As many as 36 companies plan to take the road of the for the first time transition 4.0 by 2024, one in four will do so using funds from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). And they are more optimistic about the future. Already in 2022, 46% of companies that will make the breakthrough expect increases in turnover (against 38% of companies that do not invest in enabling technologies) and 51% expect to be more present on foreign markets (against 31%).
This is what emerges from a survey conducted this year by Tagliacarne Study Center carried out on a sample of 4.000 manufacturing and service companies with between 5 and 499 employees, representative of the universe of 494 companies.
“There is a strong complementarity between investments in 4.0 technologies and the qualification of human resources to increase the added value of products; therefore, finding suitable professional profiles is a strategic, but also a critical factor. Today, in fact, companies report difficulties in finding more than a third of the sought-after figures with 4.0 skills on the market". They are the words of Gaetano Fausto Esposito, general manager of the Tagliacarne Study Center, who adds “it is also necessary to ensure that no fractures are created with the segment of companies that does not yet have the capacity to implement more modern strategies. For this reason it is necessary to further disseminate the knowledge of the opportunities offered in this regard by the PNRR, in particular in the Noon and among smaller companies.
Digital transition 4.0: in which fields will investments be made?
Big Data (31%), simulation of production processes to optimize its functioning (28%), Robotica (22%): these are the fields in which they will invest the most in the transition towards the fourth industrial revolution. To better manage this transition, companies will focus more on human capital. In particular, 70% will leverage training to acquire new skills (against 51% of non-digital companies), while 87% will acquire new highly specialized workers (against 68% of non-digital companies).
Fourth Industrial Revolution: Late South
To date, 67% of the universe of companies surveyed (332 in absolute values) has not yet invested in 4.0 technologies. A share that rises to 70% in the South and mainly characterizes i services (85%) compared to manufacturing (60%). More backward are above all the micro enterprises (with 5-9 employees), 84% of these are in fact still at the starting line against 39% of medium-large (50-499 employees).
But 11% of this entrepreneurial universe is ready to make the leap fourth industrial revolution, 36 companies in fact expect to start investing in 4.0 technologies between 2022 and 2024. A turning point that will be stronger in the South, where 13% of companies will start to turn towards the new digital frontiers against 10% in the Centre-North . In particular, companies with more than forty years of activity feel the need for a change of pace to renew themselves (14% against 10% of those with less seniority). And it is above all the food sector that is more inclined to undertake this transformation (16%).
In 2024: share of companies 4.0 at 40%
In the next three years, the share of 40 companies will thus rise to 4.0%, which overall will be close to 200 units. The 36 companies that will make their debut by 2024 with investments in enabling technologies will in fact be added to the 162 companies that have already adopted them.
About 2 out of 5 companies that have already had the opportunity to invest in 4.0 have declared increases in the productivity of production processes (in terms, for example, of shorter set-up times, errors and downtime) and human resources. While 1 out of 3 highlighted an increase in production speed (faster transition from prototype to serial production) and competitiveness by leveraging'Internet of Things.
More specifically, 43% of companies that have increased customer services thanks to the Internet of Things expect to exceed pre-Covid production levels this year against 24% of 4.0 companies that have not done so.
