An interesting Industry 4.0 update across the RCR news desk this morning says enterprises in China and the US are pushing harder with their digital change initiatives, and extending their lead over manufacturing outfits in the DACH region, the original home of Industrie 4.0, as well as over industrial companies in the UK. The findings are from a new Industry 4.0 barometer report by Germany-based industrial IT consultancy MHP. Alarmingly, perhaps, given the industrial rush to limber-up to enable new AI operations, the whole Industry 4,0 market has slowed down, it finds.
The report, available here, was carried out by MHP, owned by automotive manufacturer Porsche (owned by Volkswagen), and research university LMU Munich, and polled 823 industrial enterprises, about evenly split across China (205), the US (201), the German-speaking DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland; 216), and the UK (201). The survey, its seventh annual barometer-check, covered four Industry 4.0 ‘topic clusters’: technology, IT integration, strategy and goals, and obstacles and drivers; it also considered ‘data-driven production’ more seriously for the first time. The poll was attended by Interviews with respondents.
The MHP headline from the 2024/5 version reads: the DACH region risks falling behind. Overall, it finds the degree of digitization in industry is increasing worldwide, but less quickly than before. Globally, it notes “difficult market conditions”, and the consequences generally for industrial companies of not making-hay while the sun shined during a brighter economic climate over the previous decade. MHP added: “And in German-speaking countries in particular, a shortage of skilled workers and legacy systems are hindering the expansion of data-driven production.”
Somehow, by equalising the survey parameters, the barometer report finds the global Industry 4.0 market (in these regions) in 2025 has a ‘status-quo’ value of 64 percent. This is up from 60 percent in 2024 – which is a jump in terms of Industry 4.0 progress, but not as big a jump as between 2023 and 2024, when the value rating went from 50 to 60 percent. “Technological developments are advancing more slowly at the international level than before,” said MHP. Regional schisms are mostly clearly seen in digital-twin usage between manufacturing companies.
Thirty percent of companies in the DACH region use no kinds of digital mapping at all, apparently; in China, say, the figure is just five percent. Otherwise, two thirds (67 percent) of the Chinese companies polled in the report use digital twins in their production facilities “either partially or wholly”, compared two two in five (41 percent) in the DACH region. DACH companies are behind for automation and data analysis, as well as “general data strategy and data quality in particular”. MHP calls it a regional failing (“a clear competitive disadvantage”).
It said: “Above all, a holistic data strategy that targets future technologies like AI and digital twins is lacking. This is an area in which US and Chinese companies are more advanced… Companies that fail to catch up run the risk of being left behind.” The DACH region has a skills crisis, too (or a confidence-in-skills crisis): some 78 percent of US respondents rate their skills as “superior to the competition”, compared to 61 percent in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They struggle with outdated systems, as well.
MHP said: “Companies in the DACH region and the UK continue to struggle with structural obstacles. Outdated IT infrastructure, a shortage of skilled workers, and, in many cases, inadequate prioritization by management are the biggest challenges. This is particularly evident in the automotive sector and in smaller companies.”
China comes top on most practical Industry 4.0 counts. Three out of five (59 percent) respondents in China have deployed driverless transport systems (DTS) for intralogistics “either in whole or in part” across their plants. The average usage rate across all countries in the survey is 50 percent, and just 35 percent among DACH-region respondents. Interestingly, in terms of board-room strategy and buy-in, US firms come top for an almost-total belief (91 percent) in “data as a strategic asset” – compared to 78 percent in China and 64 percent in the DACH region.
Overall, most industrial firms reckon insights about core processes offer a “key source of added value” (80 percent), support “faster and more reliable” decisions (76 percent), and bring “increased responsiveness” (74 percent).
Johann Kranz, professor of business information systems at LMU Munich, commented: “Many DACH companies are yet to have arrived in the digital world in terms of their technology, personnel or organization. Key tasks such as dissolving data silos, replacing legacy systems, and setting up a scalable data infrastructure are being put on the back burner instead of being addressed decisively. Regrettably, the good economic conditions in the previous decade were not harnessed for long-term investments in more efficient production processes. In the current situation, everything that isn’t considered essential for companies’ survival seems to be being cut.”
