Key finding 8: For most companies, a digital shopfloor represents the biggest opportunity

45% of the companies believe that having a digital shop floor is the biggest opportunity of digitalisation. However, more than 60% says that finding the necessary digital talent remains their main challenge for the successful digitalisation of business processes. Investing in workforce development will be key for our industry to gain a competitive edge, applying  true human centricity in manufacturing.

The digital transformation will lead to the pervasive use of data through AI & digital twins, which in turn will lead to Actionable Insights that allow faster feedback and decision-making processes. More and more collaborative robots and digital technologies are finding their way to the shop floor and will support human operators in their daily activities.

For almost 45% of the companies, setting up a digital shop floor remains the number one opportunity when it comes to digitalisation. Secondly, almost 20% sees a lot of potential in digitalisation for implementing new ways of product development. Offering digital products or creating digital business models are not the biggest driver of digitalisation. These results are following the trend of 2019.

Also in line with the trends of 2019, finding digital talent remains by far the no. 1 challenge for a successful digital transformation. More than 60% of the companies say that it is still the biggest challenge impeding the digitalisation of business processes.

Besides attracting digital talent, stimulating a digital culture and implementing digital standards complete the top 3 of challenges. Here, we see no shift compared to 2019. Although, the bigger the company size, the harder it seems to cultivate a digital culture and implement digital standards. Small companies are struggling the most with reskilling and/or upskilling their workforce.