The key to success in today’s financial economy has become the acceptance of the new digitalized technologies. The industry is expanding and revolutionizing to compete for the market in terms of cost as well delivering the product as fast as possible.

Gone are the days when purchasing the products was only possible with a physical store. The digital world made your doorsteps to be easily accessible with any product you want from any corner of the world.

The product and information to be digitalized have become one of the important parts of the development of management. Industry 4.0 comprises IoS, IoT, and Smart factories.

A survey by Bitkom shows the targeted applications by Industry 4.0:-

• Processes improved
• Capacity utilization improved
• Production costs lowered
• Implementation is faster for individual customer requirements
• Window maintenance is planned better
• Personnel costs are lowered
• Work organizations are more flexible
• New customer groups are addressed
• Existing business models are modified or new development is experienced
• The product range is expanded

One of the prominent markets in the EU is Germany.  As per EY, the obstacles identified in Germany in 2018 due to Industry 4.0 are:-

• Investment requirements are too much
• Qualified personnel are few
• Safety concerns
• Lack of standards
• Lack of IT know-how
• Business models are unclear
• Economic benefits are unclear

As per the Bitkom reports, the barriers identified in Industry 4.0 by Germany are:-

• Investment costs are high
• Data protection requirements
• Data security requirements
• Lack of skilled workers
• Topic complexities
• Susceptibility of failure systems
• Lack of legal framework
• Lack of standards
• Lack of workforce acceptance
• Benefits are unclear

A survey by VDE, identifies the threats to Industry 4.0 and IT security in Germany are:-

• Human error
• Infection with malware
• Blackmail, Trojans
• Internet-connected control components
• Online attacks via office/enterprise networks and external hardware
• Intrusion via remote maintenance access
• Attacks on network components
• Compromise of extranet and cloud components
• DoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service)
• Sabotage
• Compromise of smartphones and tablets in the production environment
• Social engineering
• Technical failure and force majeure

The threats, obstacles, or barriers identified in Industry 4.0 can also be seen in the case of other countries. As India is progressing towards Industry 4.0 to make the success of the slogan “Make in India”. It’s better to learn about the basic challenges faced in Industry 4.0 and be ready with the necessary steps required to counteract such issues.

The leading countries identified in the EU and Turkey in the Industry 4.0 are listed as per their ranks published in the Elsevier report are:-

Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Lithuania, Norway, Austria, Ireland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Cyprus, France, Spain, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Estonia, Slovakia, UK, Italy, Poland, Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Latvia, Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania.

A report by impactotic,  the 10 leading countries across the world in Industry 4.0 are:-

Japan, South Korea, Germany, Switzerland, China, Czech Republic, United States, Sweden, Austria, and Ireland.