QuBe scenario 3/2017 : Economy 4.0 and the electronic industry

Abstract

"The progressive digitalisation of the world of production and work is being debated under the catchword Industry/Business 4.0 and - along with globalisation, demographic change and mobility - is seen as one of the most important and current megatrends for the present time (Helmrich et al. 2015).<br> First attempts at Industry 4.0 solutions are already being successfully applied at many workplaces and in many companies. However large gradients between different sizes of companies and between different branches can be observed (keyword: digital divide). For instance, agribusiness is regarded as one of the branches that has already made the most progress in respect to digital transformation on account of its use of highly complex and digitally-linked agricultural technology. In the automobile industry as well, fully automatic production halls are no longer the exception. Yet these prime examples represent only the tip of the iceberg, as for the majority of the branches of industry the degree of digitalisation and also the availability of digital products is very low. Many surveys have also identified branches and subsections which have either not heard of Industry 4.0 at all or which think that the digitalisation of the world of production and work is purely 'white noise'." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku)

Cite article

Mönnig, A., Wolter, M., Zika, G. & Maier, T. (2017): QuBe-Szenario 3/2017. Wirtschaft 4.0 und die Elektroindustrie. (GWS discussion paper 2017,06), Osnabrück, 26 p.