ENERGY MANAGEMENT IN INDUSTRY 4.0 ECOSYSTEM: A REVIEW ON POSSIBILITIES AND CONCERNS.

It became more than evident that the era of Industry 4.0 is upon us, where industrial manufacturing companies are facing strong demand to increase their productivity by realizing smart factories and smart manufacturing. With the advantages of high-tech devices and solutions such as IPCs, industrial automation and machine automation technologies, hardware-software integration and various others, it is now possible to foster the development of Industry 4.0 through three logical steps. The first step considers the implementation of equipment connectivity: devices, machines, production lines and factories are connected to the system, and therefore, data transparency as well as information visualization can be obtained. In addition, the second step involves data collection and integration, as well as valued-added products and services that are introduced for smart manufacturing services. Lastly, the third step of intelligent innovative services is the enabling of intelligent machinery and big data analysis. Given the aforementioned, smart factory can be defined as a factory which harmonically implements Machine Automation, Equipment Monitoring & Optimization, Machine Monitoring & Predictive Maintenance, MES Integration & Production Traceability, Factory Energy Management System and Factory Environment Monitoring - developed with integrated automation and cloud innovation for industry 4.0. Having in mind that the aim of this paper is to review the possibilities and concerns of Energy Management in Industry 4.0 Ecosystem, this topic will be devoted to the greatest attention, while the importance of other equally relevant topics that are simply not the subject of this review should not be diminished or underestimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]