Innovation and Industry 4.0

The Germans call it Industrie 4.0. The Americans call it Connected Enterprise, and the British call it the 4th Industrial Revolution. But what is it? And should we want it? The term ‘Industrie 4.0’ was coined in Germany at the Hannover Fair in 2011 as a strategy to mitigate for increasing competition from overseas. As manufacturers from overseas improve their quality, manufacturers in Europe have to find some way to differentiate themselves from the competition.