The impact of digital solutions on industry

According to the vison of European Digital Transformation 2030, this decade is ambitiously called the European Digital Decade. Digital solutions are gradually transforming the entire industry: they allow us to work more efficiently, increase production volumes and offer higher value products and services to consumers. Technological innovations are changing the situation in individual industries, but what is the overall picture expected by the end of the decade?

The European Commission’s renewed European Industrial Strategy half a year ago has three main objectives: to keep European industry globally competitive, to fully digitize it and to make European industry climate-neutral by 2050.

The digital transformation is relevant to to virtually all industries to move towards a climate-neutral, circular and resilient economy. The Digital Agenda is expected to lead to a breakthrough in:

• raising the digital skills of the population and training highly qualified digital professionals,
• building a secure, efficient and sustainable digital infrastructure, and
• digitizing public services.

The EU’s ambitions for the digital transformation of enterprises are no less ambitious. A target has been set for 2030, according to it, three out of four companies would use cloud computing services, big data and artificial intelligence, and more than 90 percent SMEs would reach at least a basic level of digital intensity.

Thus, digitization is already an inevitable direction for any modern company. The goal of this transformation is twofold: to improve resource efficiency, security of supply, and maintain a competitive price. Digital solutions are projected to lead to much higher labor productivity, which in turn will increase industry volumes.

Pandemic has significantly accelerated the digital transformation process.Most businesses have realized the added value and benefits of digitization. These are our untapped opportunities. One of the positive effects of the pandemic is the acceleration of digitalisation in companies and the opening up of new areas of research to science. We need to accelerate these trends. “

Vidmantas Janulevičius, President of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists (LPK)

“Increased investment in research, innovation and state-of-the-art infrastructure would help create new production processes and jobs in this process. The ultimate goal of the state should be to create leading markets for clean technologies, and for Lithuanian economic entities to find their place in European value chains and to create sustainable high and higher value-added products and services. In order to become competitive, the industry, which applys the model of green and circular economy more and more widespread, will need a secure supply of clean and affordable energy and raw materials,” states V. Janulevičius.

However, the digital transformation in Lithuania, as well as in the whole of Europe, still poses considerable challenges for the industry. According to the head of LPK, the general readiness of the Lithuanian economy to transform and implement innovations is reflected in the funds allocated for research and experimental development (R&D). He notes an unimpressive trend, with the indicator illustrating R&D spending unchanged over the last decade, when the EU average has been rising steadily.

“In Lithuania, the public and private sectors allocate 1 percent of to R&D activities. GDP, compared to the EU average of 2.2%. The biggest gap in R&D expenditure is between the financial resources allocated by businesses in Lithuania and other countries. Lithuanian companies are less inclined to invest in R&D activities than companies from other EU countries. According to the share of business expenditures spent on R&D in relation to GDP, Lithuania is among the 23 EU countries and 1.46% above the EU average. “Is three times behind”, explains V. Janulevičius.

According to LPK, 28 percent of industrial companies today point out that the shortage of employees is the main factor preventing companies from increasing their production volumes – such a high indicator has never existed in the history of Lithuania.

At present, businesses seeking to keep up with the changing digital environment can receive assistance from MITA. In addition, MITA works closely with Digital Innovation Centers (SICs). The companies involved in the project can assess the possibilities of digitization of production processes and install equipment with integrated digitization technologies.