| Customer promise | Traditional organisation | I4.0 organisations |
| Next day delivery | A day or more late, package lost, damaged or hard to access, polystyrene disposal issues | Same day delivery, easy to open and environmentally sensitive packaging |
| Produced just as you like it | Delivered from a large stockholding of a few standard configurations. Manufactured on poorly maintained plant leading to poor quality issues | Customer configures item on- line which is additive manufactured to order with a batch size of one |
| Responsive on-going service | Item sent back to a service agent. Long wait due to service part shortage and no substitute loan item offered | Real time monitoring and predictive maintenance. Serviced at a place to suit customer with a replacement loan item if needed |
From dynamic global leaders to ambitious local firms, KPMG’s The Strategy Group works with a range of industrial businesses across diverse sectors. Every business we work with is different. Not only in terms of its size, industry or operating model, but also in terms of its technological maturity on its journey to Industry 4.0. It’s through our understanding of this variation that we help our clients maximise business value: buy, sell, integrate, separate and improve.
The ultimate objective of Industry 4.0 is to maximise service and product quality for minimum cost and wastage. Achieving this depends on having accurate, high-quality data. Not only to minimise physical waste (materials, energy and time), but to encompass the entire supply chain, from raw materials to customer usage, in a continual loop. All too often, a high-quality customer experience at the front-end is hindered by a negative experience at the back-end, due to poor supply of a product or service.
Examples of true customer delight, where promises made at the point-of-sale are matched or exceeded by the full end-to-end experience, are less common. But those organisations that do achieve it are the ones that thrive, with strong customer relationships and high levels of loyalty, not to mention the highest deal appeal.
When customer experience is let down by reality
Few organisations have the luxury of a clean slate start-up and even fewer have the luxury of unlimited capital to exploit a new idea. But there are some common traits we see time and again within successful Industry 4.0-focused businesses:
Our Strategy Group works with industrial clients and targets wherever they are in their digital transformation journey. For specific examples of how we are helping clients across the globe address the challenges and opportunities of Industry 4.0, see:
Business model transformation: The next stage of Industry 4.0
