The impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on commercial activities and e-business

Abstract

The term fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0 first appeared in 2011 and can be succinctly defined as an industry that has the main objective of connecting machines and systems in order to make companies more autonomous, intelligent and interconnected with each other through the use of the internet.

In this article, the origins of the fourth industrial revolution or industry 4.0 are addressed, talking about the main technologies that it brought with it and what they consist of and how it has revolutionised companies, making them more automated, connected and independent. Some of the technologies discussed are: Big Data, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, among others.

A contextualisation of the three previous industrial revolutions is also made in order to understand how each one was useful in its time and what added something different and unique to the previous industrial revolutions. This article also addresses the impact of Industry 4.0 and the challenges to its implementation.

The aim of the study of this topic seeks to understand how Industry 4.0, being so automated, impacted on the manufacturing of products in the company's logistics processes and how this influenced e-business and whether this influence was beneficial in any way.