Factors Introducing Industry 4.0 to SMES

Jaroslav Vrchota,Tomas Volek,Martina Novotná

doi:10.3390/socsci8050130

Jaroslav Vrchota, Tomas Volek + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8050130

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Abstract

The aim of the paper is to identify some of the factors that affect the introduction of Industry 4.0 elements to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The article is concerned with factors that can be impulsive for SMEs and factors that, on the contrary, are limiting for SMEs to integrate Industry 4.0 into the enterprises. These factors are the result of a short brainstorming with some employees of 72 selected SMEs for case studies. The analysis of 1018 Czech SMEs showed that the introduction of Industry 4.0 is related to the size of the enterprise. Fisher’s Factorial Test based on a four-fold contingency table tested the data. The majority of medium-sized enterprises consider introducing digitization and robotization elements in the next 5 years, while in the case of micro-enterprises it was less than a half of the enterprises of the sample. At the same time, the relation between the enterprises with a written strategy and enterprises planning to implement Industry 4.0 was demonstrated.

Highlights

Innovation is important driver of economic growth for both large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
Based on 72 case studies from SMEs supported by theory, the important factors significantly influencing the process of gradual digitization and automation in SMEs were grouped into categories according to the individual business activities (Figure 1)
This paper discussed the factors influencing the implementation of Industry 4.0 into SMEs

Summary

Introduction

Innovation is important driver of economic growth for both large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Industry 4.0 is a term covering industry automation, robotization and digitization. Industry 4.0 brings huge opportunities in terms of sustainability and increased productivity of industrial production by up to one-third (Poor and Basl 2018). The study of Deloitte from 2014 mentioned that large manufacturing firms already consider Industry 4.0 to be very important. Small and medium-sized companies do not yet appear to consider it to be of great relevance to them. We can see a shift in small and medium-sized enterprises’ access to Industry 4.0. This fact leads the authors to identify typical factors that influence the implementation of Industry 4.0 in SMEs

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