Quebec's Ministry of Economy, Science and Innovation (MESI) tasked CEFRIO with surveying 500 manufacturing SME leaders to examine how these companies plan to tackle the challenges of the transformation toward Industry 4.0.
Key findings from the survey:
- Among manufacturers, 55% recognize Industry 4.0 as a new industrial revolution.
- Technological maturity is low across Quebec manufacturers: roughly 75% rely on manual processes or non-integrated tools.
- Conversely, only 8% have production processes supported by integrated software or interconnected solutions.
- Digital technology investment is limited: two thirds of surveyed companies (64%) said they invested less than $50,000 in the 12 months prior to the survey.
- The same share (63%) plan to invest less than $50,000 over the next 12 months.
- Still, 62% of leaders intend to increase their use of digital tools in the coming years.
- A minority (22%) of Quebec manufacturers have adopted a digital strategy tied to Industry 4.0.












