swedish indtech 2021 now available in english

Swedish IndTech 2021, the study launched in May earlier this year is now available in English. Download and read it here.

The industrial sector is in transition. Powerful forces are coming together and creating a new industrial paradigm within which sustainable energy systems and industrial processes that reuse and develop new materials and production methods are fundamental driving forces.

Digitalization is making it possible to develop new production technologies and is changing the way people and organizations collaborate, develop, and do business. All this is changing business models and our underlying financial system.

This report focuses on the digital changes now affecting how industrial companies develop, produce, reach the market and manage assets. We call this approach ‘IndTech’, and it is based on the understanding that IT and production systems are digitally merging. This development suits Sweden very well, given that it is a world-leading industrial nation with an extremely solid foundation on which to build. What’s more, digital efficiency is a prerequisite for continued growth and prosperity for our society.

The starting point from which the industrial sector is digitalizing is an installed base of 1990s technology. This applies to both automation and industrial IT, where the value of the installations around the world is estimated to be SEK 50 trillion. (Blue Institute and PiiA, AI & Digital Platforms, 2019). Within the industrial sector, the service life of technological tools is often determined by the availability of servicing and spare parts or the need for major rebuilds. Unlike consumer industries, industrial technology is not replaced when ”a new model is launched”; stable production is key. In practice, this means that existing structures tend to have long lifespans, gradually needing to be supplemented over time with open digital solutions and standards.

A scenario is emerging within which things such as cloud services, IoT/IIoT and advanced data analysis are becoming important tools for combining existing equipment with modern digitalization. These platforms are crucial for the future and the manufacturing industry needs to have good strategies in place to allow for such investments.

Suppliers, technologies, organizations and cultures from a wide variety of areas are all coming together in the open market in a new dynamic that is also reshaping the marketplaces for IT, automation, telecommunications and digital technology. The themes for this report’s three main parts are The Convergence, The Market and The Technology.

The first part, IndTech Convergence – The digital transformation of the industrial sector provides an overview of the digital development of the industrial sector. The second part, IndTech Market System, describes the market for IndTech and Sweden’s position as a leading global supplier of digital industrial technology. The third part, IndTech Technology, provides an overview of three key technology areas, namely:
1) The technology of digital transformation;
2) Industrial IT; and
3) Operational Technology (OT)

The report is produced in collaboration between the Blue Institute, Automation Region and PiiA. Read more about the work on the website about Swedish IndTech.