Industry 4.0—Economic Benefits and Challenges, Especially for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Industry 4.0 represents the fourth step of the industrial revolution, fully digitalizing the industrial value chain with the Cyber-Physical System, the Internet of Things, and other means. With Industry 4.0, a largely self-organized production can be organized. This will require changes in industrial workers and in management skills as well as huge investments in technology. Different studies, e.g. by the Boston Consulting Group or the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), estimate economic boosts in Germany of about 150 billion Euro in its GDP by 2020, through the use of Industry 4.0. SMEs are rating the lack of available resources, sufficient qualifications, clear transparency of benefits or the handling of systems as bigger challenges for the implementation of Industry 4.0 compared to large-sized companies. On the other hand, SMEs see slightly higher potentials in the implementation of Industry 4.0 than large-sized companies.