- New research from Siemens Financial Services (SFS) identifies over £490m of estimated potential annual from digital transformation in the Baked Goods sector by 2025
- Subsector estimates are also available for bread (over £240m) and Sweet Biscuits (almost £120m)
- Sustainable access to these basic productivity benefits from Industry 4.0 are enabled through specialised financing techniques
Siemens Financial Services (SFS) has released a new research paper that investigates the value of digitalization for Baked Goods manufacturers. New-generation digitalized technology (also known as Industry 4.0) is enabling manufacturers to improve performance through increased manufacturing productivity, improved planning and forecasting, enhanced competitive capabilities and greater financial sustainability.
Increased manufacturing productivity – the ability to either produce the same number of products for less, or more products for the same – has a clear and calculable positive effect on costs and margins. The new paper has named this positive effect the Digitalization Productivity Bonus, and offers estimates of the potential financial gain for the Baked Goods industry, along with subsegment estimates for Bread and for Sweet Biscuits.
Capturing testimony from international industrial companies, expert management consultancies and academic specialists, the paper has built a model that estimates the Digitalization Productivity Bonus for different industries. The Global Digitalization Productivity Bonus is estimated to be between 6.3 percent and 9.8 percent of total revenue.
This ‘bonus’ can only be realized when a manufacturer has upgraded production technology to new generation digitalized systems and equipment. Specialist financing techniques have been developed to fit the technological platforms and new mindset of Industry 4.0, allowing Baked Goods manufacturers to achieve digital transformation in a sustainable fashion. These techniques allow companies to harness the future benefit of digitalized equipment in order to fund the acquisition of that enabling technology.
The paper examines these specialist financing methods, including pay-to-access/use, technology upgrade finance, pay for outcomes, transition finance, working capital solutions, and more. They cover a range of requirements from the acquisition of a single digitalized piece of equipment, right through to financing a whole new factory.
“Intelligent financing arrangements tend to be offered by specialist providers that have a deep understanding not only of how the digitalized technology works, but also of how that technology can be practically implemented,” comments Gary Thompson, Siemens Industries and Markets, Siemens Financial Services (UK). “They are critical in enabling organizations to access cutting-edge technology and start benefitting from the Digitalization Productivity Bonus.”
