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10 SMT Magazine • July 2016 As the world is pivoting away from the third industrial revolution, what will we face in terms of running business, producing products, offer- ing services, and living our lives? The last industrial resolution was driven by striking advances in electronics and infor- mation technology having achieved enormous economic prosperity and manufacturing auto- mation. So what is the fourth industrial resolu- tion and what does it encompass? Is it gravita- tional pull? The First to Third Industrial Revolutions The first industrial revolution in the late 18 th century used steam engines, which flourished the textile industry and other mechanization systems; the second industrial revolution in the final third of the 19 th and beginning of the 20 th centuries introduced electrically-powered mass production, creating steel industry, and tele- graph and railroad systems. The invention of transistors in 1947 led the dawn of the digital age and information technology, thus the third industrial revolution has offered phenomenal applications of computers and electronic gad- gets since the 1970s. The third industrial revolution propelled the global economic development and the manufacturing advancement by utilizing in- formation and automation technology, making the beginning and the continued progress of the vibrant and fast-paced digital era. As most of us have lived through (and are living in) this era, smart electronics has been proliferating and relentlessly moving toward a higher level of wearability, connectivity and mobility [1] . by Dr. Jennie S. Hwang H-TECHNOLOGIES GROUP The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0): Intelligent Manufacturing SMT PROSPECTS & PERSPECTIVES