Readiness and Maturity Assessment Model to Measure the Industry 4.0 Ecosystem

Abstract

Industry 4.0 is a pragmatic phenomenon happening across the world and clearly defining the silver line between winners and losers from today's market place. There is heightened awareness and seriousness found among the organizations to embrace the Industry 4.0 ecosystem to take first-mover advantage from the industry, but this process is not a smooth one due to inherent challenges from this long journey. Many times, organizations are lacking the necessary competency and skillsets to implement Industry 4.0 framework, and often they are looking for external partners help to chart out tactical and strategic digital road maps. One of the gaps found from the literature is the non availability of the comprehensive Industry 4.0 readiness and maturity assessment mechanism to support organizations. In this article, we are proposing an extensive Industry 4.0 readiness and maturity assessment framework with necessary building blocks to provide an accurate and robust decision support mechanism to organizations. The proposed industry 4.0 mechanism has unique propositions to assess nine different vital organizational constructs-like digital leadership and digital operations and classify companies into five maturity quadrants to make an informed decision on their quest for industry 4.0 journey. This theoretical model will provide an unbiased reflection about the organization’s current technical capability and socio-cultural approval for Industry 4.0 ecosystem adoption. Limitations and potential future research areas are discussed in this article.

Appendix: Digital Transformation (Industry 4.0) Assessments Instrument

• Industry:

• Nature of business:

• MNC/Domestic Company:

• Country:

• City (Operations):

• Turnover (In USD):

• Number of employees:

• Number of years in operation:

• Type of company:

  Sl. No.	Parameter	Questions
  1	Digital leadership	Does the leadership team believe that the industry 4.0 paradigm will make a profound impact on the traditional way of doing business from your organization?
  2		Are you ready to implement all I 4.0 digital components to become a leader in your industry?
  3		The leadership team has taken some attempts to implement I 4.0 digital solutions across the organization?
  4		Are you determined to start investing I 4.0 platform in this year?
  5		There is a budget provision for I 4.0 other than typical IT budget for your organization
  6		Are you witnessing competition from your peers for Industry 4.0 adoption? What is your immediate expectation from I 4.0? (Like Increase revenue, reduce cost, increase the quality, increase customer connect, create transparent in business operation)
  7	Strategy	Do you have a dedicated designation like Chief Digital Officer in your organization?
  8		Are you sure that you want to formulate various management strategies based on real-time data from the Cyber-Physical System environment from the organization?
  9		Are you clear on how to kick start Industry 4.0 journey from your organization?
  10		Which I 4.0 technology you are going to year adopt in this and next year
  11		Do you need an experienced Industry 4.0 expert outside from your organization to implement I 4.0
  12		What are the business areas prioritized for 4.0 investment?
  13		You want to take a cautious approach to identify potential issues to choose the relevant I 4.0 digital component accordingly
  14		Do you want to go for a pilot study to understand the potential benefits from I 4.0 before adopting company-wide implementation
  15		Your focus areas from last 1 year for I 4.0 deployment
  16		Your focus areas from next 1 year for I 4.0 deployment
  17	Business models	Is your entire product life cycle embracing digital solutions (Starting from design to warranty?)
  18		Are you determined to generate significant revenue from digital-based products and services in the coming years?
  19		Do you foresee higher demands from your customers for digital features from your products and services?
  20		Do you feel strong digital collaboration with your partners like suppliers and customers as a critical factor to decide your success in the future?
  21	Product portfolio	We have the agility and flexibility capabilities in place to fulfill customer expectations by introducing innovative features in the product portfolio
  22		We made provision to generate real-time data from our product portfolio, hence we can perform real-time product-related analysis
  23		We leveraged digital solutions to introduce prototypes in a fast manner as per changing customer requirements
  24		We are ready to explore new business models that run purely on digital solutions
  25	Digital operations	What’s your organization's maturity in terms of a digital-driven and intelligent automation system?
  26		We have a unified digital platform to visualize companywide operations without any manual interventions
  27		There is a mechanism available to generate the necessary data from all machines
  28		Right now, we can able to access and control data from our regional/corporate offices far away from our factories
  29		All critical operational parameters like KPI’s are automatically updated through digital channels
  30		Our internal functions are relying upon digital channels for coordination and collaboration
  31		How do you rate the digital penetration for your vertical value chain?
  32	IT landscape	How do you rate the digital penetration for your horizontal chain value chain?
  33		Is your existing IT landscape is agile enough to accommodate dynamic needs from critical business parameters like reduce cost and enhance quality?
  34		Your IT landscape is digitally connected with your partners like suppliers and customers?
  35		Will you form a dedicated I 4.0 team or enhance the skill of existing IT team to execute I 4.0 projects
  36		Are you sure that the existing IT team is matured enough to address I 4.0 requirements?
  37		Are you ready to face cybersecurity risks if you go for a higher maturity level in I 4.0 operations in your organization?
  38	Company culture	As a company, do you respect the hidden value of the raw data?
  39		How do you rate your I 4.0 maturity in your organization?
  40		Do you agree that I 4.0 journey is a significant change management program for your organization?
  41		Are you sure that your employees are culturally matured enough to accept I 4.0 adoption?
  42		Do you have any mechanism to encourage I 4.0 suggestions from your employees
  43	Employee skills	Are you confident that your internal team can execute I 4.0 projects?
  44		We already using digital solutions for employee competency building activities like e-learning and inline training classes
  45		We already using the digital repository for knowledge management
  46	Customer experience	Our organization adopted Omni digital strategy to reach out the customer
  47		We determined to leverage emerging technology to engage with the customer
  48		We have a digital mechanism to capture customer feedback from all digital channels, ex: social media
  49		We give high importance to leverage digital solutions to address customer feedback to enhance our products and services
  50	Others	Tell us your challenges to embrace I 4.0 in your organization

  1. Note The quantitative questions are measured in 1–5 Likert scale