Guiding the Transition: A Roadmap for Smart Manufacturing in the Era of Industry 4.0

Abstract

Technological advances have transformed and made production more efficient in recent decades, leading to significant improvements in productivity. The current Fourth Industrial Revolution, known as Industry 4.0, aims to enable smart manufacturing in production plants. At the core of Industry 4.0 is the use of advanced technologies such as the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Big Data analytics and Autonomous robots. The seamless integration of advanced technologies and systems can significantly improve production efficiency and op-timise processes. The impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution can be seen in globally com-petitive markets as companies seek to digitise their production to improve efficiency and meet the demands of the competitive environment.

Digitalisation of production requires significant technological expertise, capability, and in-vestment from companies. Such a holistic transformation is challenging due to several fac-tors. A roadmap can be used to clarify the transition phase and future objectives. By provid-ing an overview, the roadmap can help to identify the various gaps and areas to focus on. This will help to ensure that the company's technology investments, communication and pro-cesses are implemented in a timely and appropriate manner.

This study will be carried out as a Design Science Research in collaboration with a case com-pany. The aim of the study is to create a roadmap for the company to identify digital advanc-es towards smarter manufacturing. Digitalisation goals will be collected from different de-partments to create a comprehensive overview. The data will be collected through semi-structured interviews. Based on the information collected and analysed, a roadmap will be drawn up.

After the research, the company will have a roadmap outlining its digitalisation objectives, and by analysing these, it can set clear priorities. It also provides the information needed to update the roadmap and refine the digital vision for managing and improving operations.