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5 key statistics that show the rise in Industry 4.0 activities since 2011 – IoT Analytics

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industry 4.0 statistics

Almost a decade after it was created, it seems that Industry 4.0 is in full swing.

What started as a concept to change manufacturing through “cyber-physical systems” has now started taking shape. From powerful chipsets and increased adoption of cloud services to containerization of software, creating much-improved software middleware/tools, edge computing hardware, and availability of relevant AI models and libraries, Industry 4.0 has come a long way since 2011.

5 key stats showing changes in Industry 4.0 activity

According to IoT Analytics, there has been a 140-fold increase in public search interest in Industry 4.0 since then. In 2021, 50,000 research papers on the topic were published. Start-ups are now receiving more investments and M&A activity has doubled.

  1. Public search interest grows by 140 times

Industry 4.0 searches

Searches for the term “Industry 4.0” on Google increased a lot over time. 140 times more people looked it up in 2022 than in 2011 when it was first introduced to the public. “Industrial IoT” and “Smart Manufacturing” also became popular search terms over that time, with “Cobots” being searched more than 10 times more and “Additive Manufacturing” almost 9 times more. These technologies are all related to Industry 4.0 and show how interested people are in it.

  1. Over 2 lakhs academic papers published

Industry 4.0 papers

More than 50,000 academic papers have been released on Industry 4.0 between 2020 and 2021. Over 200,000 have been published so far in the last 10 years. This number is increasing as researchers are looking into the potential of this new industrial revolution. Out of all these papers, there is a good chance that one of them will propose the next big development for Industry 4.0.

Industry 4.0, Industry 4.0: State of the art and future trends, and Industry 4.0 technologies: Implementation patterns in manufacturing companies are the top three cited papers relating to Industry 4.0.

  1. Startup funding increased by 319% from 2011 to 2021

Industry 4.0 funding

From 2011 to 2021, the amount of money put into startups that work on Industry 4.0-related technology increased by 319%. In 2021, $2.2 billion was spent on these companies. In the 11-year time frame, 2,513 deals were announced. However, when COVID-19 hit in 2020, the total number of funding rounds decreased. The trend continued into late 2020 with the inflation and war-related slowdown.

  1. M&A activity doubled between 2011 and 2021

Industry 4.0 acquisitions

In 2021, the number of acquisitions related to Industry 4.0 reached its peak at 132. This is a 116% increase from 10 years ago. However, in 2020 there was less than half the usual number of acquisitions in the first three quarters, which was likely due to COVID-19. Some notable acquisitions in recent years include AspenTech being bought by Emerson for $11 billion in 2021, Fetch Robotics being bought by Zebra Technologies for $290 million in 2021, and IQMS being bought by Dassault Systèmes for $425 million in 2018.

  1. Increased enterprise adoption of Industry 4.0

According to a World Economic Forum survey, in 2015 88% of the market leaders did not understand the underlying business models and long-term implications industrial IoT can have for their industries.

In 2019, IoT Analytics found that 25% of Industry 4.0 use cases were already fully or extensively rolled out with enterprises on a global level. In 2022 Industry 4.0 adoption has advanced even further. Most companies have already started to implement their Industry 4.0/Smart Factory strategy. Out of those surveyed by IoT Analytics, 72% have already begun working on their plans or have finished implementing them.

Industry 4.0 is the future of manufacturing and it’s already well on its way. With such a large increase in public search interest, start-up investments, and M&A activity, there’s no doubt that Industry 4.0 is here to stay. If market leaders not already incorporating Industry 4.0 principles into their business, now is the time to start.

Image and source credits: IoT Analytics

Read next: As-a-Service products and Tech-by-Wire among the most important tech developments in the next 2 years – IDC

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