INVESTIGATING INDUSTRY 4.0 READINESS IN THE SWEDISH MANUFACTURING SECTOR

Abstract: Industry 4.0 is the fourth, most recent industrial revolution, and refers to the integration of the digital and the physical world in a manufacturing environment. Since first introduced in 2011, Industry 4.0 has gained significant academic and industrial attention. Due to the novelty of the concept, however, there are many areas that are yet to be properly covered in the Industry 4.0 literature. One area on which numerous calls for additional research have been made is Industry 4.0 readiness, which refers to the assessment of a company’s degree of readiness for a full-scale adoption of Industry 4.0 and its surrounding technologies. In order to respond to these calls for additional research, this study evaluates the Industry 4.0 readiness of a company in the Swedish manufacturing sector using a qualitative approach. The evaluation is based on a recently developed analytical framework which focuses on eight enabling technologies of Industry 4.0. In order to gain a more holistic understanding of the company’s Industry 4.0 readiness, a range of organizational barriers are also examined. The empirical findings reveal a varying degree of presence of the enabling technologies at the investigated company, consequently resulting in a degree of Industry 4.0 readiness of 63.2 %. An alternative degree of readiness is also calculated, taking into consideration the relative importance of the enabling technologies for the company. Finally, lack of an Industry 4.0 strategy, the existence of competency traps, limited financial support, and lack of internal collaborations are identified as the major organizational barriers to an increased Industry 4.0 readiness. By addressing these, it is argued that the company can facilitate their overall work with Industry 4.0 and thereby increase their readiness for a full-scale adoption of Industry 4.0.