Glossary

What is Customer-Centric Industry 4.0?

In Industry 4.0, too, the focus is on the customer. Solutions that bring customers and manufacturers closer together throughout the customer journey and tailor the production process more closely to customers’ individual needs are an exciting aspect of Industry 4.0.

After all, only those who have a precise understanding of customer requirements can incorporate them into the production process. In this way, companies can fully realize the potential of customer-specific, flexible, and efficient manufacturing. According to a PwC study, 41 percent of the industrial companies surveyed already use data analysis and artificial intelligence in product development (1). Clear benefits: increased efficiency and revenue, with a strong focus on the customer. But approaches to customer-specific production—such as those using CPQ(Configure, Price, Quote)solutions—also help realize a customer-centric Industry 4.0. This is because, when implementing a customer-centric Industry 4.0 approach, configurators serve as the interface to the customer and are the starting point of the digital—and ideally fully automated—process chain.