Professional Development
Industry 4.0 – Improve your business strategy

The Impact of Industry 4.0 on Business Strategy
The business world has been a discreet witness to a silent revolution that began in 2011 with the advent of automation, robotics, and big data. This gentle breeze has turned into a roaring storm that threatens the future of work itself. Smart production, accurate predictions, autonomous logistics, and almost everything is powered by artificial intelligence. The threat is real.
This also applies to the promise. For those who know.
To start, let’s go back in time to where it all started: 2011. Industry 4.0 was an initiative of the German government to modernize systems, provide smart manufacturing, and integrate it all with robotics and automation, based on a high level of digitalization. The snowball effect started to come into play, and the use of advanced Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIOT) technologies, sensor-based logistics and manufacturing, zero-worker factories, and a whole range of other developments started to become embedded in what we now call Industry 4.0.
According to a McKinsey study, acceptance and optimism about Industry 4.0 are highest among German companies, followed by Japanese. About 90% of survey respondents said their competitiveness will be increased or at least level with their competitors, while 70% of companies – mainly in the US and Japan – see their competitors use the benefits of Industry 4.0 to improve their competitive position, enter their markets, and increase competition. Only six in ten participants consider their organizations ready for Industry 4.0.
What is Industry 4.0?
Industry 4.0 is essentially the maximization of intelligent automation and sustainable practices across a company’s supply chain, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, and lateral operations. Simply put, it is the convergence of Industry 3.0 technologies with significant advances in autonomous computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence to create faster, seamless supply chain management, production management, and logistics with minimal – and in most cases no – human intervention. Computers communicate with each other and with business applications hosted in the cloud to optimize inventory, production, and sometimes even demand forecasting and production planning, paving the way for smarter, faster, and exponentially more efficient “smart manufacturing” processes and business systems.
Skills for the Next Wave
The one aspect that seems to be missing from the Industry 4.0 agenda is the role of human efforts in the process. But the goal of intelligent automation and smart manufacturing is not to eliminate manpower from the industry. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The surefire way to develop skills to beat this phenomenon is to learn to strategize the growth of the core business, projects, and PLM, even 3D printing and robotics, and other similar disciplines to drive business growth and revenue opportunities for maximizing your business. And this is exactly where the role of the business strategist comes into play.
The Guiding Light
As companies shift their focus from manual production and operations processes, the role of driving the transformation and acting as a change agent for Industry 4.0 will fall to business strategists. They will be the frontline advocates and business modelers renewing entire talent pools with new skills, while selectively and gradually ensuring the arrival of Industry 4.0 within their organizations.
What is of utmost importance today is the development of skills of young professionals in welcoming and implementing Industry 4.0 by becoming qualified professionals in the field of business strategy, ready to take their employers into the world with ease and competence next decade and the next generation of smart manufacturing. Employers are also increasingly looking for skilled and certified business strategy professionals for their Industry 4.0 initiatives. So don’t be left behind and earn the most powerful business strategy certifications in the world today to boost your career!
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