Manufacturing Magazine April 2018 | Page 19

‘ As the value of data has become apparent , factories and industrial plants have evolved . Companies have embedded a whole solution for data capture , connectivity , interpretation and analysis ’ where we are seeing the biggest technological innovations , which have attracted investors ’ attention . ‘ Ransomware ’ and ‘ crowdfunding ’ might be the most recent tech buzzwords for the public , but for manufacturing enterprises and investors , ‘ cyber physical systems ’, ‘ cloud computing ’ and ‘ artificial intelligence ’ are just as exciting . It is hard to overstate the scalability of this market : growth in the enterprise and industrial software markets is set to continue , with the lion ’ s share in Europe . In fact , by 2020 , the Boston Consulting Group estimates that companies will be spending about € 100bn ($ 123.74bn ) a year on such software — more than a six-fold increase on 2015 . And which industry will be leading the way ? Manufacturing , of course , with a 22 % share of this investment spending , which exceeds both utilities and transport . The adoption of Industry 4.0 themes is incredibly diverse , with farreaching consequences . Predictive

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