pdf Industry 4.0 How to navigate digitization of the manufacturing sector Beliebt

Raising the topic of a fourth industrial revolution immediately prompts many questions: What does Industry 4.0 really mean? What does digitization entail for manufacturing? How profound will its impact be on our value pools? What are the near-term business opportunities for my company? Some clients also ask whether the term is simply hype. This myriad of mixed reactions reveals the intense uncertainty associated both with what Industry 4.0 actually is and how companies should respond to the changing industrial environment.

To clarify terms at the outset, McKinsey defines Industry 4.0 as digitization of the manufac- turing sector, with embedded sensors in virtually all product components and manufacturing equipment, ubiquitous cyberphysical systems, and analysis of all relevant data. It is driven by four clusters of disruptive technologies. The first consists of data, computational power, and connectivity – low-power, wide-area networks are one example. Analytics and intelligence form the second, while human-machine interaction is the third, comprising, for instance, touch interfaces and augmented reality. Digital-to-physical conversion is the fourth: advanced robotics and 3D printing are two examples. All of these enablers are at a tipping point today – now is the time for manufacturing companies to decide how to respond to them.

As Industry 4.0 influences mission-critical applications in B2B processes, we expect the transformation to be far-reaching but the pace of change to be slower than in the digital disruption of the consumer Internet. Due to their long investment cycles, companies tend to be conservative in their decision making when it comes to fundamental disruption. However, while the majority of value created in prior industrial revolutions came from upgrading manufacturing assets in individual locations – 80 to 90 percent in the shifts to both steam and automation – capex-intensive upgrades are expected to account for only half of that (40 to 50 percent1) in Industry 4.0. Disruptive technologies that are in many cases not linked to major machinery upgrades will enable productivity gains and new business models, and fundamentally alter the competitive landscape.

McKinsey has conducted significant primary market research to develop a company-level perspective on this next wave of manufacturing, including a survey of 300 participants from three countries (the US, Germany, and Japan), supplemented by in-depth interviews with industry thought leaders and extensive research. The findings reveal that manufacturing companies should act along three dimensions to capture the potential of Industry 4.0: drive the next horizon of operational effectiveness, adapt business models to capture shifting value pools, and build the foundations for digital transformation.