# From e-commerce to Industry 4.0

> Manufacturing faces the same data-driven shift that e-commerce brought to retail. See what it means for your factory and a quick test of where you stand.

URL: https://optipeople.com/blog/fra-e-handel-til-industri-4-0

OptiPeople Team, 2022-01-06

Manufacturing is going through the same kind of upheaval that retail went through when e-commerce changed how businesses compete.

Traditional ways of producing are being replaced by data-driven ways of working, where processes are measured while they run.

## Data changes how production is managed

With modern data collection, you can get an overview of:

- production units
- machines
- employees
- product types

You can also trace all the way down to the single item. That lets you follow a unit through the entire production flow instead of relying on spot checks.

## What e-commerce has to do with it

The comparison with e-commerce is deliberate.

Smartphones and the financial crisis sped up online shopping and forced retailers to rethink:

- pricing
- inventory
- sales channels
- store formats

That shift happened because retailers used data better, instead of going on gut feeling alone.

## Factories face the same choice

Industry faces the same challenge today.

Some factories keep running on old assumptions. Others use data to get a much faster and more accurate picture of how production is performing.

Here is a practical test: if you can't quickly answer detailed questions about your production, you are probably not yet managing with the data overview that Industry 4.0 makes possible.