Predictive manufacturing systems in Industry 4.0: Trends, benefits and challenges

The fourth industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0, has tendency to push the boundaries of science and technology. This is especially true for the manufacturing industry. One of the biggest challenges facing the manufacturing industry today is how to make intelligent systems for production with “self-aware”, “self-predict and “self-maintain” abilities. Predictive manufacturing systems (PMS) are new intelligent systems that provide these abilities in the production, processes and machines. The PMS combines different technologies and techniques: statistics, data mining, modelling and artificial intelligence methods. These technologies and techniques are used to convert data into information and make predictions about the observed system. This paper provides an overview of the various challenges, existing solutions and benefits of PMS, with a focus on success factors in Industry 4.0.