Abstract
The digitalization of manufacturing is the essence of Industry 4.0 realization. Many large manufacturers have developed ambitious digitalization strategies, and most have taken the first steps towards digital transformation. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). At the same time, SMEs contribute on average with more than 50% of the value to the economy in the European Union and with almost 100 million employees, represent approximately 70% of the European workforce. This makes the onset of Industry 4.0 and the accompanying digitalization of manufacturing a fundamental challenge for most SMEs, many of which already struggle to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving business climate. As such, in this paper, we aim to present an SME-friendly approach to Industry 4.0 implementation. We share practical insights from three SME case studies that enable us to propose the lean first … then digitalize approach to Industry 4.0 implementation in SMEs.
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The authors acknowledge support of the Research Council of Norway for the research project Lean Digital.
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Powell, D., Morgan, R., Howe, G. (2021). Lean First … then Digitalize: A Standard Approach for Industry 4.0 Implementation in SMEs. In: Dolgui, A., Bernard, A., Lemoine, D., von Cieminski, G., Romero, D. (eds) Advances in Production Management Systems. Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable and Resilient Production Systems. APMS 2021. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 631. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85902-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85902-2_4
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