Nokia and ABI Research have unveiled the Industry 4.0 maturity index, a groundbreaking tool that assesses the digital readiness of industrial campuses. The results of the research indicate that electronics and appliance manufacturers are leading the way in technology investments and use case deployments, achieving impressive maturity scores of 73.1 and 79.5 out of 100, respectively.

The study, which surveyed IT and OT leaders at 500 companies across five key markets, revealed that the average scores for technology maturity and use case deployment maturity stand at 66 and 68.8, respectively. The electronics and appliance sectors are making substantial investments in technology, including the deployment of ruggedised devices for workers and cloud-based warehouse management systems for efficient supply chain and logistics operations. These industries are also leveraging digital technologies for preventative maintenance, data analytics, and industrial drone applications.

Other findings show key drivers for implementing digitalisation are optimising workforce operations and safety scoring 7.4 out of 10, and supporting the company’s sustainability goals scoring 7.29, which reinforces the need to improve ESG metrics across industries.

To complement their findings, Nokia and ABI Research have developed a self-assessment benchmark tool. This tool enables enterprises to evaluate their digital maturity, identify opportunities for improvement, and align their digitalisation capabilities with the industrial metaverse. Incorporating crucial aspects such as worker safety and automation, this tool will guide industries on their digital transformation journey.

Michael Larner, Research Director ABI Research, said: 

“We are seeing a market trend for adopting private 5G in an end-to-end approach. For a successful transformation, the need to align IT and operational technology (OT) is clear. IT departments will continue to play an important role in digital transformation using IT to support the delivery of OT in the most efficient way.” 

Stephan Litjens, VP of Enterprise Campus Edge business at Nokia, said: 

“As the global leader in private wireless and industrial edge across an array of industry sectors, we want to simplify and accelerate digital transformation for industries. The industry 4.0 maturity index and self-assessment tool help industrial campuses to understand where they are and how to progress. We see investments scaling up this year, and this is confirmed by this research that shows that industries are, on average, moving closer to aligning IT and OT.”

With the Industry 4.0 maturity index and self-assessment tool, industrial campuses can gain valuable insights into their digitalisation progress and benchmark themselves against peers in the chemicals, fabricated metals, petroleum, mining, electronics and appliances, heavy machinery, and ports and logistics sectors. As the research confirms, industries are moving closer to aligning IT and OT, and investments in digitalisation are expected to scale up this year.