Industry 4.0 is often used interchangeably with the notion of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is characterized by:

• Greater use of automation versus the Third Industrial Revolution
• The bridging of the physical and digital world through cyber-physical systems, enabled by Industrial IoT
• A shift from a central industrial control system to one where smart product define the production steps
• Closed-loop data models and control systems that provide more granular data and control
• Personalization/customization of products

This paradigm shift in Industry 4.0 is based on the following principles:

• Interoperability
  The communication ability of all the elements of the factory, cyber-physical systems, robots, corporate information systems, smart products and the people, as well as third-part systems
• Decentralization
  The capacity for the design of autonomous sub-processes within the factory with cyber-physical elements with the capacity to make decisions autonomously
• Real-time Analytics
  The ability to collect and analyze large amounts of data (Big Data) that allow the monitoring, control and optimization of processes, facilitating any result and decision derived from the process immediately and at every moment
• Virtualization
  The ability to generate a virtual copy of the fabric by collecting data and the modelling industrial processes (physical), obtaining virtual plant models and simulation models
• Service Orientation
  The ability to transfer the new value generated to the customer in the form of new services or improved services with the exploitation of new disruptive business models
• Modularity and Scalability
  The flexibility and elasticity to adapt to the needs of industry and business at all times, with the ability to scale the technical capacity of the system in accordance with the technical requirements required by the evolution of business demand in each case