Maintenance Technology August 2017 - 4

EDITORIAL

Study Helps You Evaluate
Your Industry 4.0 Future

Gary L. Parr
Editorial Director

New research from
Frost & Sullivan and
NTT Data Services
reveals just where
manufacturing
enterprises are
on the path to
full Industry 4.0
implementation.

lmost any conversation you have these
days involving manufacturing technology
will either begin or end with discussion
about Industry 4.0 (Manufacturing 4.0,
Internet of Things, Industrial Internet of Things,
cloud computing, smart factories). In my analysis,
so much of the talk is just talk. People realize that
they need to embrace Industry 4.0, in many cases,
because others say so, and in some cases because
they know that it is the future of manufacturing,
that the future is here, and that many are already
getting left behind.
The questions on my mind are where companies
may be on the continuum that moves them to full

implementation of Industry 4.0 technology and
what factors must be addressed? I recently received
answers in the form of a white paper summarizing
research that Frost & Sullivan's Digital Industrial
Group (frost.com) conducted in collaboration with
NTT Data Services, Plano, TX (us.nttdata.com).
The publication, "Manufacturing 4.0: A Playbook
for Navigating the Journey to IT Modernization &
Transformation," outlines six critical issues in today's
manufacturing ecosystems that must be addressed
if an enterprise is going to embrace and benefit
from Industry 4.0. (The white paper refers to it as
Manufacturing 4.0. It would really help if everyone

MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY

would just settle on one name.) Of those six issues,
the research data from four of them paint a rather
strong picture about the current status of Industry
4.0 in manufacturing.
The Factories of the Future issue looks at endto-end digitalization of manufacturing processes,
i.e., IP-enabled factories. The research question was
"How extensively has your company IP-enabled
and networked its plant-floor equipment today and
what do you expect the extent will be in five years'
time? Responses were not a surprise: 32% answered
"Partially" for today and 46% said they are just
getting started. Only 9% answered "Extensively" for
today. The five-years-from-now answer was a mixed
bag: 34% answered "Partially" and 55% answered
"Extensively."
The issue of Transformative Technologies asks
for the most important business factor driving a
company's move toward Manufacturing 4.0. The
leading factor, by a wide margin, was Operational
Efficiency at 32%. The next closest factor, at only
17%, was "Increased competition due to globalization," followed by "Customer expectations" at 16%.
The Next-Generation Manufacturing Leadership
issue is also revealing. The question: What do you
think are the three most significant challenges to
implementing Manufacturing 4.0 in your company?
"Understanding the benefits/challenges" led the way
at 37%, followed by "Corporate culture" at 29% and
"Lack of buy-in from the C-suite" at 26%. Tied at
25% were "Finding skilled people," "Change management," "Developing a Manufacturing 4.0 strategy,"
and "Identifying opportunities and ROI."
That Next-Generation Manufacturing Leadership
issue tells me what I've suspected: Most people are at
the beginner end of the spectrum and need substantial education and help. But there's also a question
of how convinced enterprises are that Industry 4.0
really is the future. In the Changing Workforce
Dynamics issue, 42% say that Manufacturing 4.0 is
"A game changer, truly a new era." But 50% feel that
it's "Significant, but not transformative."
I've only hit the highlights of this research report.
No matter where you are on the path to full Industry
4.0 implementation, this study is compelling. Download it at nala.frost.com/forms/itmodernization. MT

gparr@maintenancetechnology.com
AUGUST 2017

http://www.frost.com http://us.nttdata.com http://nala.frost.com/forms/itmodernization

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maintenance Technology August 2017