How Industry 4.0 and AI Can Transform Manufacturing

Around the world, manufacturers have spent the past 50 years implementing a range of programs and techniques to reduce costs and improve product quality and customer service. Lean, total productive maintenance (TPM), total quality management (TQM), Six Sigma and, in some cases, full production systems have yielded solid results. We’ve seen companies that leverage these approaches well—such as Toyota, Procter & Gamble, and Danaher—boost productivity by 6% or more a year.

Those investments aren’t obsolete, but they also aren’t enough. To compete effectively in the future, you need to rethink what’s possible today.