The Beyond the hype: Separating ambition from reality in industry 4.0 report found that while many manufacturers are working towards creating the ‘factory of the future’, few have worked out how to apply capabilities across all of their operations.
In fact, most are still experimenting with discrete pilots or trialling solutions, KPMG said.
Stephen Cooper, head of industrial manufacturing at KPMG UK, explained: “UK manufacturers have shown more enthusiasm than preparedness for industry 4.0, and our latest report reflects that this is a global trend.
“In February, we released our Rethink Manufacturing report, which showed that the majority (56%) of UK manufacturers agree that industry 4.0 represents an unprecedented opportunity to revitalise manufacturing across the country. However, they are far less sure about how it will affect their business and whether they have a coherent strategy and the right talent and skills to capitalise on it.”
The report included several benchmarking exercises. It found that many organisations demonstrated only a low-to-medium level of maturity in key areas such as demand-driven supply chain, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, and digital twinning. They did however, show better maturity in cloud, robotics, Big Data, cybersecurity and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.
Alec McCullie, associate director and UK lead for Industry 4.0 at KPMG, said: “Gaining experience with industry 4.0 technologies is certainly important. But the real value of industry 4.0 comes, not from the component technologies or capabilities, but rather through smarter processes that integrate automation, data, analytics, manufacturing and products in a way that delivers unique competitive advantages and unlocks new business and operating models. And this cannot be accomplished without achieving larger scale, greater integration across functions and a willingness to disrupt the status quo."
