Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISIInnovations in industrial production in Germany
Traditionally, the German economy is known for its strong industrial core. The high quality of its industrial products, combined with rapid increases in productivity, have meant Germany has always enjoyed huge global recognition as a production location. Industry has remained a strong part of the German economy right up to today. However, industrial production has undergone an incredible transformation over the past 50 years.
In this collection we will analyze this transformation and examine the key trends seen in industry over the last five decades, focusing on Germany in particular. We will also look at potential developments that may occur in industry in future. This work has been based not only on the available literature, but also on interviews with experts and an expert workshop.
Philosophy of production has been through a radical change
The results show that industry has undergone some fundamental changes over the past five decades, affecting not only technological and organizational methods of production, but also its basic philosophy.
The associated paradigm shifts have altered the general framework in which industrial companies operate and have led to new ways of thinking in production and innovation research too. Overall, we have identified six production paradigms and five paradigm shifts for the five-decade period under review, which can be grouped into three overarching phases:
- Phase I, which was all about the conflicting demands of productivity and working conditions, and which stretched from the early 1970s to the late 1980s.
- Phase II, which focused on the issue of how Germany as a production location could compete on a global level, and which spanned the late 1980s to the early 2010s.
- Phase III, which aims to connect physical objects in production to the Internet of Things, and which has dominated since the start of the 2010s.
Future industrial developments will likely give rise to the question of a new fundamental technology in particular. Although the digitalization of production is the major trend at the moment, no new fundamental technology has yet emerged for the production of the future.
There are some key trends to be seen, however, including the decarbonization of industry, interaction between humans and intelligent machines in production, and the global realignment of value chains.
