We keep hearing about the next industrial revolution, but is it really here? While tangible progress on Industry 4.0 initiatives has been made, adoption is not necessarily uniform across industries.
As a leader in connectivity solutions, Molex surveyed companies enabling Industry 4.0 capabilities. Our findings will give manufacturers — of all kinds — a true appreciation of where industry is headed in this revolution.
Molex surveyed 216 qualified participants in various roles working at companies that make robots, devices or controls systems, or complex machines that enable Industry 4.0 for their manufacturing customers.
51% of respondents have a well-defined Industry 4.0 corporate priority with executive sponsorship. The next highest segment (24%) has a loosely defined vision without dedicated resources.
Progress has been made on the ground — 49% of respondents already have had several major Industry 4.0 successes, are almost there, or have achieved their best case scenario.
More than half of those surveyed (58%) said digital transformation investments drove and accelerated Industry 4.0 initiatives. But the response was not uniform among job functions—technical titles were far more likely to believe this compared to their business counterparts (67% and 37% respectively).
Virtually all respondents face impediments to implementing Industry 4.0 initiatives. These include cultural (96%), business model (98%), and technology (99%) challenges.
Their customers have issues too, with cultural ones typically considered the most difficult to overcome (44%).
The industrial supply chain — from robot manufacturers to complex machine builders to systems integrators and line builders — deliver the infrastructure that makes Industry 4.0 possible. 100% of survey respondents said they would benefit from additional industry 4.0 capabilities, with 40% identifying versatile connectivity solutions as one of them.
Molex enables this supply chain to provide solutions that realize the business outcomes just within reach for many companies. If you are looking for an open, scalable and connected platform to tap into the full power of Industry 4.0 technologies, Molex can help.
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