Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0

Digital technologies are transforming industrial production processes from design and engineering to manufacturing. BCG helps harness the full potential of Industry 4.0: greater flexibility in processes, increased productivity and revenue, and higher-quality production.


Our Perspective on Industry 4.0

BCG’s Industry 4.0 consulting embraces a holistic approach: we work across all production sites to ensure that everything from technology infrastructure to governance and competencies are integrated and aligned. Our focus is helping our clients build “factories of the future”—fully digital plants that deploy Industry 4.0 technologies and digital supply chain to achieve results that are sustainable, consistent, and scalable.


What Is Industry 4.0?

“Industry 4.0” refers to the fourth industrial revolution, which affects every manufacturing domain and comprises advanced manufacturing technologies that capture, optimize, and deploy data.

Put simply, Industry 4.0 makes factories “smart.” Such technologies as the industrial Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and cyber-physical systems interact seamlessly, communicating and adjusting continuously. Businesses that fully understand and capture the value of these advantages will be best positioned to take on the challenges that lie ahead.

The Nine Technologies Driving Industry 4.0


Our Industry 4.0 Offerings

BCG’s Industry 4.0 consulting services take a holistic, sustainable, and scalable approach. We deliver by deploying proprietary tools and methodologies developed in our Innovation Center for Operations infrastructure. These offerings cover every manufacturing domain and comprise advanced manufacturing technologies that are empowered through data progression, storage, and optimization.

We help clients address the full range of issues associated with factories of the future:

  • Greenfield. We simulate a flexible-cell manufacturing setup and, using real production data, compare the simulation with other potential configurations.
  • Brownfield. We simulate a layout adjustment to identify potential areas to improve production processes or workflow.
  • Green. We develop an all-electric logistics concept that reduces a factory’s carbon footprint to meet the Paris agreement. To achieve the Green Factory of the Future, we work address carbon in three ways: avoid, reuse/store, and compensate.

Several of BCG’s proven proprietary tools and methodologies focus on this fourth industrial revolution.

MOBILE LABS

BCG can also bring the technologies to you—experience the industrial revolution 4.0 anywhere in the world with interactive workshops, thanks to our mobile labs.

  • Our Truck Line lab helps you experiment with implementing Industry 4.0 in discrete manufacturing, focusing on warehouse logistics and assembly efficiency.
  • Our Process Line lab simulates candy production, enabling you to visualize the benefits of quality control, material use, and maintenance in process industries. Both provide insight into more than 20 technology use cases, combine Industry 4.0 technologies and lean principles, and offer immersive training.

PROPRIETARY RESOURCES

As a BCG client, you gain access to a variety of our proprietary data collections:

  • Our Industry 4.0 Health Check, which assesses a plant’s digital maturity.
  • Benchmarks of key metrics in manufacturing and supply chains across major industries.
  • Our case study database, which contains reports of how Industry 4.0 technologies have been successfully implemented.
  • Our technology-vendor database, which details suppliers by industry to help you select the right one.

Meet Our Industry 4.0 Consulting Leaders


Unlocking Value Through Industry 4.0

By partnering with BCG, our clients achieve concrete and quantifiable gains. In an Industry 4.0 consulting engagement with us, these benefits can include:

  • Greater Efficiency. Gain 10% to 15% efficiency in the short term and 20% to 40% in the long term.
  • Greater Flexibility. Boost your changeover reduction by 20% to 60%.
  • Lower Cost. Cut the cost of raw materials by 2% to 5%.

BCG’s Featured Client Work in Industry 4.0

Bayer's Journey to Operational Excellence

The company identified data-driven solutions that not only boost efficiency but can be converted into systemic change and scaled throughout the global business.

Manufacturing Analytics in Automotive

A global car seat manufacturer was able to reduce the amount of defective parts found in factories by 25% after BCG analyzed over 200 gigabytes of data using advanced analytic tools.



BCG’s Latest Insights on Industry 4.0

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BCG-WEF Project: Unlocking Value in Manufacturing Through Data

By leveraging data and advanced analytics, companies can provide better products and services, optimize their value chains, and maximize return on capital. Effective data-sharing applications are essential to define key success factors and to enable manufacturers to derive value from their data.

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