Integrated Industry
Industry 4.0 potential showcased at Hannover Messe.
“Industry 4.0 is about nothing less than the global language of production. And this should come from Germany”, says Dietmar Goericke, chairman of the Mechanical Engineering research board at the VDMA, the German Engineering Association. Just how far industry has already progressed on the path towards digitized production can be seen at Hannover Messe, the world’s leading industrial trade fair. A study conducted by corporate and strategic consultant firm PWC and Strategy& reveals the potential that Industry 4.0 can offer German companies. The most important findings are as follows:
40 billion euros per year for Industry 4.0 applications
The industrial companies surveyed by the study stated that they intend to invest on average 3.3 percent of their annual turnover in Industry 4.0 solutions over the coming five years. This is equivalent to almost half of all planned new investment in equipment. By the year 2020, this means that German industry will be investing roughly 40 billion euros each year in digital solutions.
By 2020, 80 percent of companies will have digitized their value chains
Two thirds of those companies surveyed are already working actively to digitize and network their value chains. A quarter of those companies surveyed have already achieved a high degree of value chain digitization. The study shows that eight out of ten companies will have implemented digital solutions in all key areas of their business by 2020.
20 percent efficiency gains thanks to digital solutions by 2020
The companies surveyed are confident that digitizing their value chains will allow them to increase efficiency by 3.3 percent per year on average. This means an 18 percent efficiency gain over the next five years. At the same time, companies expect to reap cost savings of 2.6 percent per year.
30 billion euros of additional turnover per year from Industry 4.0
Increased digitization and networking of their product and service portfolio will allow the surveyed companies to drive up their turnover by an average of 2.5 percent per year. Applied to all industrial companies in Germany, this corresponds to over 30 billion euros worth of additional turnover per year.
For the purposes of the study, 235 German industrial companies were surveyed from the automotive supply sector, mechanical and plant engineering, electrical engineering/electronics, process industry and the information and communications technology industry.
Hannover Messe from 13 to 17 April 2015
