To take advantage of the potential of Industry 4.0, there is nothing better than the lesson of the pandemic: to draw up holistic and proactive strategies based on the orderly and systematic management of data.
If the first Industrial Revolution had to do with the steam engine and the Second with electricity, the Third and Fourth mark the course towards electronics, computing and later the era of data, digitalization and interconnection.
But this new stage that we are going through today, It is not reached by everyone equally. According to data from the World Economic Forum, the Second Industrial Revolution has yet to be experienced by 17% of the world's population (about 1.3 billion people), as they lack access to electricity. While 50% of the world's population (almost 4 billion) must still experience the Third Industrial Revolution, since they do not have access to the internet.
The question is: What happens in companies? Are they really fully prepared to take advantage of the potential of the Fourth Industrial Revolution? The digitalization forced by the pandemic seems to have paved the way, but not completely.
What makes the Fourth Industrial Revolution different? It is not about responding with a spastic digitalization process towards a demand - in this case the change in behavior arising from COVID-19 - but draw up a strategy where the company is capable of making decisions from a more holistic approach, based on the volume of information, Big Data and an appropriately ordered, processed and administered data management and intelligence policy.
The data speak for themselves and indicate that in Spain only one 6 % of companies have used Data Intelligence and Big Data tools during 2020. On the other hand, others studies They report that 78% of the companies that allocate the necessary resources to carry out the digital transformation have been successful in this process. Spanish organizations are still far from having a consistent data strategy: 54% of companies that classify their digital transformation as successful have a data technology plan, while only 13% of companies that declare they are not satisfied with their digital transformation process have a data strategy and 42% do not have a plan develop it.
The statistician and university professor Edwards Deming said that: “It is not necessary to change. “Survival is not mandatory”, but the pandemic has taught us that the BIG question for all companies, without exception, is no longer “Am I going to experience any disruption?”, but rather “When will the disruption come, what form will it take, and how will it affect me and my organization? With capitalized learning, the lesson is not to wait until another black swan can take companies to a disadvantage.
The transformation process to reach the standards of the 4.0 Revolution They require a change in business strategy to effectively get the most out of it. If its use is limited to making certain processes more efficient, much deeper and more innovative transformation opportunities are lost. A comprehensive 4.0 company strategy generates opportunities for new products and services, better customer service and completely renewed business models.
Innovate after a fire It is not a strategic approach. It is a very real example of companies and how they think and design innovation cycles, but the leap must be towards another model that is capable of anticipating and seeing the possibilities of technology from a comprehensive and proactive approach.
