Fourth Industrial Revolution

Prepared For

Ms. Muneeba Rehman

Prepared By

Ali Afrasiab (FA17-BCS-018)

Mahnoor Saleem (FA17-BCS-035)

Maria Kousar (FA17-BCS-037)

Maryam Nadeem (FA17-BCS-038)

M. Aqil Sajjad (FA17-BCS-045)

May 18, 2018

Table of Contents

1
LIST OF TABLES………………………………………………………………….

LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………..

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………….

SECTION I

INTRODUCTION TO STUDY………………………………………………….

Introduction……………………………………………………….5

Executive Summary……………………………………………...5

Background………………………………………………………. 6

Statement of the Problem…………………………………………6

Significance of the Study…………………………………………6

Methods of the Study……………………………………………….7

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 Source of Data…………………………………………….7

Sample Selection………………………………………….7

Statistical Methods……………………………………….8

Review of related literature……………………………………8

Scope…………………………………………………………..10

Limitation………………………………………………………10

Organization……………………………………………………11

SECTION II

Page

Findings…………………………………………………………11

Discussion……………………………………………………….13

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Conclusion…………………………………………………14

Recommendations…………………………………………..14

References………………………………………………..15

Appendix A……………………………………………...16

Fourth Industrial Revolution

Introduction to the study

Introduction

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The term fourth industrial revolution was first introduced in the year 2016 when it was used by

the World Economic Forum. Since the preliminary revolution that occured in the mid of 18th

century, the fourth industrial revolution was a major step forward to the future.

It is based on Cyber-physical systems that gave way for self-driving cars, robots based on

artificial intelligence, three-dimensional printing and materials that are lighter and stronger than

steel. Professor Klaus Schwab has classified it as the ‘Second Machine Age’ since it covers

digitization and artificial intelligence on a large scale. It has changed the way how things are

produced and managed in industries.

In addition, every aspect of life is being affected by the fourth industrial revolution and shaping

the future business in a unique and new way that has astonished everyone.

Executive Summary

This report is about the impact of The Fourth Industrial Revolution on industries of all over the

world , from fully developed to still developing countries. The Fourth Industrial Revolution

brought a new age advancement in the industrial section on a large scale and its impact should be

studied in order to take appropriate measures to maximize its benefits and minimize its

disadvantages. Due to the revolution smart machines replaced humans in the industry on a larger

scale than ever before. The productivity and profit increased while the number of employees

decreased and their many people became jobless. Industry became more efficient as production

time reduced ten folds by the coming of smart machines. Despite all its advantages , the

employment rate and opportunities are decreasing day by day as more and more companies are

replacing man by machine. This report should be used in making sufficient changes to industry

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to adapt the revolution while keeping the employment rate stable and give out more job

opportunities so that the whole country can enjoy harmony through stable economical premises.

Background

With the First Industrial Revolution that used water and steam power to generate different

products, the Second progressed further and used electric power to create mass production.

Similarly, the Third used further development by electronics and information technology to

robotize production and later a new revolution was needed as a defining factor in the fusion of

technological advancements that are muddling the boundaries of all spheres of life between

physical, biological, and digital spheres which was called as The Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Statement of the Problem

The primary aim of this survey was to study whether the revolution really affected the masses or

not and how has it affected the third world countries?

Significance

This study will benefit the underdeveloped countries which are already being witnessed in the

form of weak job growth, weak economy and less production as compared to the developed

countries. In the utmost scenarios, these countries could result in population explosion and slow

growth and in the spam of next three decades the new generation will suffer the consequences of

lack of resources.

The study may help the underdeveloped and developing countries to take appropriate measures

in order to attain stability, efficiency and produce more business opportunities for a prosperous

future.

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 Methods of study

Source of Data

The data for this report was collected through a survey conducted by a group of students from

Comsats University Islamabad. A questionnaire was prepared for this survey which was divided

into two sections one for the workers and the second for the managers. Part one consisted on a

set of general questions to be filled out by the workers. The questionnaire will be included in the

Appendix section.

The second part was for managerial personnel in order to know how the managers earn their

profit, whether they are satisfied with the workers and machines and how they manage resources,

before and after the development.

Sample Selection

The assenters included in this survey were the workers working in that industry as well as the

company’s director, manager and accountant in R.K Steel Mills, Islamabad. To guarantee

esotericism, we provided them with a questionnaire, regarding to their job. A simple and

straightforward examining way was selected to collect different information regarding the

workers and manager. Every individual of the group had their own questions for the employees.

