Jan Burian is associate vice president Research, head of IDC Manufacturing Insights EMEA and leader of IDC's Worldwide Manufacturing Circular Economy Strategies research program.
Jan's core research coverage includes Industry 4.0, digital transformation, and IT and automation tools in the manufacturing environment across industries such as automotive, machinery, steel, and consumer products.His focus is on the level of adoption of the technologies that are relevant for the production company of the future, and on the connection between strategy, technology, and workforce. This involves dealing with artificial intelligence for production planning, supply chain planning and quality management, seamless data flows, collaborative robotics, intelligent process automation, and predictive maintenance, among others. Another key focus is the industrywide adoption of technology, including horizontal and vertical collaboration across the supply chain.
Before joining IDC, Burian worked for 11 years as a consultant at Big 4 firms. He led a supply chain and operations team at EY Czech Republic and provided consulting services focused on the digital strategy set-up, asset management (mostly in the chemical and steel industries), enterprise IT benchmarking, enterprise strategy, and performance improvement.Before that, he worked at various tier 1 automotive production companies, as a project manager responsible for a new production implementation and as a plant quality manager.He has contributed to a number of technical publications and magazines, and was a member of Industry 4.0–focused societies such as the Czech Maintenance Society and the National Center of Industry 4.0.Burian graduated in nonwoven textile engineering at the Technical University in Liberec in Czech Republic.