The data-driven assessment is made up of two main components: “Structure of Production,” or a country’s current baseline of production, and “Drivers of Production,” or key enablers that position a country to capitalize on the Fourth Industrial Revolution to transform production systems. The assessment is comprised of 59 indicators across the Drivers of Production and Structure of Production components.

Rather than receiving a ranking, the 100 countries and economies included in the assessment were assigned to one of four archetypes which reflect relative positioning for the future:

Leading: Strong current production base, most future-ready
- 25 countries
High Potential: Limited current production base, most future-ready
- 7 countries
Legacy: Strong current production base, least future-ready
- 10 countries
Nascent: Limited current production base, least future-ready
- 58 countries

The interactive report also includes detailed country profiles that can be used by policy-makers, business leaders, and others to identify specific opportunities and challenges for individual countries as they navigate the future of production.

Areas for Action

A.T. Kearney’s collaboration with the World Economic Forum on the Future of Production initiative seeks to help usher in a sustainable production future that is solution-driven, human-centric, environmentally sound, and inclusive. Additional resources will be developed in four areas to support government and business leaders in consideration of those goals:

Transition framework: New transition frameworks to help governments co-design and implement strategies in collaboration with the private sector, civil society, and academia. While the readiness assessment serves as a diagnostic, the transition framework will support treatment of the diagnosis.
Country engagement: Multi-stakeholder engagement activities in countries around the world to kick-start change, launch pilots, and focus on action and implementation.
Readiness assessment: Updated data for 2019 in the online reader. The diagnostic framework will also continue to be studied and updated as the future unfolds.