What is Horizontal and Vertical System Integration in Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing are expected to transform current practices into new milestones of exponential growth with high intensity of velocity, scope, and system impact. Technological advancements in the fields such as artificial intelligence, internet of things (IoT), blockchain technology, and cyber physical systems have resulted in a breakthrough in capturing the potential to boost income levels and an improvement in the quality of life of various sectors of people worldwide. A continuous stream of input data generated by IoT devices can assist to closely monitor an industry's various production phases. Edge computing and AI process these data at the end node, while blockchain technology provides a distributed secure data environment for both financial and non-financial applications. Security measures must be built into all manufacturing systems, allowing for failsafe production and cyber threat protection. In this chapter, the authors look at how these technologies can be used in a variety of scenarios to boost productivity in the industry and its environmental elements.