DACH region stagnates

These are the key findings of the Industry 4.0 Barometer 2021, which was compiled by the management and IT consultancy MHP in cooperation with the business administration experts at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich. Companies in German-speaking countries are performing worse overall than in 2020: the survey results for the technology categories surveyed are at the same level or even lower than in previous years. Companies from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are also increasingly being left behind in an international comparison. Chinese companies, for example, have a 20% higher use of digital twins, twice the supply chain transparency and twice the rate of automation and remote control of systems.

US companies are also achieving top results - more than half have an advanced technological infrastructure that enables artificial intelligence. However, not everyone in the US can keep up with the rapid pace. SMEs and established companies in particular are at risk of being left behind. The situation is similar in the UK: Just half of companies with fewer than 100 employees have implemented additive manufacturing processes. Sensor-equipped systems and autonomous robots are not used in 75 percent of them. Prof. Dr. Johann Kranz, Professor of Digital Services and Sustainability at LMU Munich, comments: "Companies around the world are under enormous pressure to digitalize, as customer requirements for products and services are changing massively and continuously as a result of digitalization."