Industry 4.0 Barometer

How important is having a CIO in a management position? What role does cyber security play? And how is the status quo of the Industry 4.0 in an international comparison?

The Industry 4.0 Barometer 2021 provides important insights into the level of digitalisation in industrial companies in the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) and also, for the first time, for the other MHP locations China, UK and the USA. This year, particular focus was placed on the topics of digital leadership and supply chain resilience.

While digitalisation has been an integral part of corporate strategy in companies for years, its implementation is still not proceeding with the necessary speed and attention. However, especially in today’s volatile times, digitalisation is more important than ever. Topics such as remote work, procurement and capacity management, as well as production planning and control, clearly reflect the progress companies are making in terms of digitalisation. This uncovered fundamental problems of a diverse and multi-layered nature in doing so.

To provide companies with a well-founded overview, MHP joined forces with the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) to publish what is now the fourth Industry 4.0 Barometer. The results of this benchmark study reveal important insights into the status quo of Industry 4.0 activities at companies in the DACH region. Since this year, the barometer also includes the MHP location countries China, UK and the USA.

Every year, the underlying questionnaire is based on four topic clusters:

• technology,
• IT integration,
• strategy and goals,
• digitalisation drivers and obstacles

In addition, current digitalisation topics are included in the study every year. This year, the following focus topics were examined in more detail:

• digital leadership
• supply chain resilience

Besides the evaluation of the survey results, each Industry 4.0 Barometer contains interviews with experts from industry and research, as well as success stories on the use of Industry 4.0 solutions in practice. This year, in conjunction with the survey, there are also reports from the DACH region, China, the United Kingdom and the USA. In addition to the focus topics, the interview partners are also asked about their personal assessment of the industry’s current state of development regarding the digital transformation, as well as of application examples and digitalisation initiatives within their own organisations. Thus, interviews were conducted with the following academics and representative of industry:

• Albrecht Reimold (Porsche, Germany)
• Jörg Menges and Claudius Illgen (FAW-VW, China)
• Steve O’Connor (Aston Martin Lagonda, UK)
• Jim Davis (SAP, USA)
• Prof. Dr. Johann Kranz (LMU, Germany)
• Prof. Ming Chen, Ph.D. (Tongji University, China)
• Dr. George Westerman (MIT Sloan School of Management, USA)