The long lifetimes of industrial equipment limit how quickly older, dumber machines can be replaced with cleverer new ones, observes Rainer Brehm, who runs the factory-automation unit of Siemens, a German industrial giant.

德国工业巨头西门子的工厂自动化部门负责人莱纳·布雷姆 (Rainer Brehm) 观察到，工业设备的长寿命限制了用更智能的新机器取代旧的、笨重的机器的速度。