A New Dawn of Sales & Manufacturing with Industry 4.0 Technologies

According to Forrester, the 2020s will get dominated by technological acceleration.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, just 15 percent of companies had prioritized digital transformation. Now, digital customer service interactions have increased by around 40 percent, which is why companies are realigning the means through which they express and deliver value.

They are digitally transforming at a pace that the world has never seen, heading out for new and advanced technologies for achieving digital maturity.

Industry 4.0 technologies  are quickly changing sales and manufacturing. Here’s all you need to know about what Industry 4.0 is, and how it enhances the experience you are delivering to customers.

Industry 4.0- A Definition

the fourth industrial revolution – referred to as Industry 4.0 or 4IR – is the branch of digital transformation focusing on manufacturing. The term was coined for the first time by the German government in the year 2010 to elaborate on computerization and manufacturing automation processes.

Like the last industrial revolutions that gave us mechanical production, assembly lines, and even computers, Industry 4.0 completely changed the world by installing new production capabilities under reach. It will do this through four primary goals:

Interconnection. The devices gain the ability to communicate with each other, without any human intervention.

Information Transparency. Data collection becomes highly efficient by making it easier to make quick, data-driven decisions.

Technological Assistance. Machinery will overtake complex or dangerous tasks and also leave people available for work that needs a human touch.
Decentralization. Cyber-physical components will get the independence to make their own decisions and also operate as independent actors within a larger system.
Although Industry 4.0 specifically to technological advancements within manufacturing, that’s not the only way it will affect our world. Just as steam power, as well as computers, brought a lot of changes, Industry 4.0 will be doing the same. Some of it’s already here.

You may recognize these many Industry 4.0 innovations:

Smart home devices
Self-driving cars
On-demand computer resources(cloud technology)
Cognitive computing
Automatic factories
Extended reality
3D Printing
Industry 4.0 and Digital Transformation

The knowledge that was stuck with paper, as well as manual processes, has now gone the way to the bin with the manual manufacturing processes among them. Between 2020 and 2024, businesses will now spend a combined $7.8 trillion on digital transformation initiatives.

Yet we have found that a huge amount of confusion around digital transformation persists.

Digital transformation is a largely vague term that has come to refer to everything from IT modernization to using novel technologies for solving age-old business issues.
Yes, cutting down your office through digitization is crucial. Switching to cloud-based collaboration tools for keeping your remote workers on the same page is also crucial. But these aren’t exactly digital transformations per se.

According to Deloitte, digital transformation is the application of digital technologies for the improvement of performance or reach of a particular business. Simply put, it’s the merger between information technology with operations technology to find new ways about how you deliver value to your customers.

It’s not about technology. It’s about what you do with this technology and how your customers gain as a consequence.

Using Industry 4.0 Technologies for Better Value

When executed rightly, digital transformation makes an impact on every part of your business, from manufacturing to even the company culture. While you implement new technology, the key to success will lie in realigning your organization to be perfectly customer-centric.

Industry 4.0 technologies are quickly expanding in the business world. Still, in 2020, Deloitte found that just 17 percent of executives considered Industry 4.0 investments a better priority. Talk about the potential to seize advantage!

We’ve said around here before that Industry 4.0 technologies can supercharge the customer experience. That’s because they can:

1.Ease Customization

The future of products is surely custom.

Research shows that at least 36 percent of customers show interest in customized products, with one out of five even ready to pay a premium. However, when you have created a business offering complex products that already have visualization challenges, how do you address this demand?

Enter: visual product configurator– and Industry 4.0 technologies ideally suited to support them. With VPCs:

Everything is automated. Algorithms and AI levergaing Big Data to take over the configuration and quoting processes.
No more mistakes. Goodbye to referencing Excel sheets and then accidentally typing wrong part numbers.
Accelerated conversion cycles. Reducing the number of touchpoints for customers and sales reps to complete a sale makes everything move quicker.
Imagine powering your B2B and B2C customers with the capability to design the perfect product while having them in the loop with live dynamic pricing. Once configured, it automatically gets sent to the factory where computers clear out the manufacturing specifications. You witness the whole thing from a single interface on your computer, entering only when required.
Imagine to show a prototype on your sales floor, then handing your customer a tablet. An Augmented Reality app on the tablet sorts out their selections while they customize details, permitting them to visualize the final product in a better way.
(Think that’s unrealistic? IKEA has been doing something similar since 2017.)

2. Better Guided Selling

Customers are very interested in customization process, but they don’t wish to go at it alone. Deloitte’s research shows that 42 percent of customers wish for the brand in taking the lead with the sales processes.

However, a lot of this has now occurred with direct connections among customers and sales reps. The pandemic highly disrupted this, forcing a lot of businesses to find ways to capture signals about the buyer intentions.

Many companies went to Industry 4.0 technologies for help.

According to Gartner, AI-powered guided selling is one of the ways businesses can recapture the opportunities in moving prospects through sales cycles. Conversational engagement applications recreate guided experience and leverage analytics for determining which prospects are prepared to move forward.
Likewise, by leveraging this data, managers have a lot of new tools for observing sales executions. This monitoring has a direct impact on issues like training and coaching opportunities, which, in turn, call for a better customer experience.

3. Organizing The Production & Supply Chain

Tools like 3D product configurators,  visual CPQ, and AI chatbots are not the only things that Industry 4.0 technologies can augment.

Imagine software on your fingertips which use predictive forecasting for spotting material shortages much before they arise. Even better, your computer automatically orders from a supplier before experiencing a shortage you couldn’t predict.

Efficient production refers to products that land in customers’ hands better. Even if a majority of customers are willing to wait longer for customized products, they will still appreciate the experience that rapid delivery brings to the fore.