The impact and solution of the Industrial 4.0 era on the business model 

The development of information network technology in Industry 4.0 breaks through the limitations of the traditional production mode. Fast communication and sharing of information are achieved through the connection between devices and devices or between people and devices. Thereby improving production efficiency, promoting economic and social progress. The impact of the fourth industrial revolution now is what we can foresee that in the next few years or even decades, there will be subversive changes, and the future business model will undergo fundamental changes. As the market changes and the state or technology advances, ERP solutions will bring a variety of ERP application implementation methods and will become more mature solutions. Let ERP help companies face the replacement of Industry 4.0, so that enterprises can make their operations better in a rapidly changing environment, so as not to be eliminated.

With the globalization of enterprise competition and the market gradually moving towards a small number of customized requirements, enterprises must transform their business models, quickly keep up with the pace of technology, and respond to the changing market in order to survive or even stand out in the market to grab the order.

In such a competitive era and environment, when the sales department assists enterprises in grabbing orders, they need to pay more attention to internal and external communication:

1. Reasonable cost estimation, quick response to the customer quotation needs
2. Ability to track production progress more effectively and improve delivery rates
3. Collect market data and update products to respond to the demand changing
4. Increase the speed of shipments & reduce the risk of inventory hoarding costs
5. Improve customer satisfaction to maintain long-term customer relationships

But it seems not meet to the ideal, many companies usually unable to grasp their production capacity and appropriate inventory, resulting in internal units often shirking responsibility for the failure to deliver on time. How to grasp the delivery time, inventory, and capacity, is a major challenge and topic for OEM or long-life cycle production companies. This common problem will cause the company to lose orders and competitiveness, and it will become more severe as Industry 4.0 approaches. To prevent these issues and improve the five capabilities mentioned earlier, companies must make changes to the following points:

1. Information Transparency
2. Information Consistency
3. Process Rationalization

In conclusion, Industrial 4.0 will greatly impact the current traditional business model and customers’ needs and orders are becoming much more customized. Industrial 4.0 require enterprises to respond quickly in order to seize the brief opportunity, this will be the greatest challenge of Industrial 4.0. Customers and orders are vital to enterprises survival and development. From the perspective of sales, the accuracy of information such as cost, delivery, inventory are essential to negotiate with the customer. In order for ERP system to provide reasonable data to help enterprises meet the needs of many customers, the source of these data needs to be maintained by everyone in the enterprises. In contra to the issue of Industry 4.0, enterprises are looking for more than just the right ERP system, an ERP consultant expert is extremely important as well, with their help in integrating ERP with company processes and providing incisive advice.