169 decision-makers from industry took part in the survey conducted jointly by the VDI and the management consultancy Agiplan. In addition to the consequences of the coronavirus crisis for companies, the survey also asked about the outlook for the start of business and the challenges for production, logistics, supply chain, organization, digitalization, communication and project work.

There is no doubt that the situation is serious: over 70% of the participating companies are complaining of a corona-related loss of turnover and sales, and almost 90% have had to stop at least a few projects. In contrast, around half of the companies expect business to restart this year. "Despite all the financial losses, we are encouraged by the fact that around three-quarters of German industrial companies expect to be able to return to their previous level of business in 2021," analyzes Dr. Jens Reichel, Chairman of the VDI Association for Production and Logistics (GPL). There is no question that some sectors, such as the automotive industry and aviation, have been hit particularly hard, but the leading industries do not cover the entire German economy.
The Corona Restart Survey also provides an answer as to why German industry is optimistic about the future: 93% of companies are convinced that they have adapted flexibly to the crisis. Although production had to be cut back, it was basically continued. As the need for products fell in line with demand, 92% of companies were hardly affected by material bottlenecks or production stoppages (78% at most in individual cases).

Logistics paints a similarly optimistic picture: 76% of survey participants are convinced that their logistics are responding very well to the new daily requirements. 71% of companies have not had to significantly restructure their logistics processes. Interesting in this context: those companies that have restructured their processes tend to keep them the same.

More than three-quarters of decision-makers are changing processes and adapting the IT landscape without any problems during the coronavirus crisis. The fact that digitalization in production and logistics is gaining enormous momentum is another result of the Corona Restart survey: around 78% of respondents are focusing on digitalization and IT (security) projects, and 68% say that they are giving digitalization an even higher priority due to the crisis. "We expect a significant boost for further automation and digitalization in German industry. As many as 30% of companies want to shorten throughput times and increase efficiency through automated processes. Making supply chains more resilient and ensuring the best possible resilience is another challenge, but it will help the German economy to position itself even more crisis-proof for the future," predicts Dr. Christian Jacobi, Managing Director of Agiplan.