This year, we have the tenth anniversary of the German strategic initiative for industrial investment of several million euros across Europe. Some of the early results, such as an improved interconnection between the factory and management, made it easier to get through the pandemic. Other solutions currently implemented, such as the most recent Volkswagen “Industrial Cloud” experiment, will finally allow to gain in productivity, efficiency and flexibility, in order to address the challenges of the future in the best way. We are going through one of the most intense times of change in history and all industry or company have to face this new challenge.

Traditional competitive advantages change continuously and impose agility and clarity of objectives. The COVID19 global pandemic crisis has shown that the challenge is not to do detailed long-term planning, but rather to have a successful model structured to manage the transformation process in a responsive, flexible and sustainable manner. Supporting this idea is Industry 4.0, ten years after the first time German Chancellor Merkel spoke about it. Industry 4.0 serves to boost the economy and above all to prepare Europe for the challenges of the future.