A Maturity Level-Based Assessment Tool to Enhance the Implementation of Industry 4.0 in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Abstract

Industry 4.0 has attracted the attention of manufacturing companies over the past ten years. Despite efforts in research and knowledge transfer from research to practice, the introduction of Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies is still a major challenge for many companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Many of these SMEs have no overview of existing Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies, how they are implemented in their own companies, and which concepts and technologies should primarily be focused on future Industry 4.0 implementation measures. The aim of this research was to develop an assessment model for SMEs that is easy to apply, provides a clear overview of existing Industry 4.0 concepts, and supports SMEs in defining their individual strategy to introduce Industry 4.0 in their firm. The maturity level-based assessment tool presented in this work includes a catalog of 42 Industry 4.0 concepts and a norm strategy based on the results of the assessment to support SMEs in introducing the most promising concepts. For testing and validation purposes, the assessment model has been applied in a field study with 17 industrial companies.

Speeding Up the Implementation of Industry 4.0 with Management Tools: Empirical Investigations in Manufacturing Organizations

“…To further understand, what our results reveal about the meaning of Industry 4.0 and what is required for its implementation, we need to first examine a broader context in which the results apply. Considering, authors tend to emphasize the initial hype, stating that Industry 4.0 represents the next industrial revolution [ 46 , 49 , 119 ] we add the following thoughts. Through the lens of our results, Industry 4.0 is, as of right now, another technical upgrade that is hard to implement [ 4 ], with the addition of certain principles of more contemporary business philosophies, capitalizing on technologies introduced in the third industrial revolution [ 120 ].…”

“…Some models are tailored for small and medium-sized enterprises because they tend to experience the most problems with Industry 4.0 implementation and focus on the definition of Industry 4.0 concepts while offering guidelines for strategy creation [ 22 , 46 , 47 , 60 ]. The next group of models is focused on organizational maturity as an indicator of the level of already established implemented principles [ 22 , 26 , 46 , 47 , 60 , 61 ]. Yet another group is focused on readiness, which implies the preparedness for the initial adoption or an upgrade of Industry 4.0 principles [ 44 , 51 ].…”

“…Firstly, what it means to be ready to implement Industry 4.0 in a comprehensive manner, as it is evident that the concept is not well understood [ 42 ]. Various models used to measure readiness for Industry 4.0 have been presented, such as the commonly emphasized models developed by the National Academy of Science and Engineering (Acatech) [ 43 ] and the University of Warwick [ 44 ], as well as some other models [ 22 , 26 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. However, they have not been tested to determine whether they can simulate and fit data with observations in terms of predicting the effect on other factors of organizational workings.…”

Readiness Model for Integration of ICT and CPS for SMEs Smart Logistics

“…These factors involved adoption costs, competitive pressure, firm size, firm scope, CEO's knowledge, Internet skills, and IT infrastructure. There have been various studies focusing on the development of readiness/maturity models for SMEs and related issues (Ganzarain and Errasti 2016;Trotta and Garengo 2019;Rauch et al 2020). Rauch et al (2020) proposed a maturity level-based assessment tool to enhance the implementation of Industry 4.0 in SMEs.…”

“…There have been various studies focusing on the development of readiness/maturity models for SMEs and related issues (Ganzarain and Errasti 2016;Trotta and Garengo 2019;Rauch et al 2020). Rauch et al (2020) proposed a maturity level-based assessment tool to enhance the implementation of Industry 4.0 in SMEs. Some works focused on the logistics process in SMEs, such as a selfassessment of Industry 4.0 technologies focusing on the internal logistics for SMEs by Schiffer et al (2019) and a requirement analysis for implementing smart logistics in SMEs by Dallasega et al (2020).…”