How Australian manufacturing can become a global powerhouse
Industry 4.0 is the next industrial revolution. It offers the Australian manufacturing sector the opportunity to build sovereign capability, create sustainable growth and become more resilient.
- Access our purpose-built playbook designed to step Australian manufacturers through adopting Industry 4.0 to transform their business, reduce costs and become more innovative.
- Take a deep dive into the impacts and opportunities available to the sector across cyber security, asset optimisation and sustainability.
Industry 4.0: the Australian manufacturing advantage
A playbook for sustainable growth and innovation.
Practical steps to help manufacturers build a competitive edge locally, and on the global stage.
What is Industry 4.0?
Industry 4.0 is a smart and connected system that combines individual technologies across an organisation to automate processes, improve performance and deliver better value to customers.
Given the challenges in the industry, and the evolution of global business processes, investing in Industry 4.0 is becoming increasingly urgent for manufacturers to gain a competitive edge.
Benefits of Industry 4.0 technologies
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✔︎Real-time data across the business for improved decision‑making
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✔︎Total quality management optimising quality and efficiency
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✔︎Improved data and analytics capabilities for quicker response times
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✔︎Increased competitiveness and new product opportunities
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✔︎Reduced environmental impact
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✔︎Enhanced supply chain management
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✔︎Improved workforce and asset management
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✔︎Better risk management
Case studies
Example: state-of-the-art solutions
A manufacturer stepped into the next generation of paint technology and innovation by moving to a new, highly-automated, Industry 4.0 enabled manufacturing plant. The results and efficiencies far exceeded their expectations, including savings in materials, productivity and waste. They have also seen a vast reduction in manual labour, improved quality control and inspired innovation in sales and marketing.
Example: products that feed back
A motor producer shifted to digitised motors that deliver back data to the company. The manufacturer now considers its products as a data platform that can share information with the customer, providing opportunities to maintain a relationship with the end user.
Example: smarter services
A manufacturer’s customers wanted smarter services and frictionless interactions, but the organisation lacked a clear path forward. KPMG helped them develop a broad, connected approach to its business, by creating a strategy and operating model design for digital services, defined automation and operating model efficiencies, and identified over 50 key performance gaps with a roadmap for closing them.
Business transformation: smart manufacturing
Adopting Industry 4.0 is not just about taking on new technology, the approach requires a complete rethink of how a manufacturer does business. It’s about new solutions to help make sure the organisation is set up for success in an era of changing production processes and technological disruption.
While this may seem like a big undertaking, the opportunities include better responsiveness, competitive advantage, higher productivity, nimble product development, improved environmental position, and a bigger market share – so long as the transformation is managed properly.
Key considerations for becoming a smart manufacturer
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Rethink what technologies are needed in the organisation and make sure they’re aligned to business objectives
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Consider your culture – for those starting out, employees will need time to adapt to change
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Consider your business processes and frameworks including risk, security, governance controls and ESG responsibilities
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Create separate use cases and measure their success
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Collaborate on product and supply chain innovation using real-time input upstream from suppliers and downstream from customers to enable product improvements and demand-driven output
Why KPMG?
We bring deep industry expertise and global best practice to help Australian manufacturers establish themselves as global leaders. We can help at all stages of your transformation journey to scale up and unlock the potential of true digital business transformation.
Talk to us about how you can embrace new technologies, sustain your existing business, embed new processes and drive operational efficiencies and agility to become more competitive.
