China accounts for 5 of the 16 Industry 4.0 “lighthouse” manufacturing sites that the World Economic Forum (in collaboration with McKinsey) has identified as world leaders in successfully implementing Industry 4.0 at scale. And 2 of these 5 are local companies that are on par with 3 European manufacturers operating in China. The WEF report will be the main topic of conversation at two sessions at the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos, January 22-25.
The manufacturing sector’s importance in China makes the potential productivity boost from Industry 4.0 technologies truly extraordinary for Chinese manufacturers at every stage of adoption. Apart from the lighthouses that are already among the most advanced in the world, others that are at an earlier stage (especially small and medium enterprises) could, by adopting best practices from lighthouses, break through the constraints that have kept too many Industry 4.0 initiatives bottled up at the pilot phase.
Links to the reports:
An earlier version of this post appeared on Karel Eloot’s LinkedIn profile.