acatech Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index
Coordinate technology and organizational change in a factory roadmap
About the method
Published by Germany’s acatech in 2017 and updated in 2020, the index describes progression towards predictive and adaptive operations, bringing technology, organizational structure and culture into transformation planning.
Geographic adoption and scale
- Regions
- Germany, with applications in manufacturing companies worldwide; published sources do not rank participation by country.
- Scale
- FIR reported in 2021 that the Industrie 4.0 Maturity Center had applied the index to over 100 manufacturers worldwide since 2017.
Published cases include Germany’s HARTING, where the index informed an integrated transformation strategy. FIR describes applications ranging from multinationals to SMEs in machinery, chemicals and food. The 100-plus figure is the center’s reported reach in 2021, rather than a subsequent global total.
Assessment areas
Four structural areas: resources, information systems, organizational structure and culture.
Assessment outputs
A maturity profile, capability gaps and a staged development roadmap.
Implementation
Identify the development stage
Locate capabilities across computerization, connectivity, visibility, transparency, predictive capacity and adaptability.
Examine technology and organization
Review supporting capabilities across the four areas.
Develop an improvement roadmap
Use the analysis to combine technology and organizational development.
Considerations for overseas operations
Relevant when overseas plant upgrades require changes in local teams, collaboration and data use.