The Role and Impact of Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things on the Business Strategy of the Value Chain—The Case of Hungary

Judit Nagy,József Popp,Domicián Máté,Judit Oláh,Edina Erdei

doi:10.3390/su10103491

Judit Nagy, József Popp + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su10103491

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Abstract

In the era of industrial digitalization, companies are increasingly investing in tools and solutions that allow their processes, machines, employees, and even the products themselves, to be integrated into a single integrated network for data collection, data analysis, the evaluation of company development, and performance improvement. To study the impact of Industry 4.0 on the company we used Porter’s (1985) value chain model, which is particularly useful when paying particular attention to corporate areas which have a primary role in customer value creation. Since the primary impact of Industry 4.0 is perceived in value-creating processes, and has so far had the greatest transformative effect in this area, the model can be considered to be appropriate. The objective of our research is to discover how companies operating in Hungary interpret the phenomenon of Industry 4.0, what Internet of Things (IoT) tools they use to support their processes, and what critical issues they face during adaptation. We applied a dual methodology in our investigation: We sent an online questionnaire to manufacturing and logistical service companies to investigate the IoT tools they use, and the problems they face, and received 43 answers we could evaluate. We also conducted four expert interviews with manufacturing firms to get deeper insights into the application, critical issues and development phases of IoT tools. During our research, we found that the spread of real-time data across companies—given the availability of appropriate analytical tools and methods—can have a significant impact on the entire company. In the case of CPS (Cyber Physical System), CPPS and Big Data Technologies, companies using them have been evaluated as having a higher level of logistic service, more efficient processes with their partners, improved cooperation between certain logistic functions, and higher market and financial performance and competitiveness. Applying more efficient production processes, and achieving better productivity and economies of scale, might also result in increased economic sustainability. Furthermore, we have found that companies have started on the path to digital evolution, and investments of this type have already begun.

Highlights

Nowadays, the fourth industrial revolution—fourth in the sense of its innovative and qualitative nature—is taking place
The objective of this study is to discover how companies operating in Hungary interpret the phenomenon of Industry 4.0, what kind of Internet of Things (IoT) tools they use to support their processes, and what critical issues they face during adaptation
The first question was “Please indicate whether your company is using the following tools and solutions?” Table 2 shows that Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) is the most widely used tool (67.4%), especially in production (53.5%), and it can build on data analysis (62.8%)

Summary

Introduction

The fourth industrial revolution—fourth in the sense of its innovative and qualitative nature—is taking place. The quality of the changes can be seen in the fact that the whole production process is managed and supervised in an integrated way, and is combined, yet flexible. In order to remain competitive in a globalized environment, manufacturing companies need to constantly evolve their production systems and accommodate the changing demands of markets [1]. These, in turn, have a large impact on industry and markets, while affecting the whole life cycle of the product, providing a new means of production and of conducting a business, allowing for an improvement in processes and an increase in the competitiveness of enterprises [2]. The increasingly cheaper solutions allow us to monitor the activities, operation and processes of machines, materials, workers and even products themselves, and to collect, analyze and utilize data in real-time decision making

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