10 years of Industry 4.0: What still needs to be done

Meanwhile, 62 percent of companies in Germany are using Industry 4.0 applications.

"Industry 4.0 shapes more efficient and sustainable value chains, offers new business models and creates jobs in Germany", says Bitkom Chief Executive Bernhard Rohleder. "Major projects such as Gaia-X and the creation of European data spaces are important foundations of a functioning ecosystem for Industrie 4.0. Germany, as the founder of the Industrie 4.0 project of the future, must play a pioneering role, particularly in the use of industrial data."

Despite the spread of Industry 4.0 solutions on the factory floor, two-thirds of companies (66 percent) currently classify themselves as laggards or as already having fallen behind.

Rohleder demands: "The new German government must accelerate Industry 4.0 and the digital transformation in the coming legislative period. The manufacturing sector is the heart of the German economy and we need to increase the pace there."

The obstacles to the use of Indus-trie 4.0 applications have remained virtually unchanged in recent years. The biggest challenges are a lack of financial resources (77 percent), data protection requirements (61 percent) and IT security (57 percent), and a shortage of skilled workers (55 percent).