IoT is one of the driving forces behind the Industry 4.0 movement, as it will enable enhanced automation, data collection, and analytics, in addition to optimizing workflows and processes. With the intelligence enabled by IoT, devices can be programmed to work in unison to produce outputs on an assembly line.
Industry 4.0 manufacturing is all about the increasing connectivity of smaller and smaller components. It uses the data collected by physical things, either built products out in the real world, or components within a machine on the production line, to impact how these things themselves are manufactured. The more information that can be gathered by these objects, the more effective the manufacturing process can become.