A new report, Smart Factories, by Capgemini's Digital Transformation Institute found that some sectors, in particular, have embraced these technologies in the form of smart factories. Industrial manufacturing, aerospace and defense, and automotive and transportation are the specific sectors that have ongoing smart factory initiatives.

These smart factories are a strong economic drive as they could add as much as $500bn to $1.5 tr in value to the global economy in five years, according to the report.

Manufacturers predict overall efficiency to grow annually over the next five years at 7 times the rate of growth since 1990. And the report estimates that smart factories can nearly double operating profit and margin for an average automotive OEM manufacturer.

Furthermore, 76 percent of manufacturers either have a smart factory initiative that is ongoing or are working on formulating it. And more than half of manufacturers (56 percent) have aligned $100m or more towards smart factories.

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