Industry 4.0 and manufacturing ecosystems

"INDUSTRIE 4.0 connects embedded system production technologies and smart production processes to pave the way to a new technological age which will radically transform industry and production value chains and business models." Advanced manufacturing--in the form of additive manufacturing, advanced materials, smart, automated machines, and other technologies--is ushering in a new age of physical production.2 At the same time, increased connectivity and ever more sophisticated data-gathering and analytics capabilities enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT) have led to a shift toward an information-based economy. With the IoT, data, in addition to physical objects, are a source of value--and connectivity makes it possible to build smarter supply chains, manufacturing processes, and even end-to-end ecosystems.3 As these waves of change continue to shape the competitive landscape, manufacturers must decide how and where to invest in new technologies, and identify which ones will drive the most benefit for their organizations. In addition to accurately assessing their current strategic positions, successful manufacturers need a clear articulation of their business objectives, identifying where to play in newly emerging technology ecosystems and (as important) what are the technologies, both physical and digital, that they will deploy in pursuit of decisions they make about how to win.4 The charge is perhaps easier to execute in theory than in practice.