The industrial market is ripe for digitization, and the impetus for aggressive pursuit is present, announced ABI Research, which had several analysts from its industrial research group at the recent Hannover Messe 2018 conference. Their observations have been compiled into the “Digital Transformation & Industry 4.0: Hannover Messe 2018 Report.”
Findings include:
- The industrial market is ripe for digitization, and the impetus for aggressive pursuit is present. Rather than market-based pain being the driving force, dwindling capacity headroom and a fear of losing competitive edge to a rival are forcing manufacturers to actively pursue a different model for driving profitability and growth.
- There is a clear timeline for applications and market segments that look set to form the vanguard of digitization. These are led by car makers and consumer-electronics manufacturers.
- The manufacturing base is faced with several confusing decisions, and the supplier base is adding to the confusion, centered primarily around architecture and approach to digitization.
- Platform proliferation is a problem. However, all platforms are not created equal. Very few are truly end-to-end, and many do not integrate easily with one another. Consequently, manufacturers must continue customizing and optimizing solutions to provide a truly integrated end-to-end solution.
- There is real concern over data ownership, management, and location from the manufacturer community, and still a massive desire to hold sensitive data on-premises and in closed-loop environments.
- The debate between edge and cloud computing is almost religious in its fervor. Successful technology providers will find the way to balance these approaches in the most optimized way for their clients.
Download the complete report here.
