Industry 4.0 is a success, but companies don't believe in it enough

98% of Italian companies, especially those in the Centre-North, are aware that an improvement in digital skills is necessary, and 78% have already used or intend to use the incentives of the Industry 4.0 project, launched by the previous government and relaunched , albeit in a more timid way, from the current one. Data that would seem unequivocally positive, those emerging from theanalysis conducted by Boston Consulting Group and Ipsos on 170 Italian companies (of which only 14 in the South), each of which was asked 150 questions on their propensity to invest in technological innovation. But all that glitters is not gold, because for example 11% of companies are not aware of the incentives and 22% said they didn't want to get into this game. And above all, three out of four companies that participate in Industry 4.0 do so with low-complexity activities and consequently with a low impact on their revenues.

“What Italian companies still don't do – explains Fabio Fattori of BSG – and which they should do instead, is to concentrate on the creation of value. We need to start by understanding what is needed, what the market is asking for, and not just thinking about cost reduction". But this predisposition is still missing, as demonstrated by Andrea Alemanno, Senior Client Officer of Ipsos: "In general, 9 out of 10 Italian companies have difficulty implementing the digital revolutionalso understood as the ability to intercept and anticipate market needs. Only 45% of companies invest in the Internet, social networks and e-commerce, and above all only 37% invest in customer relationship management and customer profiling management”. The result is that almost half of the companies, 46%, according to Ipsos, put the lack of digital skills in first place to justify the delay in technological innovation, while in second place with an alarming 39% there is even resistance to change.

"Over half of the companies studied in our studies - continues Alemanno - feel unready or not very ready for the digital revolution, while only 5% say they are very ready". Even when awareness exists, in fact, either one does not invest enough in training, or one does not dare to the end, one does not believe enough in the potential of a tool such as Industry 4.0: according to the Ipsos-BCG research, two companies out of three who use I4.0 (67%) expect complexity from its application, but of these only 26% allocated specific resources to upgrade manager skills or to create one or more teams with the appropriate skills. “In many cases – adds Fattori – they are satisfied with looking for ad hoc skills, only 49% invest in project management. Instead, a road map would be needed, a new structural formation. Companies should be more daring, treasure failures and not expect an immediate return”.

Which by the way, inevitably, does not happen. The lower the risk, the lower the creation of added value, according to an old rule which is no exception in this case: research shows that only one in four companies claims to have already benefited from Industry 4.0 on its revenues. But the figure varies a lot between the companies that have used Industry 4.0 for low-complexity and low-impact projects, which recorded an insignificant +14% of turnover, and those that instead fully believed in the tool: in that case, acting on the entire value production chain, it even had an impact of +60%.

Finally, the digital categories in which the most investments have been made in Italy: in order, they are Big Data and Analytics, Industrial Internet and Cyber ​​Security. With regard to workplace risks, the evaluations of Ipsos and BCG seem oriented towards optimism: "The scenario of a complete or almost complete replacement of the workforce by robots seems averted: machines cannot do without human skills and will be increasingly used to interact with people". But people must be trained and companies must believe in it.