to find ways of adapting and using the technologies driving the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution (or Industry 4.0) to remain globally competitive, yet maintain and create jobs in a high-unemployment environment. So argued productONE MD Charles Anderson at the Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Conference 2017 in Pretoria on Friday. He pointed out that the original Industrial Revolution was based on harnessing steam power, for transport, manufacturing and electricity generation. The Second Industrial Revolution was based on the invention of mass production. The Third, on electronics. The current iteration, 4.0, is based on digital technology, including the Internet, big data processing, cloud computing and additive ("3D") manufacturing.