Inside Supply Management Magazine

Investment in Industry 4.0 Expected to Grow

January 21, 2020

With the growing digital revolution occurring in the industrial and manufacturing sector, investment in technologies like the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), artificial intelligence (AI), data management, machine vision and augmented reality is likely to skyrocket, according to a new report from Oyster Bay, New York-based ABI Research.

Capitalizing on Industry 4.0: The Market Opportunities In Today’s Manufacturing Sector forecasts that the technology market, excluding hardware revenues, will reach US$375 billion in 2030, up from $59 billion in 2019. When hardware revenue is included, the 2030 forecast jumps to $1.046 trillion, from $310 billion in 2019.

This increased investment will result in millions of new end points that will need to be interconnected. However, the report states, the existing infrastructure won’t be able to support this, creating opportunities for providers and connectivity experts. According to the report, connections are expected to reach 5.4 billion by 2030, up from 270,000 in 2019.

In 2030, the report predicts, collaborative robots, connected programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and other equipment monitoring, respectively, are expected to rank as the top three connection applications, followed by intelligent industrial pumps and industrial smart glasses. Currently, collaborative robots make up the bulk of connections, followed by machine tools, according to the report.

Other report forecasts include:

Most digital factory connections will be wireless by 2024

The automotive, electronics and machinery industries are among the expected leading revenue industries

China is projected to have the greatest revenue (hardware not included) at $88.7 billion), followed by the U.S. ($81.9 billion). Japan and Germany are tied in the third spot at an expected $28.8 billon.

Despite the global nature of Industry 4.0, the U.S. and China are expected to account for around half of global revenue opportunities, the report states.