Industry 4.0: Business models for a digitally-enabled future

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Industry 4.0: Business models for a digitally-enabled future

13 Oct 2025

Commercial Baking Staff

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Jeff Winter has nearly two decades of experience in manufacturing, spanning automation, safety, controls, OT and IT systems. He’s advised and guided hundreds of manufacturers on embracing digital transformation. Contact him at JeffWinter@criticalmanufacturing.com.

KANSAS CITY, MO — Picture this: a wide-open road stretching ahead, the left lane marked by familiar potholes, outdated signs and traffic jams. Let’s call those legacy systems. On the right, a shiny, newly paved lane labeled “Industry 4.0,” buzzing with autonomous cars, AI-driven signs and smart sensors optimizing traffic flow.

And then, right in the middle, a single Band-Aid stretching feebly across a gaping crack labeled “digital divide,” proudly announcing: “Another Dashboard!”

Sound familiar?

Too often, companies attempt digital transformation by tossing yet another fancy dashboard at deeply embedded, systemic problems. Dashboards are like Band-Aids: They might momentarily cover the crack, providing short-term comfort, but they never truly fix the road beneath.

The digital divide

There are three reasons why another dashboard won’t save a company from the digital divide.

Information overload does not equal insight. Dashboards dramatically enhance the visibility of data, generating streams of colorful charts, graphs and metrics at a glance. However, visibility alone doesn’t translate directly into actionable insights or meaningful decision-making. Without deep integration into operational processes, strategic goals and an understanding of context, dashboards merely become repositories for overwhelming data that employees don’t fully utilize or understand.

Adding mirrors to a car won’t help spot potholes. You might clearly see each pothole, but without the ability to steer away or the proper vehicle to navigate around them, you’re still stuck on the problematic road. Insight comes from analytics that simplify complexity, detect patterns and guide actionable decisions. Dashboards should be the last step in a chain of integrated technologies and processes, not the first or only step. Without proper integration, analytics capabilities and training, dashboards risk becoming another source of confusion rather than clarity.

Surface-level solutions fail at scale. Deploying yet another dashboard might feel like progress initially, but this approach is akin to placing a Band-Aid on a wound that requires surgery. Dashboards are excellent for surface-level diagnostics and quick, initial fixes to minor issues. However, when confronting deeply rooted technological, cultural and operational gaps, their effectiveness dramatically diminishes.

Industry 4.0 is not about digitizing existing outdated processes; it’s about fundamentally reimagining a business model, value chain and operational methodologies for a digitally-enabled future.

Understanding the impact

True digital transformation isn’t cosmetic; it’s structural and strategic, requiring a fundamental rethinking and redesigning of business processes, data infrastructures and workplace cultures. Dashboards can’t bridge the enormous gap between legacy technologies and Industry 4.0 capabilities because they do nothing to address the underlying legacy limitations. To effectively scale, businesses must invest in comprehensive system upgrades, culture shifts and technology integrations that enable holistic, sustainable improvements, rather than repeatedly applying superficial patches.

You’re delaying the inevitable. Every time your business opts for a quick fix — such as adding yet another dashboard — you’re essentially postponing the larger, inevitable necessity of addressing foundational problems. While short-term solutions offer immediate relief, they mask critical structural weaknesses, creating the illusion of progress without any sustainable improvements.

Industry 4.0 is not about digitizing existing outdated processes; it’s about fundamentally reimagining a business model, value chain and operational methodologies for a digitally-enabled future. Ignoring the need for deep structural changes only compounds technical debt, increases complexity, and escalates future costs and risks. Delaying comprehensive transformation makes eventual modernization harder, more expensive and more disruptive. Instead, businesses must proactively embrace deeper digital transformation strategies that reshape their organizations from the core, preparing them for sustainable growth and ongoing innovation.

So, what’s the real fix? Instead of Band-Aids, you need road construction. Invest in infrastructure: robust data architectures, AI-driven analytics, interconnected systems and, most importantly, organizational alignment around digital goals. This isn’t about just observing problems; it’s about solving them.

Dashboards have their place, but not as patches. Use them as windows into new opportunities, supported by sturdy, future-proof foundations.

Ask yourself: Are you genuinely paving the road to Industry 4.0, or are you still buying Band-Aids?

This story has been adapted from the August | Q3 2025 issue of Commercial Baking. Read the digital edition here.

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