Expressing with Football of Industry 4.0 (Digital
Transformation)
ABSTRACT
For the first time in the history of the world, a revolution was declared before realizing of the
revolution. Thus, the process of realizing the Industrial 4.0 or Digital Transformation
revolution started, where equal conditions were created by the whole world. As such, subject
in the whole world that, unfortunately, for the discharge of industrial 4.0 concept, despite the
many discussions and debates still seems unable to understand totally this important industrial
revolution. Industry 4.0, an important revolution and a revolution that will change not only
our working life but also our entire life, is described in this article by identifying with the
most popular football in the world.
Key Words
#Industry40 #Society50 #DigitalTransform #Futboll #Revolution #ArtificialIntelligence
#Endüstri40 #Toplum50 #Dijitaldönüşüm #Futbol #Devrim #Yapayzeka
INTRODUCTION
As it is known, the global economic crisis we have met in 2008, which deeply shook our
world, particularly in developed countries, laid the foundation of the revolution which would
affect our work life completely and later would be called as Industry 4.0 (Digital
Transformation).
In developed countries such as Germany and the USA where labor rates are higher, efforts
have been made to minimize/optimize labor as a result of the global crisis and the term
Industry 4.0 was used for the first time in Hannover Messe Fair in 2011. Then, a study group
was established in the private sector in 2012 with the support of the German government; and
on April 8, 2013, this study group presented the Industry 4.0 report at the Hannover Messe
fair and the term was brought to the world’s agenda as a revolution.
Before making an assessment of the Industrial 4.0 revolution, when we examine all industrial
revolutions, we shall see that these revolutions actually stem from human intelligence and that
their goal is to find ways to live in better conditions. Mankind has not contented with what
they possess since the origin of their existence and always wanted to facilitate and thus,
improve their way of life. The purpose of the mankind, who is born to live their life like any
living thing, has been to have their works to be done to live in better conditions performed by
other living things at first and later by machines and systems, whenever possible. To this
end, development shall never end and shall be continued until people make this world a place
where they come to live only.
For the first time in the history of the world, unlike the preceding ones, a revolution was
declared before it had yet to be realized. Thus, the process of realizing the Industry 4.0 or the
Digital Transformation revolution, for which the conditions of realization was equal
throughout the world, has begun. The subject was started to be discussed by many people and
institutions as it was popular. As such, unfortunately, the concept of Industry 4.0 has lost its
meaning in all over the world, and despite all the talk and discussion, this important industrial
revolution has not been fully understood yet.
Industry 4.0 may be considered as a smart way of production that is rendered completely
independent from humans using the information and communication technologies. In other
words, Industry 4.0 may be considered as an autonomy system that supports intelligent
systems with artificial intelligence applications. In Figure 1, you may see the table covering
industrial revolutions and the relevant technologies.
It is possible to describe Industry 4.0/Digital Transformation, which is an important
revolution that shall change not only our work life, but also our whole way of living, by
identifying it with football; and you may see that both concepts have quite a number of
common features with each other.
A player on a football team may work hard and have a very good game in person. However,
if this player does not harmonize and integrate his work with the work of his team mates, the
team cannot achieve its goal. This shows why “teamwork” and a “team spirit” is required to
have the Industry 4.0 system or concept achieve its goal, just like it is required in a football
team.
Another reason is that the components within a system may not have the expertise to realize
the entire system to meet increasing demands. Therefore, teams may be required to combine
different characteristics and capabilities of the components to meet these demands.
INDUSTRY 4.0 AND FOOTBALL
Football is often seen as an industry, and the term “Football Industry” is widely used today.
Let us assume that we define football as the industry and leagues as the industrial revolutions.
In line with this, industry and industrial revolutions have different levels as per their level of
development as there are leagues starting from amateur up to the Champions League for
football teams. These levels are not to be overcome all at once, each level is determined so
that you may move up to an upper league when you are ranked at the top as a result of a great
work and effort. This also applies to the levels of the industry: You are required to pass
through these levels in order to move to a higher revolution.
Thus, when we consider the 3rd league as Industry 1.0, we may define the Champions League
as Industry 4.0. In the following figure, you may see the table that relates football leagues
and industrial revolutions in line with this definition.
