Abstract
The visions of what constitutes Industry 4.0 is an industry based on gains in efficiency and productivity enhancements supported by integrated, smart information systems. This has caused information systems strategic misalignment that present a severe barrier to national and organizational aspirations. This paper studies the readiness of manufacturing companies for Industry 4.0 by using a case study of Chinese multinational enterprise in the aluminum production sector. The research design follows a rigorous grounded theory approach, which consisted of 41 semi-structured interviews in 7 different company branches. Based on this case study, the paper proposes an IS strategic misalignment model that identifies three levels of misalignment that need to be resolved before the vision of the smart industry can be realized. Six main categories of causes and five main categories of consequences of IS strategic misalignment are presented. This study contributes to the IS alignment literature and provides important implications for the achievement of Industry 4.0 in practice.
Highlights
Societal and technological developments are experiencing an increasing pace, which bring substantial challenges to Europe’s industry, for examples, decreasing availability of natural resources and increasing age of employees ((Erol et al, 2016)
To implement the ideas of Industry 4.0 in China, Chinese government proposed “China Manufacture 2025”. This program aims at moving away from a previous generation of manufacturing that was based on cheap production, low quality of goods and lower labour costs into an era of producing higher value products and brand construction based on Chinese research and development (R&D) (Zhou, 2015; China’s State Council Report, 2015)
The far reaching vision of Industry 4.0 increases the complexity of manufacturing processes and brings substantial challenges to manufacturing enterprises (Schumacher et al, 2016; Schuh, 2014)
Summary
Societal and technological developments are experiencing an increasing pace, which bring substantial challenges to Europe’s industry, for examples, decreasing availability of natural resources and increasing age of employees ((Erol et al, 2016). Concerns about alignment of business strategy with IT purchases and implementation is surfacing as a fundamental strategic concern and crucial in maximization of effective and efficient utilisation of information technology (Jonathan et al 2018) This is not a new revelation, since business-IT alignment has been one of the top concerns by organizational practitioners (Reynolds and Yetton, 2015; Nickels, 2004) and has been studied extensively in research over the last 30 years revealing it to be a pervasive problem (Luftman et al, 2015; Luftman et al, 2010; Gerow et al, 2014; Kappleman et al, 2013; Chan and Reich, 2007; Tallon and Kraemer, 1999; Luftman et al, 1993). This is than followed by a discussion of readiness to implement the Industry 4.0
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