Adapt to survive in the era of Industry 4.0 : Exploring success factors that aid the implementation of Industry 4.0 within retail operations

Abstract: Ensuring the long-term survival and competitiveness of the company is of paramount importance. As a company, adapting to Industry 4.0 (4IR) brings many new opportunities through new technologies that are developing exponentially. In logistics, companies will be able to achieve shorter lead times, fewer errors and greater flexibility. This study is about how retail operations create a successful implementation of automated warehousing to adapt to survive the era of Industry 4.0. The research question is: - How do retail operations implement automated warehouses within the Industry 4.0 framework? The collection of empirical data was done through 11 interviews with respondents from Swedish retail companies that are in the implementation process, or have completed the implementation of an automated warehouse. The respondents have a position in the company that includes knowledge about the implementation of the automated warehouse. Results show four important themes: Identification, Realization, Adaptation & Valuation to create a successful implementation where companies manage to adapt to 4IR. The study shows that it is not enough for companies to follow a process description. It turned out to be more complicated than that as it requires a mental adaptation in the company itself over a long period of time and that this is really permeated in the culture and in the employees. This study has both theoretical and practical contributions. The main contribution to theory realized in this thesis is that companies that want to succeed in implementing 4IR even before the actual practical process begins need to adapt the whole company, including the visions, ways of thinking, culture, etc. to make the actual transition towards 4IR as easy as possible. From a practical point of view, this study contributes both from a societal, consumer and business perspective.