In its policy paper "Industry 4.0: Research and Development Prospects", the Industry 4.0 Research Advisory Board presents specific recommendations for the future viability of networked value creation in Germany. It highlights key areas of action and priorities for the wire, cable and tube industry in particular, with a view to sustainably strengthening the competitiveness of the location with the help of innovative technologies and processes. This article summarises the most important ideas and prospects from the paper.
Competitiveness in the age of sustainable value creation
Maintaining competitiveness remains the key factor in securing Germany's position as a business location. In order to remain internationally competitive and prevent the migration of value creation from Germany, it is crucial to expand sovereignty in the field of leading-edge technologies. Industry 4.0 provides the building blocks for profound changes in value creation.
Productivity gains in the form of efficiency improvements reduce costs and contribute to economic success, positive overall economic effects and thus to securing jobs. Industry 4.0 makes a significant contribution to this. High productivity must be achieved in profitable, cross-company business models using Industry 4.0 technologies. This is significantly changing both engineering in production and value-added processes and the world of work. The transformation process also requires product and production systems to be designed across domains and in conjunction with one another. Simply digitising work processes is not enough. The aim must be to achieve holistic, optimal modelling of the world of work.
Sustainability aspects are closely linked to the goal of competitiveness. All three forms of sustainability – ecological, economic and social – offer far-reaching potential. For example, the circular economy can achieve higher resource productivity, reduced energy consumption and savings in primary raw materials. Research funding must therefore generate greater interaction between new scientific principles and market innovations based directly on them, thereby motivating pre-competitive innovation investment by industry.
Ecosystems for tomorrow's value creation
Industry 4.0 requires a profound realignment of business models, processes and technologies. This requires the creation of ecosystems that are economically successful, but above all offer companies the flexibility to adapt to dynamically changing targets such as productivity or customer benefit. In order to successfully implement Industry 4.0, economic, technical and regulatory challenges must be overcome. Mechanisms for the automated pricing of highly individualised, service-centric services, cross-company access to data (spaces) and associated financing and insurance aspects, legally compliant process models, data portability and interoperability, as well as vertical and horizontal interoperability are playing an increasingly decisive role in this context.
Radical rethinking in engineering
The engineering of production and value creation systems faces major challenges: in order to remain competitive, it must be possible to react quickly to changes. The future of engineering therefore requires a radical rethink. Development capabilities need to be redesigned to meet the challenges of digital and sustainable transformation. Instead of developing individual systems, the focus is increasingly on designing "networked systems of systems".
Engineering capabilities are the key to cost-effective, flexible and sustainable system, product and production solutions. They can thus contribute to greater sovereignty in the field of digital and physical control technologies. Intensive research is needed to adapt German engineering to the changing challenges of the fourth industrial revolution so that Germany can once again take the lead in the development of technical systems and thus largely escape Chinese and American hegemony.
The future of industrial work
The world of work is undergoing profound changes driven by digitalisation and automation. Traditional industrial work is tending to decline, while digitally-driven knowledge work is on the rise. Digitalisation should not be seen as an end in itself – the goal is to create optimally designed working environments.
Productivity and value creation arise from the interaction of a wide variety of business areas. Future industrial work must therefore be thought of in broad terms. Engineering, commercial processes, machine operation and other disciplines must be considered in an integrated manner. A comprehensive transformation process and the interaction of all areas of work are crucial in order to fully exploit the potential for higher productivity and economic success through Industry 4.0. The criteria for this change must be researched and pursued against the backdrop of a human orientation, a changed, synergistic relationship between people and technology, and dynamic structural and technological development.
Targeted research funding for Industry 4.0 with a focus on practical application
A key potential of Industry 4.0 is to increase productivity and thus secure the competitiveness of German industry. Despite significant progress in many areas, this potential of Industry 4.0 is not yet being fully exploited. Research into Industry 4.0 generates significant economic benefits. Research activities must promote direct transfer into practice. The central role of people, sustainability, resilience, interoperability and technological and strategic sovereignty must be considered together. This is a challenge for companies and research institutions. Research must be geared towards economic, technological and work-oriented goals. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular need more guidance. Confidence in Industry 4.0 solutions must be strengthened so that SMEs and start-ups are more willing to implement them.
Germany's technological and infrastructural renewal in an environment of increasingly fierce international competition requires continuous funding for Industry 4.0 research as well as new formats that, in addition to exploring the possibilities of using new technologies such as AI, also examine the factors that inhibit the use of Industry 4.0 and how these can be overcome.
The discussion paper is based on discussions held in the context of the Industry 4.0 research retreat on 24 and 25 February 2025 organised by the BMFTR (formerly BMBF). Here, the Industry 4.0 Research Advisory Board and other invited guests discussed the future prospects of research funding in the field of networked value creation at the invitation of the BMFTR.
The complete discussion paper is available on the acatech website.
