Industry 4.0: from Illusion to Revolution through Digital Transformation

Industry 4.0 was massively disseminated as an expression of the existence of the fourth industrial revolution, although we found no evidence that Industry 4.0 is synonymous with the fourth industrial revolution. Fermi's paradox shows that the lack of evidence does not confirm the non-existence of a phenomenon, and any confirmation is limited to a context. Despite being aware of this weakness, we will present examples of widespread inaccuracies about the fourth industrial revolution hype. Assuming that only the extinction of humanity admits the impossibility of revolutions, we do not advocate rejecting its emergence. Conceptually, we deny the existence of an industrial, or specifically, a manufacturing revolution. The definition of the word industry (or industrial) determines it. The apparent illusion of Industry 4.0 does not invalidate that the concepts inherent to it do not potentiate a revolution in manufacturing systems. As an example, we show how digital transformation has catalytic qualities of a future fourth industrial revolution.