by Emilio Jimenez (Director of the Master on Industrial Engineering at the University of La Rioja; Coordinator of the Spanish national group on Modeling Simulation and Optimization of the Spanish Committee on Automation, of the International Federation of Automatic Control, IFAC; Eurosim president 2016-2019).

Industrial production has evolved in last centuries in an unstoppable way, but 4 clear revolutions have defined this evolution, the last of them, well-known as Industry 4.0 (amongst several alternative names, such as cyber-physical production, smart factory, etc.), is just being implanted last years seeming to constitute a new revolution for the production industry, and therefore for society. Although manufacturing is the main sector involved in this new paradigm, Industry 4.0 is not just about manufacturing anymore.

The first industrial revolution started at the end of the 18th century, with the invention of the steam machine, consisting in the use of mechanization in order to take advantage of the water power and the steam power for industrial production, which also modified society, with trains, new jobs, etc. Approximately with the start of 20th century a new industrial revolution appears, based on electricity, which allowed the assembly line and therefore mass production.

A third industrial revolution appeared in the 70s of 20th century, based on computer and automation, with the rise of robotics in manufacturing, industrial connectivity, and, specially, the birth of the Internet, which again changed the society much more than only industrial production. Finally, just now (the last few years), the fourth industrial revolution is based on the technological advances, the cyber-physical systems, and again it is related to a social revolution, towards the knowledge society.

Industry 4.0 is based on the convergence and application of several new technologies: big data, internet of things (and industrial internet), augmented reality, simulation, cloud computing, cyber-physical systems (and cyber-security), artificial intelligence, and others such as advanced robotics, additive manufacturing, horizontal/vertical integration, etc. Those techniques are being integrated in the industrial system the last years, but their use will be necessary soon in order to be able to produce and be competitive in the global market. Industry 4.0 is a challenger, which will be a necessity in a few years. And Simulation world has a great opportunity to be part of this process, of this revolution.