Economic impact of IT-integrated manufacturing (Industrie 4.0) for selected industries in Germany

Germany has one of the most competitive manufacturing industries in the world and still is a global leader in the manufacturing equipment sector. The share of industry of the national GDP still is at about 26 per cent and thus twice as high as in France or Great Britain. Nevertheless, today's competitive environment for German manufacturing enterprises is affected by rising dynamics. Dealing with increasing product and process complexity, more volatile markets and ever decreasing innovation cycles has become a permanent challenge. High costs for raw materials and resources and the demographic change intensify this situation. The integration of information technology into manufacturing processes is seen as essential for the survival and development of Germany's core industrial industries, such as machining, automotive industry or electrical parts manufacturing. The term ""Industrie 4.0"" describes the intelligent integration of products and processes within the industrial value chain and a chance for the fourth industrial revolution after mechanization, industrialization and automation. Thus, by the use of cyber-physical systems, smart factories, mobile devices and IT technologies such as cloud computing or big data productivity gains and new innovative services are expected. On the basis of the ""Recommendations for implementing the strategic initiative Industrie 4.0"" by the German Forschungsunion and by the use of experts interviews this paper describes the expected impact of a large IT integration over the major steps of an industrial value chain. For six selected industries (Manufacturing Equipment, Automotive, Electrical Engineering, Chemical Industry, Agriculture, Information and Communication Technology) the projected growth in productivity by the use of new technology is forecasted.