Industrie 4.0-Scouts Programme

For companies to stay competitive it is crucial to leverage potentials based on digitization, i.e. Industry 4.0. The respective transformation results not only in the need to apply information and communication technologies, but to question and rethink the ways of developing and producing products, of operating processes from the idea for a product to its market entry and for order fulfilment, but also concerning the business model of the company itself. Especially Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises SME need specific support for this transition as they typically do not have the needed resources with the required diverse expertise and their managers hardly have the time for activities besides running the day-to-day business. To better this situation, the Allianz Industrie 4.0 Baden-Wuerttemberg established the initiative Industrie 4.0-Scouts. These scouts are specifically trained, already experienced consultants that support SMEs in the transition to leverage digitization. In this contribution, the initiative Industrie 4.0-Scouts is introduced and first experiences of the respective scoutings are described.