Future trends
Catching up 4.0
The concept of Industry 4.0 connects technology, machines, product solutions and online-based business platforms with each other.
Although leading technology producers are recognizing both the necessity and the potential of Industry 4.0, by 2015 76.5% of German engineering businesses still had not taken any significant systematic steps towards implementing that. Prerequisites for successfully implementing it are affixing it to the corporate strategy, finding ways to ensure funding, and most of all recruiting employees – from areas such as software development, system integration, mechatronics, machine-to-machine or logistics automation – who consider cross-disciplinary solutions.
Source: Lichtblau, Karl; Stich, Volker et al.: Industrie 4.0-Readiness. Aachen, Köln, 2015.