Statistical Methods

Straightforward factual techniques were used to record the results of this investigation. The

primary data were analyzed using a percent of response. To find out the level of respondents , the

number of reactions to every decision was divided by the total number of respondents who

addressed the inquiry. The first section was for the workers, regarding their sufficient facilities,

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working hours, environment inside the factory, holidays, salary and about their experience with

or without machines were reported. The next section was about the machines maintenance and

management. The duration of their working and when they repaired? The third section of our

report contained the overview of the production of the industry, before and after the fourth

industrial revolution. It has a comparison of production with machines and without

machines(manually). And the last section was about the time consumption. How machines saved

the time and lessened the human effort?

Review of Related Literature

Professor Klaus Schwab is the Originator and Executive Chairman of the World Economic

Forum as well as the writer of the “World Economic Forum”. According to Klaus, the modern

world is highly evolving technological advancements, the penetration of scope and the

tremendous impact of modern technologies. Schwab says that we have entered a new and

conceptually different span of life. This age might lead us to a fictional stage where we are more

dependant on the machine or most probably, a "new cultural renaissance" - provided society and

the economy adapts.

“It took the world more than a decade to develop a collective response to climate change. If we

take the same amount of time to respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we will have lost

the opportunity to influence the development of the technologies that shape the way we work,

live and act. If we act now, we have the opportunity to ensure that technologies – such as

artificial intelligence – sustainably and meaningfully improve the lives and prospects of as many

people as possible,” said Schwab.

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Zvika Krieger is the Head of Technology Policy and Partnerships at the World Economic Forum

and is a part of the leadership team of the Forum’s Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in

San Francisco. The main hurdle is that we actually want innovation in the Fourth Industrial

Revolution to be authorizing, and not deterministic. We don't want technology to take away

people's sovereignty; but we want it to give people more choice and more independence. As the

technological change stimulates and moves a step ahead, we need to be sure that employees are

keeping up with the right abilities to flourish in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. That applies to

both technical and delicate aptitudes. In addition there will be changes in both regions.

Tom Capalbo is a leader in talent acquisition at our strategic recruiting center in Chicago that

places top engineering talent for the autonomous vehicle industry. He answered about what it’s

like on the ground in his corner of the revolution as:

“It’s a good example of how these innovations are changing the types and number of jobs

required. More automation means less on the line for the humans at work directly operating the

machine. But in this category, it also creates a big demand for new jobs — the people who

design and engineer these emerging technologies and the people whose job it will be to oversee

and manage the technology on the ground. This fundamentally changes the kinds of engineers

we need to fill these new jobs. We need subject matter experts in autonomous vehicle design and

this is such a new field these people are hard to find. The top ones are commanding much higher

salaries if they have experience.”

Scope

This report describes a clear picture of industries without the advent of machines and with

machines. It does not include all the history before the revolution, like the details of first, second

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and third revolution. But, has a detail description after the fourth industrial revolution. This study

is restricted only to the industries of Pakistan, that this revolution has not much affected the

Pakistani industries. Pakistani industries are still lacking behind of numerous enterprises of the

world, because of the backwardness in the field of industry, which also affected its economy.

Limitations

This study is restricted through the use of a questionnaire as a information gathering instrument. Thus in

order to keep the questionnaire as concise as possible we may not be able to include the environmental

changes that were caused by the fourth industrial revolution. The increase in use of natural resources for

the construction and fuel of machines and the depletion of these resources was also left out. Moreover, the

study was unable to cover all areas affected by the fourth industrial revolution, like joblessness and

dependence on machines. Finally, the use of simple statistical techniques may introduce an element of

subjectivity into the interpretation and analysis of the data. All attempts have been made to limit the

impacts of these constraints on the study.

Organization

In the next sections of the report, the findings from the survey of the industry will be presented

along with facts and figures. Moreover, the effects of The Fourth Industrial Revolution on the

industrial sites as well as other fields with their production will be discussed.

In addition, the favorable circumstances and weaknesses of the fourth industrial revolution will

be explained and the conclusive statements will be given on how The Fourth Industrial

Revolution changed people’s lives. Was it for the better or for the worse? Finally, based on the

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findings and conclusions some recommendations will be made on how we can help to improve

the system.

Findings

The findings will be presented in three sections according to the following characteristics:

Demographic Profile, eligibility criteria of the workers and the development in productivity.

Demographic Profile

The questionnaire provided to the workers in the survey consisted of a portion in which the

respondents were asked to indicate their age group. All age ranges are in the results, as shown in

figure 1. The breakdown consisted of no employees under the age of 20, 16.8% between 20 and

29, 42.6% between the ages of 30 and 39, 30.2% between 40 and 49, 10.4% between 50 and 59,

Age Group
Green – 20-29 16.8%
Yellow – 30-39 42.6%
Red – 40-49 30.2%
Blue – 50-59 10.4%

and 65 was the retirement age.

