At drupa 2016, there was a great deal of discussion about Industry 4.0 and how it was affecting the print and packaging industries.  In fact, I identified Industry 4.0 as one of six key trends at the show. As described in Wikipedia, Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, is the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and cloud computing. In short, Industry 4.0 creates a smart factory. And drupa clearly demonstrated that it is well underway for print and packaging. Many of the vendors, including formerly hardware-intensive Heidelberg, were talking about the need to go beyond the press for a total solution, and that trend has continued.

Sometimes I think we, as an industry, get a little insular in terms of our perception of the rest of the world.  That’s why it was a pleasure to speak with Antoine Preisig, General Manager EMEA for X-Rite Pantone, who came to the company about a year ago with a diverse background in the dental, IT and consumer electronics industries. He shared insights that will be of interest to forward-thinking printers and packaging converters as they think about the future of their businesses.

While it may seem that Industry 4.0 touches other industries more than ours, I always like to keep in mind that printing and packaging touch just about every industry, and it behooves us to keep up with what executives from other industries are thinking in order to keep our offerings and our messaging relevant.