Industrial manufacturers must extract more value from digital innovation

THE world has become digitally connected to the point of no return, which means that industrial manufacturers can no longer afford to merely be impressed or engage in dreaming about the promise of industrial innovations. Instead they must act now to leverage Industry 4.0 and the next evolution, Industry X.0, to stay relevant and drive incremental revenue growth.

Industry 4.0 uses cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, data exchange, and cloud computing to create smart, connected products and plants. Industry X.0 takes this to the next level with an open, circular, approach to industrial value creation. It incorporates Industry 4.0's core operational efficiencies, but also draws on combinations of advanced digital technologies to continually create new value in new places: new levels of efficiency, new sources of growth, and new, hyper-personalised customer experiences that satisfy the seismic shift in customer expectations we call "industrial consumerism".

Companies in Asean should not assume that they have the luxury of time before the Industry X.0 wave hits them, but take the initiative in developing the ecosystem, business model and capabilities in order to differentiate themselves from competitors. For example, an integrated logistics provider in Asean is implementing a connected vehicle platform across its fleet of vehicles in order to maximise value in their existing assets and to provide customers value-added services and offerings such as last mile delivery, and time or distance based leases.