Industry 4.0: USA and China continue to leave Europe behind!

According to the overall assessment of MHP's Industry 4.0 Barometer, the degree of digitalization in industry is increasing worldwide, although no longer as quickly as before. The US and China are further increasing their lead over the DACH region and the UK.

These are two key findings of the Industry 4.0 Barometer, which has been published by management and IT consultancy MHP in conjunction with Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich (LMU). Researchers surveyed 823 people from industrial companies in the US, China, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the UK. The study records the spread and maturity level of Industry 4.0 technologies, makes the status quo comparable between countries, and highlights developmental trends since 2018.

Tobias Hoffmeister, CEO MHP Americas, said: "We've been publishing the Barometer for seven years. It initially mapped the Germany-wide Industry 4.0 benchmark and has been measuring and comparing the level of maturity internationally since 2021. This is particularly clear when it comes to digital twins. While 30% of the companies in the DACH region do not use digital mapping, and do not plan to, this figure is 18% in the US and just 5% in China. Some companies are also behind the curve in other areas, such as automation and data analysis."

An example of the technological status can be seen in driverless transport systems (DTS). In the US, 45% of the industrial companies already use these wholly or partially for intralogistics operations, whereas this figure is 59% percent in China and just 35% in the DACH region.

The situation is similar when it comes to digital twins: 67% of the participating Chinese companies use digital twins in their production facilities, either partially or completely. By contrast, the proportion in the US is 49 %, and in the German-speaking countries about 41%.

Data-driven production
Although considerable progress has been made in almost all areas of Industry 4.0, this year's findings show that data analysis capabilities are improving more slowly in comparison. This year's focus topic of data-driven production addresses this fact, and asks how the companies can make effective use of their data sets along the value chain in order to optimize their production. Internationally, it is clear that the majority of respondents perceive a data-related competitive advantage as a clear benefit.

Although many DACH companies do have data, they are not making adequate use of it to reach data-based decisions or drive forward innovation. Among other things, there is a lack of an integrated data strategy that targets future technologies (AI, digital twins). US and Chinese companies are more advanced here: 91% of US companies treat data as a strategic asset, compared with 78% in China and 64% in the DACH region.

The DACH region refers to the three Central European countries of Germany (D), Austria (A), and Switzerland (CH), respectively.