Drivers and Barriers for Industry 4.0 Readiness and Practice: A SME Perspective with Empirical Evidence

Arlbjørn, Jan Stentoft; Jensen, Kent Wickstrøm; Philipsen, Kristian; Haug, Anders

doi:10.24251/hicss.2019.619

Cited by 124 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…However, the credibility is supported by member checks, where interviewees were shown the outcomes for validation. While there are differences between the challenges that large manufacturing companies [12,14] and SMEs [15,16,18] are facing, the results exhibit that there also exist many similarities, showing a transferability between the contexts of large manufacturing companies and SMEs. The dependability, or reliability, referring to the lack of serendipity, is shown where the two case companies have some similarities, creating comparability in the results, where the differences between the two companies' office workers are explained by the site conditions of their operators.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Recent technological development has benefitted such knowledge management practices [13] and demonstrators have been created as proofs-of-concept [14]. Even though large companies are moving in this direction, it remains difficult for SMEs to implement digital technologies related to Industry 4.0 for such purposes, albeit more and more SMEs are becoming more and more ready for it [15,16], in Sweden [11], in France [17], as well as in Germany [18,19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Current and future Industry 4.0 capabilities for information and knowledge sharing

Fast-Berglund

Paulin

2019

Int J Adv Manuf Technol

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Humans are indispensable in the manufacturing industry as its complexity increases in an Industry 4.0 context, mainly due to changing customer demands. Managing the challenges of increased complexity can create a competitive advantage for SMEs. Technologies which enable the emerging phenomenon of Industry 4.0 have the possibility to simplify the sharing of information and knowledge among people at work, especially for Operator 4.0. However, few SMEs have actually implemented such technologies for this purpose. Therefore, this paper aims to create an understanding of the current state and challenges which need to be overcome, and further, to provide some insights on future possibilities by identifying the stages of Industry 4.0 development of SMEs with regards to their capabilities. This qualitative interview study focuses on how human-centered production processes are currently supporting assembly and office work. Two Swedish SMEs were studied, where almost all of their operators and management team on site were interviewed individually concerning their views on their current capabilities. The interviews were thematically analyzed with regards to the state-of-the-art research, and results show that the case companies are in some aspects digitized with regards to computerization and connectivity, but have some challenges in making the shared production-related information more visible and transparent, especially on shop-floors where most information and knowledge are shared through word of mouth or with pen and paper. Conclusively, the studied SMEs have started their digitalization journey, but further Industry 4.0 development needs to align with their respective conditions and needs. While Industry 4.0 enabling technologies that support information and knowledge sharing are emerging, organizational development can support the implementation of such technologies, which should be the focus for future research.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Current and future Industry 4.0 capabilities for information and knowledge sharing

Fast-Berglund

Paulin

2019

Int J Adv Manuf Technol

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“…We argue that such statistical evidence of inability to form an opinion or express expectation stems from obvious lack of information. Stentoft et al [45] also conclude that the lack of information and knowledge about Industry 4.0 and the lack of employee's readiness are among the main barriers for Industry 4.0. On the contrary, proportion of respondents who answered the questions Q10-Q17 positively is greater compared to the proportion of respondents with negative answers, if we are considering answers "very important" or "fairly important" regarding questions Q18 and Q21-Q23.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The proper education and requalification are necessary, especially regarding current dynamics (4th industrial revolution), throughout the industries [44][45][46][47][48].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Industry 4.0—Awareness in South India

et al. 2020

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Industry 4.0 (I4.0) approaches, frameworks, and technologies have gained an increasing relevance in order to gain sustainable and competitive advantages for industrial enterprises and for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well. Contrary to previous studies, which are mainly focused on companies, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey on inhabitants, in an attempt to examine general awareness about I4.0 concepts, in the region of South India. Our findings revealed a rather poor informational level of I4.0 concept and its components, which consequently leads to inadequate future actions and expectations. Moreover, respondents with prior information about I4.0 framework tend to have rather positive opinions and expectations of possible future trends. We emphasize that insufficient knowledge of the potential workforce regarding I4.0 concepts, especially in a region with ascending demographic development, can be considered as one of the main barriers for a successful and sustainable future development towards the 4th industrial revolution.

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“…Based on the feedback the authors can prove that perceived drivers lead to higher industry 4.0 readiness and consequently to a more thorough practical implementation of the concept. On the other hand, obstacles seem to have a negative impact on the digital maturity level, but do not have a negative influence on the practical implementation [2].…”

Section: Contributionsmentioning

confidence: 94%

The Digital Supply Chain of the Future: Technologies, Applications and Business Models

Pflaum

Prockl

Bodendorf

et al. 2019

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

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The following paper describes the mini-track on the digital supply chain of the future. The mini-track addresses research questions concerning drivers and challenges of digital transformation, relevant basic technologies, applications and smart services, digital cloud platforms, cultural and organizational change etc. After a short introduction to the topic the different contributions are addressed, described and integrated into an overall context. At the end of our paper we add some recommendations concerning future research on the digital transformation of firms, business models and supply chains.

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Drivers and Barriers for Industry 4.0 Readiness and Practice: A SME Perspective with Empirical Evidence

Cited by 124 publications

References 41 publications

Current and future Industry 4.0 capabilities for information and knowledge sharing

Current and future Industry 4.0 capabilities for information and knowledge sharing

Industry 4.0—Awareness in South India

The Digital Supply Chain of the Future: Technologies, Applications and Business Models

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