Industry 4.0 has been the source of much excitement across medical device engineering during the past decade – but the pandemic might have finally been the spark the field needed to really soar. Not that the path ahead is straightforward, with insiders forced to face a number of manufacturing and security challenges. Andrea Valentino speaks to Dr Vladimir Popov at Tel Aviv University to learn about his revolutionary work on 3D printing, how the resulting implants can transform the fortunes of patients and manufacturers alike – and what it all says about the broader difficulties and opportunities of Industry 4.0 in the medical devices field.
eloved of think tankers and Davos graduates the world over, the term Industry 4.0 (I4.0) has been milling around the public consciousness for years. Broadly meaning the ways in which automation and digitalisation could transform global manufacturing over the next century, it was first popularised by the World Economic Forum back
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in 2015. Two years later, it was firmly entrenched in the wonkish imagination and now is practically inescapable even in the mainstream. To give one example, data from Google Trends reveals that the phrase ‘Industry 4.0’ is now nine times as popular as it was seven years ago, with countries as disparate as Malaysia and Zimbabwe curious about the term.