Industrial Digitalisation in Colombia and Latin America.

COLOMBIA · DIGITAL FOUNDATIONS

Business connectivity is widespread. These indicators offer only a partial picture of what happens within manufacturing processes.

The ICT module of Colombia’s Annual Manufacturing Survey covered 5,973 active manufacturing firms in 2024. Access to basic digital tools was widespread, but these indicators do not measure the integration of production data, industrial analytics, traceability, acquisition of machine variables or the ability to act on real-time information (DANE, 2026).

Source: National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE), 2024 data updated in 2026.

Colombia also has a relatively well-developed digital policy framework.

In the SME Policy Index: Latin America and the Caribbean 2024, Colombia scored 3.96 on the digitalisation dimension. Its national digital strategy sub-dimension scored 4.80, while OECD/CAF/SELA identifies comparatively weaker performance in the digital skills framework. Strategies and enabling programmes therefore need to be complemented by capabilities developed within individual companies.

Indicator scale: 1 to 5. Source: OECD/CAF/SELA (2024).

LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN · MATURITY

The most significant capability gaps emerge where companies need to organise people, data and analytics.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) analysed results from the Digital Check-up tool in 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries. The participating firms do not represent all MSMEs in the region; however, the findings help identify gaps between technology adoption and organisational capability.

Source: Cathles, Suaznábar and Vargas (2022), IDB. Population: firms that used the Digital Check-up tool, rather than a representative sample of all Latin American MSMEs.

Advanced smart manufacturing remains uncommon in the available survey samples.

The same IDB report, citing a UNIDO survey, states that just over 1% of surveyed Latin American manufacturing firms used technologies classified as smart manufacturing 4.0. Almost 30% combined used integrated digital technologies (3.0) or digital technologies associated with lean production (2.0). The report explicitly warns that country samples were small. These figures illustrate the gap between basic connectivity and advanced manufacturing rather than providing a precise regional adoption rate.

Regional industrial digitalisation policies are expanding, although coordination remains fragmented.

ECLAC identified 65 instruments supporting productive digital transformation in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay. Its study describes progress in digital skills, technical training, Industry 4.0 and emerging technologies, alongside challenges in governance, institutional fragmentation and coordination between digital and industrial policy (Patiño et al., 2025).

INDUSTRIAL MATURITY · BEYOND TECHNOLOGY

Industrial digital maturity develops through capabilities that people and organisations can use consistently.

Academic maturity models assess substantially more than technical infrastructure. Schumacher, Erol and Sihn (2016) proposed nine dimensions and 62 items, encompassing strategy, leadership, governance, culture and people alongside operations and technology. The Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index developed by acatech uses six stages and examines resources, information systems, culture and organisational structure (Schuh et al., 2020).

KERN IoP synthesis framework. It organises operational capabilities relevant to plant projects and is not intended to replace a formal maturity model.

The principle is consistent with our guide to Industry 4.0: origins, industrial applications and human decision-making. Connectivity and systems are enablers; improvement is verified in the production process.

EVIDENCE FROM PLANTS

Data deliver value when they inform decisions and the outcomes can be verified.

In 2025, Colombia’s Fábricas de Productividad y Sostenibilidad programme reported results from 5,081 participating firms and production units, with an average 33% improvement in the indicators addressed. Reported gains included 45.3% in digital transformation, 23.1% in energy efficiency and 33.3% in operational productivity. These are results from technical-assistance participants, not national benchmarks or performance promises for individual projects.

Source: Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (2025). Results from firms and production units supported through the programme.

PLASTICS PROCESSING · INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC PERSPECTIVE

Manufacturing data become more useful when they retain their production context.

In injection moulding, a signal rarely explains a deviation on its own. To interpret productivity, energy or quality, records should be related to the machine, mould, product reference, material, cycle, cavities, auxiliary equipment and relevant operational events. Industrial digitalisation in this sector should therefore be assessed through the quality of the relationships between data, rather than by the number of connected devices alone.