Study Based Analysis on the Current Digitalization Degree in the Manufacturing Industry in Germany

The fourth industrial revolution and the digital transformation are already major factors in the manufacturing industry and their importance is ever growing. However, the degree of their practical implementation has to be scrutinized. To define a status quo, it is important to analyze the situation and to identify deficits, starting points and unexploited potentials. Still, a detailed understanding of the fourth industrial revolution and the digital transformation is lacking especially in small and medium sized manufacturing companies. In addition, the fourth industrial revolution is associated by most companies only with logistics as well as production and manufacturing areas. The opportunities to integrate additional functional areas of the production process and the vertical value chain into the concept of the fourth industrial revolution are hardly considered. Starting from the point of view that the fourth industrial revolution is defined as a systematic increase in the flexibility of products and processes through automation, extensive networking and decentralized control mechanisms, as well as a data acquisition and integration through information and communication technologies, a study concept is developed. For this purpose, it is not enough to ask only for the present prevalence of technologies of the fourth industrial revolution. It is necessary to analyze the processes within manufacturing companies. A survey concept is developed that initially breaks down the vertical value chain as well as the production process into specific sub-processes. These sub-processes are analyzed regarding their degree of automation and digitalization and networking among themselves. The results of this survey presents concisely the call for action, the state of implementation and realized solutions of the fourth industrial revolution in Germany. Furthermore, impulses and best practices for innovative products and business models can be given. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license