From Victor Gojdka, ARD stock exchange studio Manufacturing parts for customers in medical technology and the automotive industry is what Limtronik in Limburg, Hesse, specializes in. A medium-sized industrial company with a specialty: the machines in the factory could talk to each other – this is how managing director Gerd Ohl describes it: “Put simply: machine A produces, machine B checks the product I build and tells machine A: You have to Change parameters, regulate the temperature down, then I’ll have another great product in the back. ”

Many factories are “more powerful” today

Industry 4.0: the intelligent and networked factory. Thomas Gitzel, chief economist at VP-Bank, knows many companies that now operate such clever factories. “You can imagine that you walk into a factory hall where you can hardly find any employees. There is only one employee who can control the entire machine park using a kind of smartphone. That means: the software controls production and less the human with manual processes. ” Ten years ago the concept “Industry 4.0.” invented. Today, robots and the like are part of everyday life in many factories, says industry expert Volker Stoll from the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg: “In this respect, the clout of a factory ten years ago and today cannot even be compared.” Almost every fifth company in the manufacturing industry now uses robots in production. This is based on figures from the Federal Statistical Office.

Small and medium-sized businesses have a hard time

Large companies in particular work this way. But other companies are still having a hard time with it, says VP banker Gitzel: “On the other hand, we have the smaller medium-sized companies, for whom Industry 4.0. Is almost a foreign word. The small medium-sized companies simply lag a long way behind the trends after.” There are two reasons. First, converting your own factories costs a lot of money. Second: Small and medium-sized companies in rural areas often have a harder time retaining talented IT programmers. Large corporations do this better. At the Hanover Fair – the industry meeting point – the experts were now hoping for a corona effect, says Andreas Scheuerle from Deka-Bank: “There is a lot of catching up to do because companies have held back on investments in recent months. That will work out pave the way: old machines have to be replaced by new ones. ” However, not all experts are so optimistic. Because networked machines also need fast internet. And that is still the case with many medium-sized companies in rural areas – pure dream.