Macrium Report Highlights Industry 4.0 Investment Gap

According to The Current State of Backup & Recovery in Manufacturing 2026 benchmark report by Macrium, conducted in partnership with independent research body NewtonX, more than three-quarters of manufacturers have yet to make Industry 4.0 a major investment priority. Based on a survey of over 100 verified IT and OT decision-makers at organizations with at least 2,500 employees across North America and the UK, only 22% (roughly 1 in 5) have made Industry 4.0 a top strategic priority and active area of investment. A significant "readiness gap" exists: while 93% of surveyed manufacturers consider Industry 4.0 important, actively invest in it, or include it in their future planning, the granular breakdown reveals that 51% view it as an important focus but not a major investment, 20% have it on their radar for future planning, and 6% are discussing it without concrete plans.

The Disconnect Between Ambition and Implementation
As the manufacturing industry prematurely shifts its attention to Industry 5.0—which the European Commission envisions as building on Industry 4.0 foundations to place a greater emphasis on human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience—the reality on the ground lags behind. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) shares similar priorities, advocating for the integration of emerging technologies to promote technology adoption and strengthen supply-chain resilience.

However, broader industry research echoes Macrium's findings. A study by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) found that while 76% of manufacturers expect their operations to be "smart" within two years, only 28% describe them as "smart" or "somewhat smart" today. Similarly, Deloitte’s 2025 Smart Manufacturing and Operations Survey noted that 92% of manufacturing executives believe smart manufacturing will drive competitiveness over the next three years, yet only 46% utilize industrial IoT at the facility or network level, and just 29% use AI and machine learning at that scale.

Dave Joyce, CEO at Macrium, cautions that the wider narrative risks getting ahead of organizational reality. "Industry 5.0 is an exciting direction for manufacturing, but there is a risk that the wider narrative gets ahead of the reality for most organizations," he explained. "Its goals around resilience, sustainability and human-centricity matter, but delivery depends on connected systems, reliable data and recoverable operations." Joyce further noted that turning Industry 4.0 into reality is complex, as cost pressures, legacy systems, the risks of interconnectivity, and limits on taking critical production systems offline mean that progress takes time.

Additional Context
This section provides technological and market background not explicitly detailed in the original release.

While Industry 4.0 focuses on the automation, digitalization, and interconnectivity of cyber-physical systems, Industry 5.0 aims to bring human expertise back into the loop, collaborating directly with intelligent machines to drive sustainable manufacturing. However, realizing this advanced vision is impossible without robust baseline infrastructure. In manufacturing environments, there is a stark structural difference between IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology). While enterprise IT workloads are typically well-protected and modernized, the plant floor relies heavily on ICS (Industrial Control Systems) and SCADA systems running on legacy hardware that is notoriously difficult to back up or take offline for updates. Consequently, operational resilience remains uneven, and many facilities struggle to validate their recovery time objectives. Until these foundational Industry 4.0 connectivity and backup challenges are resolved at the OT level, the advanced human-centric and AI-driven ambitions of Industry 5.0 will remain out of reach.

Edited by Lekshman Ramdas, Induportals editor – adapted by AI.

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