How China, Japan apply Industrie 4.0 to turn the industrial tide

Factories of the future are about to create some 10 million more jobs, 7 million of them in services and IT industrial enterprises, but countries—particularly China and Japan—need to gear up for the changes that Industrie 4.0 brings, according to a new report.

Industrie 4.0, a concept that originated in Germany, is a paradigm shift in companies' manufacturing strategies. In a study, analysts at Roland Berger posit that manufacturing has already switched from a mindset of mass production to one of mass customisation.

"No longer is it based on scale and volume effects but on flexible and localised production situated close to centres of demand. It manufactures 'on demand' and no longer creates inventory, instead dynamically adapting itself to demand. It is more predictive and auto-corrective and it involves less trial and error," the study stated.

But the industrial sector's transition to Industrie 4.0 is much more than a question of technology.

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