In Industrie 4.0, it will be possible to order manufacturing processes and capacities at the click of a mouse, similar to music streaming. In manufacturing as a service, the performance of the machine is paid for. In the future, this will also hold true for individual production elements – robots for example. It will not be the machine itself that is purchased, but its output.

Industrie 4.0 and the Internet of Things will also affect the machines themselves. They will become increasingly sensitive, more autonomous, more mobile and easier to operate. Soon, robots will be intelligent enough to understand our language and gestures. They are increasingly evolving into assistants in factories, supporting humans in their work. Because a robot is better at certain things – such as precision and speed – it provides humans with entirely new capabilities.