Economy

• Industry 4.0 is changing the manufacturing sector and will have a significant impact on the global economy in the next 5 years.
• Quickly switching over to Industry 4.0 will be a major competitive advantage for an economy over its global competitors.
• Broader adoption of Industrial Internet technologies are expected to drive deeper beneficial changes in industry cost structures.
• Modern information and communication technologies like Cyber-Physical Systems, Big Data or Cloud Computing will help predict the possibility to increase productivity, quality and flexibility within the manufacturing industry and to understand advantages within the competition.

Manufacturing

• Production lines will reconfigure themselves automatically in order to optimise productivity.
• There will be even closer dovetailing between IT/ telecommunications firms and traditional manufacturing companies.
• There will be open production sites ("maker-spaces") and clusters.
• Linking intelligent devices, facilities, fleets and networks with people at work and on the move will offer new possibilities in process optimization, increased productivity, and efficiency.
• Real-time diagnostics and predictive analytics will reduce maintenance costs and prevent machine breakdowns before they occur.
• Each instrumented device will produce large quantities of data that can be transferred via the Industrial Internet network to remote machines and users.
• There will be a shift toward design thinking instead of production thinking.
• By 2020 85% leading manufacturers expect to have implemented Industry 4.0 technology in all important business divisions.
• Virtually no manufacturing company anywhere in the world will be unaffected by Industry 4.0.
• Industry 4.0 will make possible optimised production across multiple factories or even multiple companies.

Competencies

• There will be a growing need for variety of cross-cutting roles that blend traditional engineering disciplines such as mechanical engineering with information and computing competencies to create what might be called "digital-mechanical" engineers.
• Catalysts and supporting conditions will be needed for meshing the physical world of machines with the digital world of data and analytics to reach its full potential.
• New approaches will be needed to ensure that the talent needs of the Industrial Internet do not outpace the educational system.
• Industry 4.0 will create lasting changes in the way humans work.
• Many of aspects of the Industrial Internet may stretch firms beyond their comfort zone and into new partnerships.

Benefits

• The combination of sensor, data analytics, and data sharing between people and machines is expected to reduce airline costs and improve maintenance efficiency.
• Early and rapid adoption of Industrial Internet technologies could act as a powerful multiplier.
• The global health care industry will also benefit from the Industrial Internet, through a reduction in process inefficiencies: a one percent efficiency gain globally could yield more than $63 billion in health care savings.
• New business models could be created if the "long tail" philosophy that was brought up by the Internet can be extrapolated to the Internet of things.
• Hyper-connectivity of the future will take on the added dimension of the industrial Internet.
• Firms will not necessarily have to sustain huge production sites to operate cost-efficiently.
• Each instrumented device will produce large quantities of data that can be transferred via the Industrial Internet network to remote machines and users.
• Quickly switching over to Industry 4.0 will be a major competitive advantage for an economy over its global competitors.
• Smart connected equipment will open up new business models that will redefine industries and companies.

Investment

• The gains from technology integration will require adoption of new equipment along with retrofitting and refurbishing of older machines.
• Industry 4.0 technology will account for more than 50% of planned capital investments for the next five years.
• Repatriation of manufacturing from developing countries to Europe could be a trend in Industry 4.0.
• Industry 4.0 technology will account for more than 50% of planned capital investments for the next five years.
• Investments in Industry 4.0 could be as high as €140 billion per annum.

Learn more
To find the sources and more resources on Shaping Tomorrow about the future of Industry 4.0 some of which were used in this Trend Alert, view 'The next Industrial Revolution', or ask us for a customised, in-depth GIST report on this or any other topic of interest to you. Also, click here to find out how Shaping Tomorrow can help your organization rapidly assess and respond to these and other key issues affecting your business.