Eligibility Criteria

In addition to the Demographic status, eligibility criteria of the workers was also considered as

an important part in the questionnaire. About 83.2% of the workers were uneducated while the

remaining 16.2% of the educated workers were those who knew the basic know how of the

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machines. Only one out of the two managers was well-educated while the other was just FA

pass.

There was a single accountant who was well-educated.

Productivity

With the advancement of science and technology and with development of machines after the

fourth industrial revolution, A lot of progress has been made in the industrial sites all over the

world and especially the Western countries. US has productively progressed over the past few

years as compared to our country.

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 Discussion

First of all the effects of 4IR on the employees was analysed. According the survey conducted,

we found that the machines polluted the environment with their waste in form of liquid

chemicals and gases. The facilities provided by them outgrows the fact that environment for the

workers is polluted by same machines that make their bread and butter. The working hours

reduced for the workers since the man power is reduced ten folds. The average age group

between which the workers fall is 25-35.

There is no age limit for workers and their retirement criteria depends on their need and benefit

for the company. The machines replaced humans on a visible scale. A single machine can

replace as many as 10 people. The Fourth Industrial Revolution brought new age of advancement

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for the industry. The productivity and profit of the companies increased drastically after the 4IR.

The machines were faster , more reliable and consistent in their quality of work. But with the

coming of machines , the number of employees needed for the working of a industry is reduced

drastically. The number of employees decreased while the production increased and time

consumed to reach production goals decreased. I a company produced 500 items a day than after

installing it can increased upto 5000 items a day or 500 items an hour.

Conclusion

On the basis of the findings, several conclusions can be drawn on The Fourth Industrial

Revolution. It has brought changes in many Western countries like US, while most of the third

world countries have not progressed much.

Production and time saving are demonstrated as two regions most profited by The Fourth

Industrial Revolution. Production of industries has been increased and a lot of time has been

saved now, with the invention of machines. However this change is only limited to the third

world countries.

Recommendations

In view of the findings and conclusions of this study, some recommendations have been made in

order to improve the infrastructure of the industries in the third world countries. Generally we

will recommend these measures to improve the infrastructure, productivity and growth of our

own country i.e. Pakistan.

1. Need for strong and systematic marketing effort.

2. Need for introduction of right modern technologies that would make our export products

both value added and competitive in foreign industries.

3. Educated employees should be preferred by the managers for the better production.

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 4. The employers as well as the employees should be trained well enough in order to know

how to save their time and money in order to progress.

5. The managers should know how to manage their income and taxes and save their money

in order to afford new machinery for betterment in productivity.

6. Additional research should be done. We should keep in view both positive and negative

impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and also observe the needs of the employees

as well.

References

● Professor Klaus Schwab. “The Fourth Industrial Revolution”, World Economic Forum,

Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 2016.

● https://www.weforum.org/about/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-by-klaus-schwab

● https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-

how-to-respond/

● Nicklas Garemo, Martin Hjerpe, and Jan Mischke. “Improving productivity”, The

Infrastructure Conundrum, July 2015.

● https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/capital-projects-and-infrastructure/our-insights/the-

infrastructure-conundrum-improving-productivity

Appendix A

Questionnaire

Fourth Industrial Revolution

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Students of Comsats University are conducting this survey to study the evolution caused by the

Fourth Industrial Revolution. In addition, this survey also covers the workers criteria and the

productivity change.

1. Please select a response (yes or no)

For the Workers YES NO

Are you provided with sufficient facilities?

Are you satisfied with the working hours?

Is the environment inside the factory suitable?

Are you provided with holidays when required?

Are your resources fulfilled?

Are you satisfied with your income?

Is the machine management and maintenance manageable?

Is job experience required?

Do you enjoy working with machines?

Did you enjoy before the advent of machines?

Are you classified as a full-time employee by your employer?

6. Please check your age group.

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__Less than 20 __40 to 49 __20 to 29 __50 to 59 __30 to

39 __60 or over

For the managers

1. What is the workers criteria? (Educated or Non-Educated

2. What is the age limit of workers and the difference between old workers vs. new

ones?

3. How often do the machines require cleaning?

4. How was the production before automation and after automation?

5. What were the expenses before and after the introduction of machines?

6. How has the profit changed?

7. How has the time consumed from past till now?

8. Which of the following factors has the fourth industrial revolution effected?

__ Increased Productivity

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__ Decreased Productivity

__ Increased Profit

__ Decreased Productivity

__ Increased Employees

__ Decreased Employees

__ More Time Consumption

__ Less Time Consumption

__ Employee Assistance

__ Difficult Management

__ Easy Management

Notes

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