Let us consider that our current football team is in the Industry 3.0 level (league), and so we
are a first league team and that our team wins the title and has qualified for the Champions
League. And let us assume that our goal is to create a team that shall permanently compete in
the Champions League. So, what needs to be done here is to convert an Industry 3.0
compliant first league football team into an Industry 4.0 compliant Champions League
football team.
A football team consists of a total of 21 players, and 11 first team players, five substitute
players for each match. Of course, there is also the team coach and his assistant. Industry 4.0
today consists mainly of a combination of 11 disciplines, and we may say that many other
disciplines may be added to these. The most important component of a football team is the
coach. Just as in football, where the coach is an indispensable element, Artificial Intelligence
is the indispensable element of the Industry 4.0 concept.
Based on this analogy, if we consider Industry 4.0 as a football team and take artificial
intelligence as the coach and each component as a player, we may create an Industry 4.0
football team as follows;
Players:
1. Cyber Physical Systems
2. Industrial Software and Horizontal-Vertical Integration
3. Big Data and Analytics
4. Robots/Autonomous Robots
5. Advanced Automation Systems
6. Smart Sensors
7. Cloud Technologies
8. Internet of Things (IoT)
9. Augmented Reality
10. Additive Manufacturing (3D Printers)
11. Cyber Security
Coach: Artificial Intelligence and Smart Systems
While this team seems to have 11 players at the present, the number of players shall, of
course, increase in proportion to developing technology every year. As it can be seen here,
the main difference between Industry 4.0 and football is that although they both have 11
players today, this number will not change for football, but it may increase for Industry 4.0 in
the future.
An important issue here is that all of these components shall be on the same level so that we
may build a team and achieve success. Because, it is not easy to adapt only one goalkeeper to
the 1st League team from the Champions League level, and this does not render the team to
be a Champions League team. When we apply this approach to the structure of Industry 4.0,
we may say that when we add only one discipline, e.g. cyber security structure, to our existing
Industry 3.0 system, the revised system shall not be compatible with Industry 4.0.
In the light of this information, the comparison table provided below summarizes the
relationship between football and Industry 4.0 (Digital Transformation).
Although there are many similarities between football and Industry 4.0, there are also a small
number of differences. These differences are provided in the table below.
CONCLUSION
To summarize, we may describe Industry 4.0 by identifying its with the characteristics of a
football team and football league in terms of its many features, and we may consider it as a
Champions League in today’s conditions. Thus, in order to compete in this league and to
become a permanent player in the Champions League, it is necessary to form a sustainable
and good team from its goalkeeper to its striker, and to its substitute players and its coach. In
other words, adapting only one player or several players to a team in the lower leagues shall
not render that team to qualify for Champions League. Thus, adding only one or several
Industry 4.0 components to an existing Industry 3.0 system does not necessarily mean that the
entire system may migrate to Industry 4.0.
Today, an important duty is imposed on those who seek and implement an Industry 4.0
solution, and on the public institutions and NGOs in this regard. They should be aware of the
fact that it is not possible to implement Industry 4.0 by applying only a few disciplines as it is
not possible to create a team by transferring only one player.
Public institutions, private sector, educational system (universities) and NGOs shall come
together to form a solution in order to perform the transition to Industry 4.0 and create a
correct solution. Because, people are at the heart of digitalization and Industry 4.0. When
moving from physical to mental work, there should be a strategy and action that the public
institutions, NGOs, private sector and educational system shall carry out jointly and
simultaneously throughout.
If we shall summarize in the light of all this, all our people, the private sector and the public
institutions shall know that the transition to Industry 4.0/Digital Transformation is not an
option, but a must. If we consider Industry 4.0 as a train, we haven’t missed the Industry 4.0
train yet, but we don’t have much time. We must remember that we can only succeed with a
very serious, rapid and planned strategy.
Corresponding Address:
Author : Dr. Hüseyin HALICI
Institution : Halıcı Elektronik Ltd. Şti.
e-Mail : huseyin@huseyinhalici.com
Web site : www.huseyinhalici.com
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