Digitalization creates new business models in industry

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Industry 4.0 is changing the way many companies do business
Berg: “Every company should examine its business model”
Most pursue their own strategy for Industry 4.0
Networked machines that communicate with each other, robots that carry out repairs, automated maintenance of systems: the next industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, is in full swing in German factories.

It not only changes individual procedures and processes, but also gives rise to completely new business models . A representative survey of 555 industrial companies with 100 or more employees commissioned by the digital association Bitkom has shown that two thirds (65 percent) of all companies that use or plan to use digital applications have noticed a strong influence of these technologies on their business model.

46 percent say that completely new products and services are being developed or planned. 22 percent are changing existing products or plan to do so. One in five companies (20 percent) is even removing existing products and services that are no longer needed from the market as part of Industry 4.0. However, one in three of these companies (32 percent) does not yet see any effect of Industry 4.0 on their business model.

“Whether vehicle construction, mechanical engineering or electronics – Industry 4.0 ensures that traditional business models in all sectors are supplemented, optimized or even completely replaced by new technologies,” says Bitkom President Achim Berg.

"Companies can offer their products in a completely new way. This not only makes them more service-oriented, but above all it allows them to remain internationally competitive. We can see very clearly that the real revolution of Industry 4.0 is not just taking place in production, but in business models. Every company should therefore put its business model to the digital test."

The majority of industrial companies that are changing products or services as part of Industry 4.0 are relying on platform-based business models. 83 percent are developing or further developing digital platforms themselves.

Products can be sold on them or customers can be connected with suppliers. 43 brazil gambling data percent have introduced pay-per-use models: This allows a machine manufacturer, for example, to shift its focus away from purely selling equipment. It can bill for the use of a machine as a service depending on requirements : the more the customer produces with the machine, the higher the profit for the machine manufacturer.

The company can then use the data obtained to offer new services, for example when it comes to predictive maintenance. "Smart products are the basis for new business models," says Berg. At least 14 percent of the companies surveyed, in which new products and services are being developed as part of Industry 4.0, are already using such data-based business models.

Overall, 92 percent of Industry 4.0 users and planners surveyed stated that they were pursuing a strategy regarding Industry 4.0 either for individual areas of their company or for the company as a whole.

The vast majority (94 percent) developed this strategy with their own employees, such as a Chief Digital Officer. 44 percent relied on cooperation with medium-sized or large IT companies, 31 percent called in external consultants, 12 percent relied on the know-how of scientific institutions. 5 percent also cooperated with start-ups.