AMethod

A.3.1 Method in four steps

Step 1: industry classes. We count enterprises in four classes of WZ 2008 (Germany), ÖNACE 2008 (Austria) and NOGA 2008 (Switzerland), which match NACE Rev. 2 at this level: division 26 (computer, electronic and optical products, including measuring, control and navigation instruments), division 27 (electrical equipment, including motors, switchgear, wiring devices and household appliances), division 28 (machinery and equipment n.e.c., including power tools, heat pumps and machine tools) and group 32.5 (medical and dental instruments). We leave out divisions 29 and 30 (vehicles) because vehicles under EU type approval fall outside the CRA.¹⁷¹ We keep groups 26.1 (components and boards) and 27.3 (cables and wiring devices) in the base, since their parts can themselves be products with digital elements under the CRA.¹⁷¹

Step 2: size bands. The German cost structure survey (Kostenstrukturerhebung, KSE) counts legal units with 20 or more persons employed in the bands 20-49, 50-99, 100-499, 500-999 and 1,000 and more.³⁶⁷ We split 100-499 into 100-249 and 250-499 with the ratio of the last KSE edition that published both bands (reference year 2017). Then, 73 % of the 100-499 firms in division 26 had fewer than 250 employees, 71 % each in divisions 27 and 28, and 74 % across manufacturing.³⁶⁶ We use the manufacturing value for group 32.5. Austria and Switzerland publish only the bands 50-249 and 250 or more.^{56, 175} We apply the German structure to both. In the four classes, 47 % of German firms with 50-249 employees have 100 or more, and 18 % of those with 250 or more have 1,000 or more.³⁶⁷ This is an assumption. Austrian and Swiss firms in the 250+ band are smaller on average. Our 1,000+ cells for both countries are therefore more likely too high than too low.

Step 3: national adjustments. Swiss division 26 includes watch-making (NOGA 26.52), which accounts for 47.7 % of the division’s 117,217 employees.⁵⁵ We remove that share from the Swiss division-26 counts. Switzerland does not publish group 32.5 by size band. We therefore scale division 32 by the 66.8 % of its employment that falls in group 32.5.⁵⁵ Both are employment-weighted approximations.

Step 4: connected share. The connected share sets the width of the range. We apply a low and a high share of firms that make connected products:

• Low: the share of establishments that used, or planned by 2021 to use, IoT service platforms to offer digital services, from Fraunhofer ISI’s German Manufacturing Survey 2018, 17 % plus 14 % for 50-249 employees and 37 % plus 15 % for 250 or more.¹⁹⁰ We use 31 % for the 100-249 band and 52 % above. The share is old and measures platform use rather than product features. We therefore treat it as the floor.
• High: the share of German manufacturers with 100 or more employees that use IoT platforms (45 %) or plan to (33 %), Bitkom 2026, n = 555.³⁷ That gives 78 %, which we apply to all bands. The question covers IoT platforms in production as well as in products, so it marks the ceiling.

Each estimate per country and size band is the base count times the share. The 277 German legal units with 1,000 or more employees give 144 makers at 52 % and 216 at 78 %.^{37, 190, 367}

Top band. No official source breaks at 5,000 employees. The top band of 1,000-4,999 therefore also contains firms with 5,000 or more. The KSE’s 1,000+ class has 277 German legal units in the four classes with 867,062 persons, an average of 3,130.³⁶⁷ The KSE counts legal units. The subsidiaries of large groups therefore appear separately, and most of them fall below 5,000. We deduct no 5,000+ class and so overstate the top band slightly.

A.3.2 By country and size band

Germany holds more than four fifths of the population, 3,692 of the 4,410 firms in the base and 1,465-2,879 of the 1,750-3,440 estimated makers. Austria adds 132-248 and Switzerland 153-313 (Table 19).

The 159 Austrian enterprises with 250 or more employees in divisions 26 to 28 employ 136,695 people.¹⁷⁵ Switzerland has 82 enterprises with more than 249 employees in division 26 (including watch-makers), 24 in division 27 and 58 in division 28.⁵⁶

A.3.3 By sector

Machinery (WZ 28) accounts for 2,075 of the 3,692 German manufacturers with 100 or more employees, more than half, and supplies three of the four archetypes.³⁶⁷ Only Germany publishes size bands below division level. The breakdown therefore covers Germany alone (Table 20).

Battery tool with BLE tracker. WZ 28.24 is a narrow class of large firms. It has 31 legal units with 20 or more employees, and the four with 1,000 or more account for 11,841 of the class’s 16,054 persons.³⁶⁷ Firms classified elsewhere also sell battery tools with trackers, for instance in metal products (division 25). The class therefore undercounts the archetype.

Machine with gateway. Division 28 alone has 2,075 legal units with 100 or more employees and 1.10 million persons in all units with 20 or more.³⁶⁷ Machine builders also show the highest connected share. In 2018, 24 % of them used IoT service platforms and a further 20 % planned to.¹⁹⁰

Building device under § 14a EnWG. The archetype sits mainly in 28.25 (395 legal units with 20 or more employees, of which 108 with 100-499), in 28.21 (furnaces and burners, 127) and in division 27.³⁶⁷ Heat pump sales in Germany rose 55 % to 299,000 units in 2025, more than gas condensing boilers (229,000).⁸¹ Each heat pump that a grid operator can control under § 14a EnWG has a communication interface and is therefore a product with digital elements.¹⁷¹

Logistics tracker. Makers of equipment and trackers are spread across divisions 26 and 27. Specialist tracker makers are often below the 100-employee threshold. The large buyers of trackers are the tool and machine makers in this population.

A.3.4 Cross-check with the associations

The associations define their industries differently from official statistics. Their counts therefore confirm the order of magnitude of the official base but not its cells (Table 21).

VDMA. The official count for 2023 is lower than the VDMA’s, but the series are not comparable. The KSE covers only legal units with 20 or more persons, each classified by its main activity.³⁶⁷ The VDMA combines Destatis data with its own.⁴⁰⁴ It represents about 3,500 German and European member companies itself.⁴⁰⁶ On either count, about 2,000 German machine builders have 100 or more employees.³⁶⁷

ZVEI. Official employment in divisions 26 and 27 is of the same size as the ZVEI’s figure.³⁶⁷ The electrical and digital industry employed 1.9 % fewer people at the end of 2025 than a year before.⁴¹⁶ The ZVEI expects real production to grow 2 % in 2026, with capacity utilisation at 78 % against a long-term average of 83 %.⁴¹⁷

FEEI, FMTI and Swissmem. Swissmem and the FMTI define their industries more widely than the classes used here. Swissmem includes metal processing, the FMTI metal products. The FEEI’s count is lower than the ÖNACE 26 and 27 total because its membership does not cover every firm classified there.^{175, 181}