Research into baked goods industry identifies productivity bonus from Industry 4.0
Siemens Financial Services (SFS) has released a new research paper that investigates the value of digitalisation for baked goods manufacturers.
New-generation digitalised technology (Industry 4.0) enables manufacturers to improve performance through increased manufacturing productivity, improved planning and forecasting, enhanced competitive capabilities and greater financial sustainability, all of which has a clear and calculable positive effect on costs and margins.
The new paper has named this positive effect the Digitalisation Productivity Bonus, and offers estimates of the potential financial gain for the baked goods industry, along with subsegment estimates for sweet biscuits and bread. The Global Digitalisation Productivity Bonus is estimated to be between 6.3% and 9.8% of total revenue.
Sustainable access to these basic productivity benefits from Industry 4.0 is enabled through specialised financing techniques. These techniques allow companies to harness the future benefit of digitalised equipment in order to fund the acquisition of that enabling technology.
The paper examines these specialist financing methods, including pay-to-access/use, technology upgrade finance, pay for outcomes, transition finance, working capital solutions, and more. They cover a range of requirements from the acquisition of a single digitalised piece of equipment, right through to financing a whole new factory.
“Intelligent financing arrangements tend to be offered by specialist providers that have a deep understanding not only of how the digitalised technology works, but also of how that technology can be practically implemented,” comments Gary Thompson, Siemens industries and markets, SFS (UK). “They are critical in enabling organisations to access cutting-edge technology and start benefitting from the Digitalisation Productivity Bonus.”